2020 Fall Release

Dear Friends,

First and foremost, we can’t tell you how uplifting it was to receive so many calls and emails to check on how we were doing during the horrible fire in our valley last month. It was a humbling time, and we are so happy to let you know we are doing well. We had harvested just over four tons of our Cabernet Sauvignon prior to the Glass fire, but unfortunately the balance of the grapes did not make it through the intense smoke that prevailed for a week. Yet we feel quite fortunate compared to so many in our grape growing community and have been able to check in on others and lend our support in any way we can. Quite frankly, sharing a glass of wine together and listening and sharing our experiences have been a source of comfort to many of us.

This fall we are happy to share five wines for your enjoyment. Winemaker Kirk Venge and “Trouble Maker” Donny have put down their thoughts on the following wines. The 2017 vintage was also a “fire year”, but fortunately all our grapes had been harvested and safely at Kirk’s winery. The overriding flavor profile we found this vintage was a brightness of true varietal characteristics which shown through with wonderful oak accents from our multi-cooper French Oak program.

2017 Trespass Cabernet Sauvignon – 150 cases

The 2017 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon is all about captured fruit. There are vintages where we will observe and sense more terroir notes of earth, soil and savory…. Then there are vintages like ’17. We love both for different reasons for the sake of Old World and New World comparison. The nose is packed with dark, jam jar bomb components of blackberry, cherry cola, hint of oak vanillin. But, for all of this fruit this wine is also incredibly deep, dark and I think profoundly complex and one of the best Trespass Cabernets in recent memory. Flavors are full and rich with black fruit, blackberry, black cherry, touch of oak char, anise. There is a dark matter trending here. I love this wine and for me, the hero of the vintage for Trespass. 98% Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Petite Verdot…100% Killer! Enjoy from today until 2037.

2017 Trespass RENDEZVOUS – 150 cases

When you begin with fruit in the field, vinified together, you can have a profound impact on the wine. It’s a symbiosis connected through activity of togetherness and the kinetics of a yeast cell, the thread that sews these two, the noble Cabernet and Cabernet Franc together. The 2017 Rendezvous begins with deep and primary dark cherry fruit, followed by a hint of briar and sandalwood incense, resin and dust and pine forest after a rain. These savories are the varietals speaking with one another in tandem. The flavors build in intensity as bold dried currant thunders in with that seconds later delay of bright black cherry, touch of anise and clove and pinch of new Taransaud and Darnajou French Oak. It’s a beautiful song of a wine when Cabernet Sauvignon creates harmony with Cabernet Franc upon the onset off of the Estate. Cellared correctly, this wine will drink very well to 2032 or longer.

2017 Trespass Merlot – 50 cases

We don’t offer a 100% Merlot very often as our grapes usually find their way into our blends. There are only a scant 925 Merlot vines planted on our property! However this year we were able to carve out a few cases to enjoy and share! This is a big Merlot with a heady nose of gorgeous black fruit and deep plum. On the pallet you will enjoy plush tannins and flavors of plum and blackberry. What a sultry Merlot and it will drink well for a decade!

2017 Trespass Zinfandel – 150 cases

Sourcing century vines, 100 years plus in age, is a passion. It is a treasure and certainly a privilege to work with these 7 x 7-foot spaced Zinfandel vineyards. The Luvisi Vineyard old vines that we source had its debut back in 1908 farmed by horse and plow. It’s a profound and humble feeling to walk the same walk as vintners so many decades ago. It’s a similar feeling found in an ancient cellar. You can feel their thoughts and hear their words within your own stillness. This Zinfandel begins with black, brambly fruit in every corner of the nose. Ripe fruits of dark plum, cherry preserves, warm blackberry and candied currants. The mouthfeel is plush and follows the nose in the ripe category. The beauty of such deeply rooted vines is how the acid and tannin laces the finish together so eloquently.

Trespass Bits and Pieces – 75 cases

Perhaps the most playful yet of Donny’s inventions. Sitting together at the blending table one late afternoon (becoming early evening), Donny looked long at the wines and muttered something I didn’t think that I heard correctly, “What if we try Zinfandel with Petit Verdot?” I was amazed at the adventure and vinous daring of what I had just heard. I had certainly never tried this mélange before. Donny’s idea, the “Bits and Pieces” from the cellar, went off like fireworks in my head. We had to try it. The result was something of a surprise from another dimension and I hope you enjoy this wine as much as I do. Showy fruit from 66% Zinfandel captures in the front of the pallet. It’s brooding with ripe red fruit. The Petit Verdot varietal comes in with it’s more stern structure and black fruit and topped with violet and tar aromatics. Overall the mouthfeel is plush with the details one would expect from the two varietals. The color is amazing, the phenolics are generous and I am eager to watch this wine age over the course of the next 5 and 10 years. Will it curve to be more of a Zin or will the Petit Verdot remain heroic, as in its nature, and be the driver as this wine meets the future? What’s in a name…you will enjoy the story on the back label!
We hope you enjoy these wines as much as we have enjoyed making them. Orders will be fulfilled as received, so please let us know what you might like as soon as possible. You can also go to our website to order. And if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to call us at 707.963.0804 We so enjoy talking with all of you!

Our best always,
Dana & Donny Gallagher