"Yeoman Plus"

Profile & Story

Goldschmidt "Yeoman Plus" 91 cases produced 1. We take the two outside rows of grapes from the sweet spot of each block of the Yeoman (Alexander Valley) Cabernet vineyard. These outside rows typically have more vigor in terms of canopy and less crop. So in general the fruit tastes more dense. 2. The wine stays in barrel for at least three years in 100% new, tight grained French Oak. The advantage of this is I can keep the wine under my control for longer. This means less preservative (SO2) and more stable color and much silkier tannins. 3. Higher than usual VA in the first three months. Then controlling it so it doesn’t increase again. I learned this from Penfolds and Grange. Normally VA, which is ethyl acetate and acetic acid, gradually increase though time to a level that is apparent in the nose of most wines. A. The benefit is much more complexity and depth in both the nose and then mouth at the end of four years. Licorice is the key word. B. The main challenge is that you can lose the wine and barrel if you can’t stop the VA from increasing. If this process goes wrong, we loose the high cost superior fruit, as well as an expensive French oak barrel. 4. During fermentation I use délestage, or rack-and-return. Rather than pump over this more labor intensive technic maximizes color and flavor extraction while minimizing extraction of harsh phenols. The result is a broader mid pallet with softer and richer tannins. 5. We typically make 6 barrels of each Alexander Valley and Oakville per vintage and only use the best 4 for bottling. In lower yield vintages we may only produce 3 barrels in the end. 6. The way I extract the wine out of the tank is something unique and takes two days to complete. As far as I know only two other wineries are using this technique, and they charge well over $500 for their wines. In the end, this is a high risk - high reward wine. It is labor intensive, risky and very expensive considering the quality to premium fruit, time and the quality of oak used to make the finished Cabernet. PLUS will never be a volume wine. We only get 1 barrel for each 5 tons of fruit. The resulting wine is special in every way, and will age gracefully for years to come.