Frog's Leap - Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2020
Price: $79.98
| Producer | Frog's Leap |
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| Country | United States |
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| Region | California |
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| Subregion | Napa Valley |
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| Varietal | Cabernet Sauvignon |
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| Vintage | 2020 |
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| Sku | 83861 |
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| Size | 750ml |
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Frog's Leap Description
Classically structured Cabernet that is the result of a decades-long pursuit to obtain vineyards on the
Rutherford Bench.
Whew, what a vintage. We had a very dry winter over the 2019-2020 water year, with only half of our normal rainfall. This dry weather led our deeprooted vines to compensate by naturally setting a crop on the lighter side, about 25% below our historical averages. The spring weather was fair and summer temperatures were very moderate. With the vines responding appropriately to the dry year, things looked—normal? Then, just as harvest started, nature decided to get weird. Major heat waves in mid-August and early September kicked harvest into high gear. We deliberately leave the wide leafy canopy of our Cabernet vines intact, an unfashionable decision which helps to shade the grapes during the hottest parts of the day; this paid off in 2020, and the fruit looked great despite the heat. The bulk of our Cabernet harvest was complete (and, critically, the remaining grapes were all ready to be picked) when the Glass fire broke out in the early hours of September 28th, six miles to the north. The remaining five blocks to be picked were harvested within the next two mornings. The smoke stayed away to the north on the 28th and through the afternoon of the 29th, after we had finished our final pick. We have spent the following 30 months testing, re-testing, establishing baselines, benchmarking historical comparisons, and above all tasting the wines, all to arrive at one conclusion—our 2020 Cabernet is unaffected by the fires. It is beyond the scope of a single tech sheet to establish all the data points behind this conclusion. I can only offer this—my dad, John, has over 40 years of history making wine in Napa, and I intend to be opening bottles of the 2020 vintage 40 years from now with my daughter Alma, who was born in 2020. Neither my dad nor I have any intention of putting a wine into bottle that we don’t believe in. The wine is delicious, and is destined in the long run to be a classically-lined Rutherford Cabernet that will stoke emotions over this turbulent year for years to come. After all of that, the winemaking was straightforward. Lots were destemmed and crushed, with native yeast fermentations. After pressing at dryness, the wine was aged for 20 months in French oak, 10% new, before being given a light filtration at bottling. The wine is medium bodied and moderate in tannin, with some beautiful suppleness to the mid-palate that reflects the moderate summer, accompanied by a touch of extra richness from the hot autumn weather.
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