Corley Family Monticello Vineyards Wine Club Newsletter Sept 2017

E XC E L L E N C E

Celebrating

EXCELLENT WINE IS MADE IN THE VINEYARDS When you pull the cork on the 2014 CORLEY Cabernet Sauvignon State Lane Vineyard and appreciate the intensity and concentration that comes from the soil to the berry to the glass you can give a toast to Angel (35+ years), Cucko (30+ years) and the rest of the team (15+ years) for the years of experience that has allowed them to capture the essence of the vineyard with every cluster of grapes that comes to the winery. When bottled, the wine has a story about people and place, and thereafter the CORLEY State Lane will be writing its own story as the wine will continue to evolve in the bottle for decades.

Holiday Gif ting It’s never too early to find the perfect Holiday gift for a loved one. Here is a preview of some of our favorite holiday gift sets. See our website for more gifting options.

Club members save 20% on shipping of all Holiday gifts.

HOLIDAY CELEBRATION PACKAGE $120 Celebrate the holidays with bubbles! You will receive three bottles of our Montreaux Brut Sparkling Wine just in time for your holiday festivities.

TASTE OF MONTICELLO VINEYARDS $299 | INCLUDES SHIPPING Give the gift of club privileges to family and friends with this package. The recipient will receive three shipments of Monticello Estate Grown Wines over three months.

THE EXECUTIVE PACKAGE PRICE $160 | WINE CLUB $128 CORLEY Reserve CORLEY Proprietary Red

HOLIDAY CHEER PRICE $120 | WINE CLUB $96 Montreaux Brut Sparkling Wine CORLEY Proprietary Red

4242 BIG RANCH ROAD | NAPA, CALIFORNIA 94558 707.253.2802 | CORLEYFAMILYNAPAVALLEY.COM

HARVEST 2017

Featured

Cabernet Sauvignon J E FFE RSO N CUV E E C ABE RN E T SAUV I G N ON VINTAGE 2015

TASTING NOTES

I find dark, luscious aromas of boysenberry, blackberry, and anise with tones of lightly toasted oak and hints of vanilla. The lighter tones from the barrels are a nice balance to the dark tones of the wine. The wine is rich in texture with a full-bodied mid-palate. The moderate tannins frame the wine very nicely as it enters a very long, lingering finish.

VINEYARDS, VINTAGE AND VINIFICATION The 2015 vintage represents the fourth of five consecutive years of phenomenal quality wines from our vineyards and across Napa Valley. The fruit displayed great purity and intensity, which translated quite well through to the finished wines. The growing season was relatively consistent, with no major heat spikes.

Our Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards were picked between September 11 and September 30. The blocks were crushed and fermented separately, then blended over three different sessions during the 22 months of barrel aging. The flavors and aromas that developed in the fermenters and during barrel aging were fantastic.

PRICE $50 | WINE CLUB REORDER $37.50 (SAVE 25% UNTIL OCTOBER 16)

E S TAT E G ROWN

Cabernet Sauvignon CO R LE Y | S TAT E L A N E VI N E YA R D VINTAGE 2014

TASTING NOTES

As always this wine offers wonderful aromas of dark blackberry, cassis, hints of vanilla, and sweet undertones from the French oak barrels. The STATE LANE’s ever present core of expressive ripe blackberry flavors follows seamlessly. The wine is bold with STATE LANE’s characteristically robust tannins. The mid-palate is deeply textured and full-bodied revealing complex layers that will continue to develop with time. The finish is long and lingering, as is typical for this vineyard.

VINEYARDS, VINTAGE AND VINIFICATION

2014 was another wonderful wine-growing season in Napa Valley, a true classic. A wet February gave way to a characteristically dry spring. With the exception of slight heat spikes in June and then again in July, the weather remained consistent throughout the growing season. The accumulation of heat during the summer led to a slightly early harvest. The sunny weather through to October allowed the grapes still to develop more phenolic and flavor maturities with sugar levels remaining steady. The 2014 vintage, repeated many of the blessings that came in the 2012 and 2013 vintages with the deeply colored and velvety grape skins, brown seeds, fully ripened grape tannins, and a wonderful natural balance of brix and acidity.

PRICE $80 | WINE CLUB REORDER $60 (SAVE 25% UNTIL OCTOBER 16)

Grapes at Harvest There is always lots of excitement, anticipation, and satisfaction that comes as we approach harvest. Nearly all of the work during the growing season is done by hand, and represents a lot of hard work done by real people in our own vineyards. We are very proud of that work.

Grape growing certainly has benefitted from all types of technology such as vine water measurement, soil mapping, seed analysis, even a slick new phone app for leaf area metrics. We take advantage of the new technology, but it is our team of people that is the most important factor of excellence in grape growing.

Guests to the vineyard may have an appreciation that someone out in the vineyard is working hard starting every day at sunrise; but they may not appreciate the importance of essentially reading the grapevines and understanding the subtle details of what needs to be done from pruning through harvest. The difference for example between removing one leaf from the grapevine canopy vs. two vs. three can make a significant difference in sunlight and air exposure. As Malcom Gladwell describes a concept in his book Blink, that with sufficient training and practice the ability to process and master hundreds of factors in an instant becomes almost subconscious and helps one to become an expert in a particular field. We use that expertise combined with attention to detail in hundreds of processes during the growing season. Spread out over the approximately 100,000 grapevines that we farm, this expertise and experience is what delivers excellence in grape growing.

- Kevin Corley, Winegrower

Harvest

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E S TATE G ROWN