About 2019 Niner Cabernet Sauvignon:
Awarded 92/100 points by Wine Enthusiast Magazine
Tasting Notes:
The wine is vibrant and youthful, with a balance of dark fruit flavors, persistent and plush tannins and a cool, herbal tone.
Barrel Selection:
42% new French Oak, aged for 20 months
Growing Notes:
The vineyard farms their estate Cabernet Sauvignon at two vineyards in Paso Robles. About half of the grapes come from Heart Hill Vineyard, tucked into the rocky, steep hillsides on the Westside of the AVA. They farm the other half in the rolling hills and sandy soils of Bootjack Ranch. The 2019 vintage was temperate and even, resulting in a crop of well balanced, gorgeous Cabernet Sauvignon across both sites.
Harvest Dates: October 7th – October 29th
Winemaking Notes:
Blend: 84% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Cabernet Franc, 6% Malbec, 4% Petit Verdot. In 2019 the vineyard hand-harvested their Cabernet Sauvignon grapes throughout the month of October. This slow, methodical harvest allowed them to capture the complex spectrum of flavors that Cabernet Sauvignon is revered for: vibrant, dark cherry, brushy herbs, powerful tannins and full bodied fruit. They de-stemmed the grapes and fermented them in stainless steel tanks. Only free run juice was used in this bottling, and aged it in 42% new French Oak barrels for 20 months before bottling.
About The Winery:
Niner Wine Estates is a family owned estate winery. The family aspires to make great wine from two distinct vineyard sites in the central coast of California.
Their flagship blend is Fog Catcher and they are focused on estate grown Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir & Chardonnay.
The vinery’s goal is to grow high quality grapes and make delicious wines that are intentionally crafted to tell the story of each vintage and vineyard. In the winery, they strive to preserve the most unique qualities of each vineyard and vintage. They want to express those qualities alongside elegance and balance, using minimal inputs.
Niner family considers itself lucky to have two Winemakers. Winemaker Molly Bohlman is responsible for the wines from Jespersen Ranch and Patrick Muran is responsible for Heart Hill Vineyard & Bootjack Ranch wines. This division by vineyard allows them to fully focus on bringing the intricacies of each site forward in the wines. All wines are fermented, aged and bottled at the estate winery located at Heart Hill Vineyard.
Richard Niner grew up as one of eight children raised on a farm in rural West Virginia. He spent his childhood working on the farm to provide food for his family, and eventually became one of the first in his family to attend college. He graduated from Princeton and then Harvard Business School. He then began a long and respected career building small businesses across a variety of industries, from sunglasses to machine parts.
He eventually met Pam in New York City, while she was working as a magazine editor after graduating from Smith College in Massachusetts. The pair married and had two children, Andy & Katy.
In the early 1990s, one of Richard’s ventures introduced him to the beauty of the Central Coast. The people here reminded him of his upbringing in West Virginia, and he saw the high potential for the area to compete with premier wine regions like Napa, which was booming at the time.