Vintage

The saying goes, “hindsight is 20/20,” but in this case it was 2019. For years now, Mother Nature has given us some of the greatest and most spectacular growing seasons, but in 2020, she grew angry. We have heard countless times about the impact of the wildfires and the lives it so painfully touched. The last weekend of September proved to be a landmark moment in wine country for all the wrong reasons and it was solemn reminder that we can only control so much. At Hundred Acre we are obsessed in the way that we care for and attend to our vineyards and ultimately the wines we make, but as we were reminded, the destiny of what we make is largely determined by a force greater than ourselves. One of the gifts though that arose from the ashes was our appreciation for the breath-taking beauty of the 2019 vintage.

All Hundred Acre wines are made by sorting the fruit berry by berry, fermenting in small, French oak fermenters, and long aging in the finest barriques. The secret to Hundred Acre is no compromise and no detail overlooked, ever. The 2019 vintage is the best I have ever known. It is simply staggering. Must have been fate, since there is no 2020 vintage because of the rest that devastated the Napa Valley.

Vineyard Notes

The single estate vineyard ARK lies just outside St. Helena, California, at the base of Howell Mountain. Originally planted in the 1880s, it sadly vanished during Prohibition. We spent five years rebuilding it, and now it stands as our pride and joy.

ARK consists of nine blocks of Cabernet Sauvignon, each meticulously planted in nine different volcanic soil strata.

The vineyard showcases a sixty-million-year geological timeline, featuring three ancient beaches and a prehistoric weapons quarry. It spans a 180-degree arc of the sun over its half-mile length. On the hottest days, Glass Mountain blocks the intense afternoon sun that can damage the fruit’s aromatics. Named for the rare obsidian rock found in the soil and ancient weapons like arrowheads, Glass Mountain rises to the west of the ARK vineyard.

Cooperage

Hundred Acre wines are aged for a minimum of 30 months in the finest, center cut French oak barrique. The stave wood is hand-selected for ultra-tight grain, then air dried for three years before being made into barrels.

Learn about the phenomenon that is Hundred Acre Wines here or visit the Hundred Acre website here.