Ovid Experiment R9.8 Napa Red Blend 2018

Wine Tasting Notes
Planting a vineyard is truly the greatest experiment. It's the framework for vintages to come, and there are many choices to be made - often with limited knowledge. What rootstocks to choose? Which clones? How to prepare the soil? How should one trellis and orient the block? The results of these decisions take 20 years to reveal themselves.

With this Experiment, we were interested in more fully exploring row orientation. This single choice affects how and when light is intercepted by the fruit, how the heat of the afternoon impacts the fruit ripening and how the fruit accumulates color and flavor. Fascinated with all these meaningful effects, we chose a vineyard with row orientation 90 degrees to ours. We visited in the morning and the afternoon, curious to compare and contrast, full of questions for the grower and excited to see what the wine would tell us.

The 2018 Red Experiment R9.8 is an undeniably delicious result of this curious question. Notes of fresh blackberry, plum and black cherry burst forth, aligning with more subtle hints of pencil lead, forest floor, cedar and dark chocolate. Saturating and harmonious, this wine should grace the palate for years to come.