2013
Pahlmeyer Pièce de Résistance
Black to the core and oozing with concentrated flavors of bittersweet chocolate and dark, ripe cherry, this wine is seamless and unctuous lifted by a surprising freshness. The intensity is consuming and demanding of your time and attention. Its incredible structure should allow this wine to age effortlessly over the next 20, perhaps 30, years.
100% Cabernet Sauvignon
- Winemaker
- Kale Anderson
- Alcohol
- 16.2%
- Harvested Start Date
- September 14, 2013
- Harvested End Date
- October 8, 2013
- Bottled Date
- September 22, 2015
- Release Date
- October 1, 2017
Winemaking Notes
Still chilled from the early morning harvest, the grape clusters were hand-sorted, then gently destemmed. The resulting whole berries were sorted by hand and delivered into open-top fermenters for five days of natural cold maceration, followed by two – three weeks of 100% native yeast fermentation. 100% of this wine was puncheon fermented to intensify the aromatics and anthocyanin extraction, without taking in any bitter tannins. Once complete, the fruit was gently pressed and moved to barrel to finished primary and secondary fermentations. The wine continued to age in 85% new French oak – a combination of Taransaud and St. Martin barrels – for 26 months. It was bottled unfined and unfiltered.
The 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Pièce De Résistance is a selection of the five best barrels in the wine cellar, aged in 100% Taransaud cooperage. The first perfect score I’ve given to Pahlmeyer – but highly deserving – this is a masterpiece of gorgeous crème de cassis, blackberry liqueur, forest floor, camphor, charcoal and white flowers, magnificent concentration, wonderfully subtle oak, and a finish of close to a minute. In short, Cabernet Sauvignon rarely gets any better than this, but latching onto a bottle or two will not be easy. Drink it over the next 30-40 years.
