2015 Allegro Bridge

 The last Bridge pre-Cadenza Vineyards.  2015 was not a stellar vintage (hence, no Cadenza wine that year.)  It was the year that we started planting the vines that would produce the 2017 Cadenza, 2017 Bridge, and 2017 Merlot.  But the 2015 was the quiet before the storm.

We've made Bridge wines a lot of time.  2001... 2006... 2007... 2012... 2013... 2014... Some years it was from estate fruit, some years it wasn't.  in 2015, 100% of the wine came from our vineyard.  

 

The Cabernet Sauvignon was from vines that we now call Block Three (or the Crouch Cabernet).  The Merlot and Cabernet Franc was from Block Five (which we pulled out after the 2016 vintage.)  This was the last hurrah for some of these grapes.  

In typical fashion, we fermented this fruit in small one-ton bins and did punch-downs multiple times per day.  In that year I was still doing what I called "submerged cap fermentations" where I would put a HDPE plate over top of the fruit between punchdowns and hold the cap--basically the skins of the grapes--under the level of the juice thereby hopefully extracting more character from the skins.  (I have since disavowed the practice as we now do tank fermentations.....the submerged cap idea was a shit-ton of work.  Was it worth it?  I don't know.  But I've always been about trying to get the most out of every harvest.  

As an aside: On a personal level, I've never thought I was very talented in the winemaking department.  Hell, we all have the same information and opportunity to make great wine in any given year (apart from perhaps some financial handicaps.)  That said, the one thing I knew in any given year--whether we made better wine than our colleagues or not--would be that no one would out-work us.  If making better wine just required more work/calories/dedication, I knew that was a game we would not lose.

Was it worth it?  To make better wine, yes?  But was the submerged cap bullshit worth it?  ...I don't know.

In any case, the wine today exhibits lots of Cabernet character in the nose, with the Merlot filling out the mid-palate like it should.  I can't taste the Franc, but it might be there someplace.  This is a solid wine, definitely a Bridge wine.  But it's taken about six years for it to get to the place where I am happy with it.  I'm guessing it will drink nicely from now until probably 2024 at least.