2021 Cadenza Vineyards Bridge

 Bridge has always been a unique wine for me with a host of different personalities.  It started out back in 2001 with the first vintage that I made here in Brogue (Allegro/Cadenza).  The season ended prematurely with a frost on the mornings of October 7th and 8th, and with all the leaves falling off the vines it meant that grapes would be picked.

The Cabernet Sauvignon that was grown that year in Brogue was actually managed by Naylor Winery.  Why Dick Naylor decided to sell back 1 ton of Cabernet Sauvignon to me is a mystery.  (In fact, earlier that summer he had told me that he would sell me all the grapes from the vineyard, but he reconsidered when he saw what a great year it was turning out to be.  I was at his mercy, of course.)

I also had committed to buying a ton of Cabernet Franc from Stewart Vineyard that year (and it's how I first met Nelson Stewart who would eventually become our vineyard manager here in Brogue.)  The grapes arrived at the winery, and as we processed them John and I were immensely curious as to the chemistry of this early-harvested fruit.  Back then, John used to use Brix levels--the sugar percentage in the grapes--to determine if the wine would be Cadenza caliber or not.  These days we know that the correlation between Brix and quality it tenuous at best, but that's another story.

The fruit came in at 21.5 for the Cabernet Sauvignon and 22.5 for the Cabernet Franc, and John was happy to pronounce that blending the two would yield essentially 22 Brix (which was his magical cut-off number).  I wasn't feeling as confident as he was, knowing I had big shoes to fill and that everyone would be watching what I did to see if I lived up to John's reputation.  

So, I punted.

When it came time to bottle the wine in the summer of 2003, John had passed away three months earlier.  I tasted the wine and it didn't quite seem like it was Cadenza quality, but it was a standout wine in my mind nonetheless.  Since Allegro at the time had already had a couple of musical terms for wine names, we decided to use "Bridge" for this wine.  This was going to signify that the 2001 blend (60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Cabernet Franc) would be a bridge between John and Tim's Cadenza tradition and mine.  Little did I know that it would take me another four years to finally bottle my first Cadenza.

Fast-forward twenty years, and you have a bottle of the 2021 Bridge.  Again, it's a blend.  The fruit from 2021 was really nice, but none of the wines knocked my socks off (that's the technical terminology we winemakers use.)  For once we had decent yields from our Merlot and Cabernet Franc, and for whatever serendipitous reason they were the shining stars in 2021.  Now, I consider Merlot and Cab Franc as "softer" varieties due to their more approachable tannin structure.  I feel that Franc tends to be a great blender with Merlot, adding aromatic appeal to what otherwise would be a darker and brooding wine.  And both are helped in the structure department by Petit Verdot.

The 2021 Bridge is one of the most balanced and refined wines that we have bottled in the past few years.  Usually my style is more forceful and abrasive, but the 2021 Bridge shows a refinement and balance that I am usually not capable of.  It's almost European in its sensibility, while at the same time being approachable at this very young age.  The Merlot brings darker fruit and body to the wine, while the Franc brightens the flavors and adds depth to the aromatics.  They play nicely together while the Petit Verdot in the background holds it all together with its structure.  

This one of our most hedonistic Bridge offerings we've ever had, reminiscent of the 2017, 2007 and 2006.  Very Right Bank Bordeaux (for you traditionalists out there), but as with all of our wines--in the immortal words of John Crouch--"it'll pay you back if you hold on to it!"