GREYSCALE WALK OF FAME....‘08 Cuvée Blanc - Best of Class ‘11 SF Chronicle Wine Comp.

‘08 N.V Cabernet - Double Gold ‘12 American Fine Wine Comp

‘09 N.V Cabernet - Double Gold ‘13 American Fine Wine Comp, Double Gold ‘12 NY International Wine Competition, 96 Points Tastings.com

‘10 N.V Cabernet - Gold Medal ‘14 SF Chronicle Wine Comp., Gold Medal ‘14 SF Int’l Wine Comp., 92 Points Tastings.com

‘11 Cuvée Blanc - Silver Medal ‘14 SF Chronicle Wine Competition, 91 Tastings.com

Visit us: http://www.greyscalewines.com

Greyscale WinesINSIDe ThIS ISSue

Dear Friends -

Larry and I love attending tast-ing events where we can share stories about running a small winery. It made us realize that it would be fun to have a new forum to share them. Thus the GREYSCALE WINE FOCUS News-letter was born.

So in this first edition we share what all the wine pundits have been saying about the ‘10 Napa Valley Cabernet vintage, give an update on our ‘11 Cabernet that is still “coming along,” share news about moving to Rutherford for our ‘12 Cabernet, and discuss the drought which is currently is on every Califor-nian's mind.

2010 Vintage - the best in years!

NAPA VAlleY CABerNeT

Experts are calling 2010 the great-est vintage for Napa Valley in the 2008 - 2011 period.

If you remember back to 2010, you might recall we had a cooler than average growing season but faced a major heat spike in late August (only winemakers and farmers remember these things!). harvest was later than usual as well. The result was fruit with concentrated flavors, higher acid and very well-structured. “An Epic Vin-tage” writes Antonio Galloni, formally of Wine Advocate Magazine. he con-tinues “The 2010s are magnificent, viscerally thrilling wines loaded with character and per-sonality...there is no question 2010 is the greatest vintage for Napa Valley in the 2008-2011 time pe-riod.”

The Greyscale 2010 Cabernet fits this description to a tee. With more in-

tense flavors and higher acidity, you will find this wine has a bigger punch than our previous Napa Valley Cab-ernets. And we expect this wine to

get better and better over the years. All the pros say that wines of this vintage will cellar amazingly well. But who can wait!

“The 2010s are magnifi-cent, viscerally thrilling wines loaded with char-acter and personality...”

pOWERFuL 2010 ViNtAGE 1 �2011 GREYSCALE CAb 2 �RuthERFORd MOVE 3 �dROuGht & ‘14 ViNtAGE 3 �focus

Jean RoweEditor

May 2014

To maximize your drinking enjoyment, we recommend decanting an hour

before serving.

2 3

VINTAGe uPDATe

Update on 2011 Napa Valley CabernetLike its younger 2010 sibling, the 2011 Napa Valley Cabernet was made with grapes from the tour-maline Vineyard located in the Coombsville AVA.

larry and I have been interested in the Tourmaline Vineyard since we started making wine in 2008. Start-

ing in 2010 we were able to acquire grapes from this wonderful vineyard. Named for the birthstone of Novem-ber, Tourmaline vineyard produces extremely concentrated wines with purple-black color and ripe, dark fruit aromatics. As with earlier vintages, we blended with grapes from rafael vineyard (in Oak Knoll AVA) which is known for fruit with balanced concentrations of tan-nins and acidity. In 2011, we also blended Cabernet from Broken rock Vineyard known for deep purple/plum color and ripe berry aromas and flavors. We believe this com-bination offered a strong fruit compo-nent as well as nice structure for a Napa Cabernet.

paul hobbs Arrives

Paul hobbs, often called the Steve Jobs of wine, has been a major player in the wine business since 1977 when he started at robert Mondavi Winery. he is known to make top-notch, vine-

yard-designated Chardonnay, Caber-net Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and Merlot from sites around Napa and Sonoma. One of the vineyards he sourced fruit for his Cabernet was Tourmaline. un-fortunately, he bought the vineyard in December 2012 and kicked the rest of us out!

lessons to be learned -- buying grapes allows you access to some fantastic vineyards but be ready when it gets sold out from under you!

2011 Cabernet Flavor profile

The wine is a dark garnet/purple col-or with a complex aroma with vanilla, blackberry, and blueberry. It is a full-bodied wine with an elegant mouth-feel that tastes of black current (think tangy blackberry), mocha, coffee, and a hint of oak. It has a long finish and blending components that combine seamlessly.

The '11 Cab was bottled on June 30th, 2013. We taste the wine every 4-6 weeks to assess how it is developing in the bottle. The bottling process involves moving the wine from bar-

rels to steel vessels, filtering out dead yeast and other particulate matter (lies), and pumping it through the bot-tling machine. This process shocks the wine so it can be disjointed and un-drinkable for sever-al months. Winer-ies also let the wine age in the bottle

for several months or years before it is released to the market. Bottle aging allows the magic process that chang-es the chemical structure of the wine (e.g., breaking down tannin chains) to produce the wonderful drink we all love. We will let you know when it is ready!

Bud break in Napa

eXCITING DeVelOPMeNT

Greyscale Moves to Rutherfordbecause paul hobbs bought the tourmaline Vineyard in Coomb-sville, the 2012 Greyscale Napa Val-ley Cabernet is using fruit from a well-known and highly respected vineyard in the Rutherford AVA in the center of the valley.

The vineyard is on the valley floor, just to the west of the Silverado Trail and just south of Caymus Vineyards on Conn Creek road. The contract with the vineyard owner does not allow us to name the vineyard in print unless we charge $150 per bottle retail for the wine - which we don’t want to do! OK, no advertising, but it is still excep-tionally good fruit that we believe will produce an outstanding Napa Valley Cabernet.

The rutherford AVA soil is alluvial and dusty which leads to the characteristic terminology for Cabernets produced in the AVA as tasting like rutherford Dust. There is even a rutherford Dust Society (rutherforddust.org) to pro-

mote the wines grown in the AVA. The famed winemaker Andre Tchelistch-eff said “It takes rutherford dust to grow great Cabernet.” One reason the grapes are so good is that rutherford vineyards receive more sun exposure and hence radiant heat than other parts of Napa Valley. The warm sum-mer days and cool evenings allow the fruit to ripen at a steady pace.

The wonderful news about the 2012 Greyscale Cabernet is that the vines used to produce the grapes are 30 years old grafted with clone 4 Caber-net grapes. This clone is a moderate producer (4-5 tons per acre) with a strong flavor intensity with little herb-al (green) character that many people dislike. The grapes are well-known for notes of spice, leather, tobacco, and plum. Of course, the specific vine-yard terrior and the weather has a dramatic influence on the character of the actual grapes produced each year. We will include more about the '12 vintage in our next edition.

2011 Napa Valley Cabernet:

90% Cabernet (45% Tourmaline, 30% Rafael,

15% Broken Rock),8% Merlot,

2% Petit Verdot,1.5% Malbec

We are often asked about the drought and how it will impact the 2014 grape crop. Greyscale Wine-maker Kian tavakoli gives us a vineyard update.

The 2014 growing season started with a lot of nervous growers and vintners since the last rains had come in late October of 2013. January and February came and went, again with no rain and prospects for a fruitful vintage were diminishing quickly.With very little ground water, grow-ers would have had no choice but to limit the fruit to very low levels on the vines so that they would ripen in time, not to mention that the potential for healthy vines and good fruit levels would be very low for 2015.

Fortunately, the skies opened up in March and April and the very thirsty vines took full advantage of nature’s gift to have very healthy bud break and early shoot growth. The vine-yards are right on track for a normal flowering (there is early indications in some areas), but the bulk of flowering will happen in mid to late May. If we have the great mild weather we’re ex-periencing these days, fruit set should happen by early June. I’m quite excit-ed at the potential that this vintage could offer, of course we’ll know a lot more as we go through the summer months.

uPDATe FrOM The VINeYArD

Drought and 2014 Vintage

GREYSCALE is a term used in color science, printing, photography, and com-puter displays. It describes all shades of grey in the color spectrum between black and white.

Winemaking, like many things in life, does not have an absolute recipe (i.e., is not black and white). Instead each year’s blending involves a series of adjustments, reacting to the unique qualities of the fruit that year. In other words, sliding up that greyscale spectrum.

Wine is neither white nor black, it’s always shades of grey!

MAY 10 - Spring Wine event in Oakland at Impact huB Oakland 2323 Broadway, Oakland 6pm - 9pm

MAY 17 - los Gatos Spring Wine Walk 2014; Downtown los Gatos 1:30 - 4:30

NOV 22&23 - SF Vintners Market;Fort Mason, San Francisco