2016 Arctos - 750 ml

This wine is a blend of several different clones of Cabernet grown on the same hillside at Stillwater Creek vineyard, all planted in 2001. Clone 191 is a French clone from Bordeaux that is known to produce wines that are "colorful and well structured". Baer only started working with this block 36 clone 191 fruit with the 2015 vintage and I really like the concentrated black plum character it adds to the Arctos blend. Clone 4 came from Bordeaux by way of Mendoza, Argentina then California to a plant nursery here in Washington. Block 37 clone 4 is has been the heart of the Arctos blend since I have been working with the Baer family. It has classic Cabernet aromas, black cherry black berry fruit and black olive and herbs, it's savory with plush tannins. Clone 8 is also French by way of California and its clusters are heavier, the vines are higher yielding and so it is considered sort of a workhorse Cab. Clone 8 is very widely planted in Washington and tends to give wines that are consistently ripe and fruity with medium tannins. Both blocks 35 and 34 are planted to clone 8 at Stillwater.

It's a controlled experiment, essentially - the slope and aspect of the hillside change only slightly heading east from the pavillion in block 34 north through block 35, 36, and 37 (those of you who have visited the vineyard can picture what I'm talking about) but really the soil and exposures are more similar than different so any variance we see in the fruit from these blocks is really clonally derived. Point being, these clonal differences bring complexity and nuance to the blend and the Petit Verdot adds blueberry and violet and beautiful purple-black color.

The wine was raised in 50% new French oak barrels, we have selected a mix of different coopers including Taransaud, Sylvain, Demptos, O, and Atelier each contributing more intricacy and structure to the final blend.