Alexis Soyer Cellars
Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, CA 2012
This wine is dedicated to Alexis Soyer who was arguably the 19th century's most famous chef. He was a man full of ideas, inventions and convictions which led him to be a great champion for the common man. When hearing of the plight of the Irish people during the "Great Famine", he asked his employers for a leave of absence and went to work in Dublin constructing a soup kitchen that could feed 5000 people a day. Though he often cooked for the aristocracy, he wrote cookbooks for those less fortunate teaching them how to make nutritious food for small amounts of money.
2012 Napa Cabernet Sauvignon
This fruit is sourced from two vineyards in Napa Valley; one in Oakville, owned by the Pelissa family that is grown organically and the other from a valley floor vineyard in the Rutherford AVA. They were hand-picked between September 24 and October 28, 2012. We inoculated the must immediately after crushing and open top fermented the juice in small tanks. The wine was pumped over four times a day and then racked into Allier oak barrels, of which 50% were new and the balance were second and third use, for the malolactic fermentation. The wine was made with zero micro-oxygenization. The wine was aged in the barrels for 18-24 months depending on the lot. It was bottled without fining or filtration and has aged in bottle another 12 months and is now showing some exciting layers of flavor.
576 cases produced
90% Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
5% Napa Valley Merlot
5% Napa Valley Cabernet Franc
The wine has a very deep color with big ripe dark fruit flavors, rubbed herbs, cedar closet, and tilled earth notes with a long finish that rewards the taster.
"I made this wine as a tribute to Alexis Soyer who I admire as a Chef, Humanitarian and Inventor but more importantly a man who always seemed to help those less fortunate than himself"
Sincerely, Tim English