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Growing high quality Cabernet Sauvignon grapes at a mountainous 2500 feet elevation is a rewarding challenge. There is great potential to make serious Cabernet Sauvignon from the Sierra Foothills, but it requires paying meticulous attention to the vineyard, picking the grapes at physiological maturity, and managing those mountain tannins. We are already rather fanatic about these matters, and we think it shows in our 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon.

This is the ripest and most decadent Grenache we have made. Thanks to a lot of hard work in the vineyard fine- tuning this finicky grape variety (didn't the well-known wine writer Robert Parker say Grenache is even more difficult to harness than Pinot Noir?), the vines were in balance and the fruit was in great shape at harvest. And speaking of Robert Parker, he described our 2002 Grenache as a "fairly priced red" as well as being both "attractive" and "seductive". Wow! We think the 2003 Grenache shares similar personality traits, plus terrific ripeness, exotic spiciness, plums and strawberries, along with a rich texture and fine, soft tannins.

Like the 2001 & 2002, our 2003 Petite Sirah hails from an exceptional one acre block of Bill and Trish Naylor's Petite Sirah vineyard, at 2,700 ft. elevation right here in Fair Play. At 25-30 years old, these vines are some of the oldest in Fair Play. The steep, one acre vineyard block that is ours exclusively has a sunny southwest exposure, is naturally low yielding (2 tons/acre in 2003), and delivers wonderfully ripened grapes.

2003 was the 10th growing season for our Syrah vines. Our Syrah vines were planted in 1994, which, as it turns out, makes them older than 90+% of the Syrah vines planted in California. We are finding that with each passing vintage, our bottled Syrah shows a little more richness and complexity with greater depth of fruit flavors. The 2003 Syrah is a more structured wine than the 2002, yet its flavors are better developed than the 2002 was at the same point in its life. In 2003, we decided to begin aging the wine an extra 6 months in barrel in order to better integrate aromas and flavors, so this wine spent a total of 22 months in French oak. We also co-fermented the Syrah with 3% Viognier to give the wine a softer entry and a touch more juiciness. Because of these changes, our Syrah will be ready to enjoy upon release."

Is the secret out about Viognier here in El Dorado county? While this is our fifth vintage, many of our favorite local wineries are releasing their first wines made from viognier grown right here in Fair Play, and the wines taste terrific. Our 2004 Viognier comes from uniformly well-ripened grapes grown on a one acre north-facing slope on the southeast corner of our estate vineyard. It's definitely ripe, but like all the wines we make from our estate grown grapes, this wine maintains balanced acidity and plenty of complexity. We think it's delicious!

As has been the case the last couple of years, our final blend is a strict selection of our four favorite of the six vineyard blocks of our Zinfandel field (we sold off the wine from the other two blocks). The 2003 Zinfandel delivers the characteristics we enjoy in our favorite Zins: ripeness, juiciness, rich texture, and food friendliness.