ATLAS WEST Cabernet Sauvignon: Story of a SCRIBE Wine
* SAGEBRUSH * CLOVE * BLACK CHERRY *
Instead of walking out our front door to the Scribe Estate vines, we drive an hour east, winding through southern Napa Valley and then snaking upwards off the valley floor and into the ancient oaks. Finally, at 1600 feet, we arrive.
After 13 vintages of making this uphill drive, we have come to think of this magical spot as our Napa outpost. Before Scribe even had a name, we knew this remote site was where we wanted to grow Cabernet Sauvignon. Cold, bright mornings give way to blazing afternoons, but the vines are spared from the sun’s heat by gentle breezes coming off the San Pablo Bay. The soils here are dominated by red volcanic material with lots of flatrock, providing exceptional drainage. Yields are small, even when we get there before the deer…
$85 / Bottle
The mountain fruit we bring down with us from Atlas Peak is worth the trek – intense and expressive, tasting of Atlas Peak’s stoney red earth and dense thickets of California chaparral. We are gentle in the cellar to preserve this special terroir, restraining the use of new oak, fermenting with native yeast and bottling the wine unfined and unfiltered. It is Napa mountainside Cabernet through the Scribe lens, still tasting of its place above the fog line – bright, wild and pure.
Bottle photography by Clay Grier.
Film by Conor Hagen.