Forty Years of making Cabernet Bosché!

Yes, this is the fortieth harvest of the Bosché Vineyard for Freemark Abbey Winery. Let’s see, if math serves me correctly, that would put the first harvest at 1970. This year’s harvest started with the Bosché Merlot on September 10^th, the Cabernet Sauvignon started rolling in September 19^th and continued off and on through October 3^rd. The vineyard is only 23 acres, however, we have it divided up into various small acre blocks to help us pin point (cherry pick) the ripening period. Differences in soil, coupled with vine age, clone, rootstock and crop size, all contribute to the rate of ripening. The Bosché vineyard is on an alluvial fan, sometimes referred to as the Rutherford Bench, that has a very deep gravelly soil. Lighter, gravelly soils will typically ripen earlier. Hence, Bosché is one of our earlier vineyards.

Not far from the Bosché Vineyard is our Sycamore Vineyard. Sycamore is typically a week later than Bosché. The soil is a clay loam, less gravelly as Bosché, yet produces very small berries and very deep rich wines. In the picture, I’m tasting and inspecting the fruit from the early morning pick at Sycamore Vineyards