The Importance of Sonoma Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

Sonoma Valley’s size is smaller, its temperature variations greater and generally cooler, its nooks are nookier, and the number of places to grow great Cabernet Sauvignon are fewer than the valley next door. That said, there are a few spots where the interplay between soil, aspect, and temperature allow for structured, beautiful Cabernet of great finesse, aromatic complexity, and backbone for extended aging.

To use an analogy from Cabernet’s heartland on the Left Bank of Bordeaux—if Napa Valley is Pauillac, St. Julien, Margaux, and even St. Estephe, then Sonoma Valley is Pessac-Leognan. There are few excellent spots for Cabernet varietals to thrive, but when they are right, the can climb to their own unique organoleptic heights.

Due to this outlying location I feel that Sonoma Valley Cabernet, except in a very few instances, does not receive the lavish love and attention paid to Napa sites. Since the wines, without the attention, tend to be a little less good, the prices tend to be less, which in turn means that the winery has less to pay the grower, who then farms to a lower standard, and then the winery gets lower quality grapes, and the cycle repeats itself. At Bedrock Wine Co. I am trying to break that cycle.

Via impeccable farming, intensive sorting, gentle handling and the use of the very best oak from the tightest grained forests of France I am trying to re-invent the way that Sonoma Valley Cabernet is viewed.

At Bedrock Vineyards we grow our grapes on alluvial fans of porous volcanic soils deposited over thousands of years. These soils mitigate the natural vigor of Cabernet Sauvignon and allow us to grow perfectly balanced fruit. Here the days are long and even, the nights are cooler, and the growing season a bit longer than our neighboring valley next door. It is, in sum, the perfect place to grow a rich and elegant Cabernet.