William Knuttel Windsor Oaks Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 | So Good!
William Knuttel Windsor Oaks Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 presents a medium ruby core with a garnet edge. Aromas of black cherry and spiced tea. So, this is a seamless effort now that the wine has had three years to rest in the bottle. Cellar-ready with beautiful integration of dried black fruits meshed with leather, cigar tobacco, and mint. While fine-grained tannins keep this Chalk Hill Cabernet angular in the mouth. Definitely reminiscent of a properly cellared Haut-Medoc Bordeaux than a neighboring Napa Cab. Finally, long on the palate, with a mineral-infused dry finish. Thumbs up to William Knuttel and his deft hand in making well-balanced Cab. Enjoy now through 2025.
Chalk Hill AVA
Hand-harvested from one block of vines. While the fruit for the William Knuttel Windsor Oaks Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 was fermented with native yeast. And then the free-run juice was racked into eight French oak barrels: four new, four twice-used. Of course, that’s where they spent 20 months before being bottled in June of 2015. The finished wine is rich in fruit, with tobacco notes and fine-grained tannins. We are fortunate to have gotten what we did of the 196 cases produced. And our clients who act fast claiming our allocation will be grateful they did.
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Planting on well-drained hillsides while exposing to the cooling breezes off the Russian River. Then revered viticulturist Douglas Lumgair re-trained the vines in the mid-1990s, giving them optimum sun exposure.
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Because of the AVA’s cool tendencies, we keep an eye on Chalk Hill in the warm, dry vintages. That’s the time when a Bordelaise confluence of conditions – steady warmth, plenty of sunshine, a dramatic diurnal temperature shift – can yield Cabernets that rival the best of Napa. Unsurprisingly, 2013 was equally kind to both sides of the Mayacamas. Plus it bestowed ideal conditions upon the Chalk Hill AVA that Knuttel parlayed into a powerhouse from the slopes of Windsor Oaks.
William (Bill) Knuttel
Bill Knuttel’s knowledge of North Coast terroir is deep and wide. He made his name crafting Pinot Noir for Saintsbury in Carneros, and spent time as winemaker at Dry Creek Vineyard. But it was his tenure as winemaker and executive vice president of Chalk Hill Estate, the winery that distinguished Chalk Hill as one of Sonoma County’s top spots for Bordeaux varieties, that Knuttel first discovered the magnificent Cabernet Sauvignons of Windsor Oaks Vineyard.
