Vintage Specific Characteristics: The 2007 vintage was fabulous for “Artist Series”, nicer even than the fantastic 2006. We achieved perfect ripening with physiological maturity achieved through shoot thinning, leaf stripping, and green harvesting and generally improved cultural practices throughout the vineyards. All fruit was in by the third week of October.
This Cabernet Sauvignon was fermented in very small stainless steel tanks and was punched down or pumped over twice a day. Aging in French Chateaux barrels has produced a well proportioned, complex and generous red wine. Of our own doing, we have chosen to back off on the use of new oak in this wine as these vineyards have gotten older allowing them to express a sense of place.
Production Notes and General Characteristics: The “Artist Series” Cabernet Sauvignon is produced from some of the finest and most highly regarded properties in Washington State. These vineyards produce fantastic wine in their own right. In blend, they produce extraordinary wine.
This wine has a generous nose of spicy oak and cedar integrated with bright and very ripe black fruits and cherry. A sweet, rich mouth feel begins with cassis and ripe black berry, leading towards chocolate and mocha. The finish is complex, generous, and long. While this wine can be enjoyed now it will definitely benefit from additional cellaring and, with proper storage, should develop for eight years or more.
About the artwork and the artist: "The Palouse" 4' x 4', acrylic paint on canvas on panels, 2009, Irene Yesley, Bainbridge Island, WA
The landscape of Spokane, Washington, where Irene Yesley grew up, has always influenced her work. The city is surrounded by pine trees, lakes and a ski mountain. When she left that area at the age of 20, she took these memories with her. At Arizona State University, she earned an MFA in printmaking, then changed media and began working on a six-foot Cranbrook loom. Irene wove many commissioned rugs and tapestries, but eventually became frustrated with the restraints of weaving. She didn't leave fiber arts behind, however, as her current work shows traces of these years working with fiber.
After selling her loom, she spent two weeks at Haystack School of Arts and Crafts and began experimenting with new materials and enjoyed the freedom of working on paper, unstretched canvas and wood using layers of silk and acrylic. Living in the intense light of sunny homes in New Mexico and the Turquoise Coast of Turkey for years led her to search for a way to include more luminosity and depth in her pieces. Irene discovered the light-filled, dimensional feeling she wanted by painting images on acrylic sheets and stacking them to make one piece, building complex images with color, pattern and shadow as the light and the viewer's perspective change.
In her new work, she is painting with acrylics on top of silk which is permanently adhered to wood. It is a continuation of Irene's interest in layering and creating luminosity by glazing. Her work appears in collections and is shown throughout the U.S.
Lowden, Washington 99360
