This wine is fashioned along the lines of a Super Tuscan and features 85% Sangiovese and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon.

Petit Verdot creates a "spice box" element with dense fruit, dark color, powerful flavors, and a cedary-pencil shavings nose. This tasty wine us occasionally, but rarely bottled anywhere as a stand-alone varietal, which we think is too bad for all those other winemakers out there! Since this grape ripens late, its availability can be limited due to October rains in El Dorado County!

This wine is truly another Victorious achievement for Crystal Basin Cellars. We performed many tasting trials over the 18 months our wines typically age and found the unique blend for this year's wine to be 33% Mourvedre, 34% Syrah and 33% Grenache.

2009 marked the 14th harvest of one of Crystal Basin Cellars flagship wines. Cabernet Franc is primarily from the Gold Hill Vineyard in El Dorado County which overlooks the American River Canyon. The vineyard enjoys warm days and cooling breezes at night. This micro-climate allows an optimal ripening cycle and showcases a glowing example of the intense flavors possible from the Sierra Foothills Cabernet Franc grapes. The Sauber Vineyard is on the southern end of El Dorado County and has perfect ripening conditions and acclimation for Cab Franc.

The Cabernet Sauvignon vines that produced this wine are both now just under 30 years old and are near their optimal maturity. Growing at altitudes of 3000 and 1200 feet respectively these vines have a late ripening cycle and produce grapes that show how good Sierra Foothill Cabernet Sauvignon can be. After hard-harvesting and crushing the grapes were fermented over seven-day periods in open-top containers. During fermentation the must was punched down by hand four times a day to extract maximum color and varietal character. After settling the wine was aged in neutral French and American Oak barrels to let as much varietal character show through as possible. The wine was racked by gravity flow only, never pumped, and was bottled unfined and unfiltered.

The Grenache grape is the number one grown grape in California. This classic Southern Rhone wine grape is packed with rich ripe strawberry flavors with a tough of spiciness and a lighter fruit-burst finish. This wine exudes the character of the Rhone River Valley Appellation Gigondasand hasthat powerful hint of smokiness and soft tannin. The wine also exhibits full round fruit flavors and shows the traditional earth tone Rhone style.