Cain Vineyard Cain Five 2011 (375ml) *
Product price
$77.99
Description
A five-grape Bordeaux-style blend from California, this is Cain Vineyard's 2011 Cain Five, built around Cabernet Sauvignon (68%) with Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, and a small measure of Malbec filling out the frame. The fruit comes off a site of thin clay and sandstone soils with extreme exposures. Grapes are cooled overnight in the cellar, destemmed, and fermented on native yeasts, then raised in French oak (half of it new, medium toast) before blending in the spring.
The color is a luminous, medium ruby, and the nose leans savory before it turns to fruit: loam, dried herbs (thyme, sage, rosemary, fennel, the sort of scrubby aromatics that grow around the property), then black tea, star anise, leather, and tobacco. On the palate the tannins are muscular but polished and finely layered, and a saline mineral thread runs through the wine, weaving itself around a core of blackcurrant. It reads fresh and structured rather than heavy, a wine that carries its concentration lightly.
Expert Reviews
The 2011 Cain Five, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (68%), Merlot (20%), Cabernet Franc (5%), Petit Verdot (5%), Malbec (2%), was tasted in early September of 2024 with Chris Howell and Katie Lazar, winegrowers and co-general managers of Cain Vineyard & Winery. It showed a beautiful medium, luminous, ruby colour. Complex and inviting aromas of rich, loamy, with a wonderfully fragrant dried herb character, much like the tarweed growing around the property, sticky with thyme, sage, rosemary, and fennel elements. Notes of black tea, star anise, leather, and tobacco follow. Incredibly muscular tannins are superfine, polished, and layered atop this fresh wine, with its rich vein of saline minerality that courses through and weaves itself around blackcurrant fruit. The grapes are cooled in the cellar overnight, destemmed, and semi-whole berries go into the tank. Native fermentation kicks off after a couple of days. The wine is racked into barrels—50% new French oak with medium toasts. Blending occurs in the spring. The vineyard site has mostly thin clay and sandstone soils with extreme exposures. (Decanter, September 2024)