spottswoode estate cabernet
25th Anniversary Vintage!
The 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon is our 25th Anniversary Cabernet—wow! The year 2006 is also notable as being Jennifer Williams’ fifth year of working with us—and her first as our winemaker.
Jennifer entered the wine business through the vineyard, which she entered through the garden. It was while growing up in a rural area of Southern California with gardens and a multitude of fruit trees that she cultivated her interest in agriculture and an awareness of flavor. At Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Jennifer majored in Agriculture. A vineyard internship in the Napa Valley sparked her interest in the wine industry, and a subsequent job at a Central Coast winery solidified it. Jennifer joined us as our winemaking intern during harvest of 2002, by which time she had gained impressive experience in the industry. She had held vineyard and winery positions in Napa and Paso Robles, as well as an internship position in Spain’s Rioja Alavesa region.
During her internship with us we immediately recognized her talent, passion and potential, and asked her to join us full time. She became our Assistant Winemaker, working closely with Rosemary Cakebread in all aspects of our wine production. Jennifer also began spending more time in our estate vineyard, and added the title of Vineyard Manager in 2004. It was our intent that Jennifer would eventually succeed Rosemary as Spottswoode’s full-time winemaker, and this planned transition became official in 2006. With Jennifer fully in charge, Rosemary continues to work with us on a consulting basis, as her talent, historical perspective and blending insights are invaluable to us.
Jennifer offers these thoughts on our 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon:
My favorite wines are ones that are very alive—those with a spark of energy to them, that evolve and develop with time. Complexity is usually a shared theme of “alive” wines—allowing the many unique characters to unfurl, layer by layer, revealing components of its multi-faceted soul. Our 2006 Spottswoode Cab is one such wine. It’s concentrated and contemplative and full of fruit now, though it’s easy to see that this wine has so much more to reveal.
With a wild flood on New Year’s Day of this vintage and snow through the early spring, our valley was subject to a late budbreak and harvest, making the growing conditions for this wine unique indeed. On the top of our game in the vineyard, and with the debut of our new sorting table in 2006, these grapes were treated like royalty on their way to fermentation. With a sturdy structure being characteristic of this vintage, we opted for an additional three months of barrel ageing to encourage the flexible, supple nature of this resulting wine.
Thus an interesting tale of great wines, top talent and notable anniversaries unfurls like a complex wine—2006 represents Jennifer’s first vintage as our winemaker, her fifth vintage working with us and Spottswoode’s 25th vintage of Cabernet Sauvignon, and this gives us cause for celebration. We are very excited to introduce this wine to you, and to give the credit to Jennifer, who we are very happy to have working with us. We look forward to many excellent vintages under her tutelage!
