Hundred Acre 'Ark Vineyard' - Cabernet Sauvignon - 2018

2018

The single estate vineyard ARK is located just outside St. Helena, California at the base of Howell Mountain. It was originally planted in the 1880s, but was sadly lost to Prohibition. It took five years to rebuild. The vineyard is comprised of nine different blocks of Cabernet Sauvignon, planted meter by meter in nine different volcanic soil strata.

In the words of proprietor Jayson Woodbridge, “The vineyard stretches through a sixty-million-year time sequence: three ancient beach fronts, a prehistoric weapons quarry, and spans a 180-degree arc of the sun over its half-mile length. Hot afternoon sun known to damage aromatics in the fruit (on the hottest days), is blocked by the shade of Glass Mountain (named for the rare obsidian rock found in the soil and for ancient weapons such as arrowheads) which rises to the western side of the ARK vineyard.”

Originally a successful investment banker in Canada, Jayson’s passion for wine was awakened when he walked through a vineyard in Okanagan Valley. He knew that he wanted to have his own vineyard and to create award-winning wine - and how he has succeeded. Hundred Acre has produced 19 Robert Parker Wine Advocate 100-point wines since its first vintage in 2000, and become one of the world’s most sought-after cult wines, with a lengthy waiting list for access to current and library releases.

All Hundred Acre wines are made by sorting the fruit berry by berry, fermenting in small, French oak fermenters, and long aging (minimum 30 months) in the finest barriques (made from only the finest, center cut stave wood, hand-selected for ultra-tight grain and air dried for three years before being made into barrels). The secret to Hundred Acre is no compromise and no detail overlooked.

The 2018 Ark Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon offers an enticing bouquet of freshly crushed red currants, black raspberries and cherries, lilacs and loamy potting soil, underscored by cigar box, tobacco leaf and toasted vanilla. Densely-packed and opulent, it is full-bodied, perfectly balanced and beautifully layered, with luxurious ultra-fine tannins and excellent length. 2018 is considered by many to belong to an upper echelon of Napa Valley’s finest vintages in the past several decades. This wine can be enjoyed now, but will indisputably continue to develop beautifully for decades to come.