{ Red Experiment A2.7 }

Prior to building our cellar, we took a trip to Bordeaux to taste through all the top estates and examine their cellars. We were smitten with the wines of the Right Bank, many of which were using concrete tanks. On our return, we mapped out a cellar that was predominantly concrete with a few oak tanks as well. With the 2007 Experiment, we aimed to explore the effect of the concrete tanks by creating a blend from lots fermented in concrete only.

Following harvest, we barreled down each fermentation separately and followed its progression for 14 months. Then, we assembled a blend that consisted entirely of lots that had been fermented in concrete tanks. This blend aged for another 6 months in barrel prior to bottling.

One of our central ambitions is to always convey (as transparently as possible) what the vineyard and growing season have to say. As we tasted this blend in the cellar and in the years since, it has continually expressed great purity – what you taste in the vineyard is what you get in the glass. This is one of concrete’s great attributes. In fact, we admired this so much that this Experiment gave us the confidence in 2013 to replace our oak tanks with concrete.