Cartello Cabernet Sauvignon Alexander Valley 2018

For small, family-owned wine brands, harvest can be an “all-hands-on-deck” time of year. Whether hand-harvesting clusters, sorting berries, or labeling bottles, winemakers recruit friends and family for any task to get the job done. The promise of a bottle of wine and a slice of pizza at the day’s end is traditional payment. Yet, when it comes to the three friends behind Cartello Wines, they ended up with far more than a pepperoni pie at the end of 2018’s harvest. Vintner Michael Oravecz has been crafting premier estate Cabernet under his Mila Family Vineyards label since 2003. In the years after purchasing his 54-acre property, Michael’s old cycling buddies Mike Laszlo and Craig Lewis were reliable sets of hands, assisting each vintage as the Mila Family label grew and they developed the 10 acres of vineyard. Then, 15 years later, in 2018, the estate harvest overflowed, and Michael found himself with a large surplus of fruit. Knowing the time and energy spent refining the “recipe” for Mila Family’s flagship wine, Michael was not keen on bulking up his Cabernet production. Yet, this miraculous and meticulously cared-for fruit couldn’t go to waste, so Michael propositioned his two best “harvest interns” to create a new label focused on high-quality wines with a more accessible price tag.

Despite its now dominance in the region, Cabernet has not always been the go-to grapevine in Alexander Valley. In the appellation’s early history, growers primarily planted Mission, Chardonnay, and Zinfandel. Sadly, Alexander Valley took a big hit from Prohibition and struggled to recover with the farmers transitioning to planting plumtrees. In the early 1960s, wine pioneers Robert Young and Rodney Strong planted Cabernet in the hillsides of Alexander Valley at the behest of UC Davis recommendations. And here we are, over 60 years later and high elevation Cabernets are the crème de la crème of wines from the AVA. Cartello’s vines lie 400-500 feet above the valley floor in clay and sandy soils, where they struggle just enough to engender the fruit with density and complexity. Michael honors his site by farming biodynamically, a practice not widely used in the area.

With the help of their kinfolk, the Cartello team hand-harvested this 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. The grapes were gently macerated with consistent pump-overs while fermenting in stainless steel tanks. Aging was two years long in an even split of French oak barrels, 50% new and 50% second use. Delicate French oak intermingles with willowy tannins to create a formidable Sonoma Cabernet with surprising brightness. Aromas of dark plums, milk chocolate, and sagebrush complement the flavors of Luxardo cherries, smoked cedar plank, and roasted mushroom on the palate. This debut Cabernet is a luxurious reward for the three friends behind Cartello, proving their hard work at harvest has genuinely paid off.