2006 Vintage

• Case Production: 210 cases
• Vineyards: Chateau Boswell Estate
• Cooperage: 100% French Artisan Oak
• Vinification: Harvested in hand lugs, hand sorted, wild native yeast fermentation in a combination of Oak barrels and stainless tanks. Barrel aged for 19 months, bottled neither fined nor filtered.

Chateau Boswell Estate Cabernet Sauvignon has a limited production annually of fewer than 300 cases and is produced from fruit grown organically in our two small vineyards, both with a unique soil composition of volcanic ash, red clay, and obsidian. The steep hillside vineyard is planted with French and local proprietary clones of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, and Merlot. The Heritage valley floor vineyard is planted with one of the earliest French Cabernet Sauvignon proprietary clones brought to America. It is the marriage of the fruit of these two vineyards that creates a consistently supple wine with intense dark fruit and complex sensory components.

ESTATE HILLSIDE VINEYARD

The hillside vineyard was established in 1997 with 98% of the vineyard planted to French Clone 337 and Clone 4 Cabernet Sauvignon. 2% of the vineyard was planted with a selection of proprietary clones of Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Petit Verdot. The field blend at fermentation of these traditional Bordeaux varietals is a somewhat unique practice and is based upon the concurrent ripening of all of our hillside fruit.

When the caves were excavated it was discovered that the hillside vines have been struggling to take hold in crevasses of solid rock. These vines are a symbol of the sustainability of this land. The vineyard soil is comprised of volcanic rock, red volcanic clay in the Clone 4 block, and obsidian throughout. The surface has just one to two feet of rocky top soil composition with the sub soil base nearly solid volcanic rock. 

Tufa, a form of volcanic ash, is prevalent in the soil makeup of nearby Howell Mountain and Glass Mountain and is believed to be one of the major contributing factors to our unique terroir. Tufa is formed when water evaporates from lime-rich waters, leaving calcite to crystallize, often with impurities of iron oxides, which give tufa its yellow and red coloration. Obsidian, is in great abundance in our Estate soil and was used as the base for our upper level cave terrazzo floor. It is dense volcanic glass, thus the name Glass Mountain, and is usually rhyolite in composition and typically black in color. Rich in iron and magnesium; tiny crystals of iron oxide within the glass cause its dark color. Obsidian is formed in rhyolite lava flows where lava cools so fast that crystals do not have time to grow. Glass, unlike crystals, has no regular structure and therefore fractures in smooth curved shapes.

Original Silverado Trail Estate Vineyard

The original Chateau Boswell vineyard was planted 30 years ago with one of the earliest French Cabernet Sauvignon clones brought to America. This bud wood, provided by André Tchelistcheff, was sourced from the Niebaum vineyard. These vines produced a very elegant wine with intense dark purple color and sensory components of black cherry and violets. In 2004 we cut bud wood from these lovely old vines and field grafted them onto 101-14 rootstock which has been planted in a close 3’x4’ spacing in order to produce premium fruit with enhanced flavor components. The South section has been planted with French Clone 169 known for color intensity and aromatics.