Karl Lawrence Cellars Latest News: March 2006

The 2003 Release Offering Letters are in the mail. This year the younger generation had to take over the envelope stuffing duties as the older generations' hands have been rendered useless by repetitive stress syndrome. I find now that my left hand grip can barely get me past the sixteenth hole.

KARL LAWRENCE CELLARS

OFFERING LETTER

Welcome to our thirteenth annual release. A few of you have been with us since the beginning. Most of you have been with us over the majority of these releases. And, a number of you are just joining us. We thank you for being a part of our efforts to produce the best cabernet sauvignon that the Napa Valley has to offer and at the best value. We are proud to release our wines in what is considered a "winemaker's vintage." That is to say, a year in which Mother Nature tests the winemaker's skills, allowing only the best to stand out. We trust that you will find these wines to stand out in this vintage and fulfill your expectations of what great wines should be and that these are.

CABERNET SAUVIGNON

2003

Michael's excited about the 2003 vintage and believes that our Cabernet Sauvignon will stand out, much as it did in the 1998 vintage. Throughout the French Oak barrel-aging, the Reserve barrels continued to rock and show why they were the cream of the crop. In working towards our goal of a quality wine, Michael blended these barrels into the main wine and discharged the weaker barrels and press wine to the bulk market.

The resulting wine is consistent with what you have come to expect from Karl Lawrence. The 2003 vintage includes Karl Lawrence's signature aromas of black fruit, current, and, dark chocolate. The wine is well structured and provides flavors that are rich on the palate. In a word, Michael describes this wine as "rich and viscous." He also notes that the structure is perfect because of the pedigree of the vineyards.

Like previous vintages, the 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon, derives mostly from Gary Morisoli's Vineyard (77%). The remaining Cabernet Sauvignon comes from the Herb Lamb Vineyard (14%), and, for the second time, the Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard (6%).

New to Karl Lawrence is the Beckstoffer Dr. Crane Vineyard. Much to Michael's surprise, the choicest grapes meander along a gravely portion of the old Sulfur Creek riverbed. Michael chose to blend in just enough of these grapes to make the difference in making this wine truly the "creme de la creme" of the 2003 wines.

This wine is drinkable upon release and will evolve well over a minimum of the next ten years. Enjoy.

As always, there is nothing second label about this wine. It is made from the same great grapes as the Karl Lawrence Cabernet Sauvignon. However, the majority of the cabernet sauvignon comes from the Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard, with the Gary Morisoli Vineyard represented the least of the three main vineyards. And, new to Aldin, Michael included a smidgen of Beckstoffer Dr. Crane.

Where Karl Lawrence strives to be a bold, power-house cabernet, Aldin endeavors to take the edge off the cabernet, so to speak, and attain a soft, silky-smooth balance, producing a finesse wine. Therefore, Michael chooses the smoothest cabernet sauvignon barrels to include in the Aldin blend.

To further differentiate Aldin, Michael layers in merlot (26%) from the Dan Boeschen Vineyard, off of Glass Mountain, and Cab Franc, from Beckstoffer's To Kalon Vineyard. This helps to flesh out the blend and along with the lighter French Oak barrel-aging, produce a more juicy and aromatic, style of wine.

Michael refers to Aldin as an "every-day drinking wine" when you don't need a big power-house wine, like, Karl Lawrence. He further states that the magical thing about Aldin is that it's a late bloomer. It takes a least a year to start showing off. With that extra bottle time, it goes beyond his expectations.

In past vintages Michael worked to produce a European style Chardonnay that was crisp, clean, with fruit forward flavors of pear, apple, and creamy honey blossom. With the 2004 harvest, Mother Nature produced a riper profile, ranging from citrus to pitted fruit. Therefore, this will be a bigger, sweeter, and richer vintage. Michael states that it has a richer viscosity, but is well structured, and is knitted with great acidity to hold up all this forward ripeness. The end result is what you would think of as more of a California style Chardonnay.

The Aldin Chardonnay is made from a hundred percent chardonnay grapes. It is aged in French Oak barrels and undergoes twenty percent malolactic fermentation.

Please note that both the Aldin Chardonnay and the Aldin Red Table Wines are produced in limited amounts and are made available only to people on our mailing list.

We will release new Vineyard Designated Reserves this fall. The release will include the 2002 Beckstoffer To Kalon and the 2003 Beckstoffer Dr. Crane.

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