Fireside Open House Dates
Special Featured Tastings along with
a Selection of Renaissance Estate Wines

Sat., January 27th, 2007 February New Releases! A Pre-Release Club Tasting & Dessert Wines Selection —perfect for Valentine's Day	Sat., February 24th, 2007 Focus on the 'Vin de Terroir' aspect of the Renaissance Reserve wines program.	Sat., March 24th, 2007 Older Cabernets from Dr. Karl Werner's era. (Winemaster, 1974-1988) See "Our Story"

Carmina and Valentina host Fireside Open House
in our Tasting Room. 11:30-2:30pm, $15 per person,
no appointment necessary.
Please call 800 655-3277 for more information.

NOW'S THE TIME...to make a New Year's resolution to keep up with our forthcoming New Releases.
With each vintage, our quality goes up, and quantities go down, so this is the best way to ensure you are able to buy what you fall in love with, before it vanishes from the cellars.
For more details of the new release wines that we're including in our Pre Release club shipments, sign-up on our PreRelease club page.

Reserve Reds
With the great accolades given for our reserve reds here's some explanation for fans who wonder about our different designations.
A note on the ‘Vin de Terroir series:
Gideon began making these wines for release in 1995.
They are made for long-term aging—up to twenty years.
It's easy to say that any of the family of Cabernet wines that Gideon makes will bear stylistic similarities i.e. particularly in relation to the scope of California cabs. Concentrated, austere flavors (not fruit forward) highlighting minerality and spice, low oak.
The '99 vintage was a particularly fine for our Cabernets, indeed all the red varietals. There is a purity of the fruit flavors that is exceptional. In part this was due to the wild fires' smoke canopy that blanketed us for much of the late summer. It kept the sun intensity and temperatures down lower than usual. There is also a more precocious, gentler aspect to the '99 fruit than in the '97 vintage.
The '99 Cab estate varies from the 'Vin de Terroir' reserve level thus:
The Reserve wine program is the result of years of extensive experimentation with specific vineyard sites being fermented separately and compared. The aim of the 'Vin de Terroir' series is to take the best site-specific single fermentation of one vintage, and showcase it as a pure expression of one part of our vineyard. Each vintage is different.

The '97 Cabernet Sauvignon ‘Vin de Terroir’ was from "Slope One". No other varietals are blended, it's 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. Gideon felt that in that year, this was the site that produced the most complex and interesting wine. He thinks Slope One gives a 'Jovial' quality, whereas "Slope 16" is perhaps more elegant and structured (1999 CSVdT) which he possibly felt more interesting, given the differences between the two years' harvests. In many vintages we have not produced a "Vin de Terroir" at all, e.g. 1998, and 2001-3 for Cabernet Sauvignon.
In both the Estate and Premiere Cuvee Reserve Cabs, as well as in the Claret Prestige proprietary blend, balance, elegance, depth, concentration, and length are enhanced by blending together Cabernets from various vineyard sites and different varietals .
In exceptional vintages Gideon will bottle a ‘Vin de Terroir’ production of other single varietals. ’05 Viognier and ’03 Syrah are current examples.

Matt Kramer on Cabernet
1999 Cabernet Sauvignon 'Vin de Terroir'
The New York Sun 12/13/06
The Latest 'Vin de Terroir' Bottling—which is Renaissance's greatest rendition—is the 1999 vintage. A mere 411 cases were produced. What emerges in the 1999 Vin de Terroir is a lush (for Renaissance) cabernet that practically shovels the minerality up to you in both scent and taste. Renaissance Cabernet Sauvignon " Vin de Terroir" 1999 sells for $49 direct from the winery. This is a steal compared with what other, often lesser, California cabernets are offered for today.

1999 Cabernet Sauvignon (Estate)
The Oregonian 11/12/06
What results is a cabernet sauvignon of uncommon character. In the singularly fine 1999 vintage, Renaissance crafted one of its smoothest, richest yet most characterful cabernets yet. It has all the classic cabernet sauvignon flavor notes such as plums, leather, black and red cherries and cedar along with a you-can't-miss-it note of stones or minerals. No oak is apparent. Best of all, the ripeness of the vintage plus its seven years of age makes this cabernet plush on the palate. The bargain price seals the deal. California cabernets nowhere near as good as this unblushingly ask $50 or more.