Cline Cabernet Sauvignon North Coast 2020 (750ml)

Our Cline Classic wines showcase the best that California terroir has to offer.  From our expressive North Coast Viognier and Sauvignon Blanc to our bold yet elegant Zinfandel from Lodi, and our newest addition our Cline Cabernet Sauvignon, we work hard to bring you impressive wines with a sense of place.

 

Cline Cabernet Sauvignon North Coast 2020

 

This wine jumps out of the glass.  On the nose you are greeted with aromas of blackberry and mocha.  Rich flavors follow, with blueberry, currant, and notes of olives and rosemary.

 

Color:  Dark Purple

 

Aromas:  Blackberry, black plum, currant, mocha

 

Body:  Rich & Full

 

Acid:  Balanced

 

Flavors:  Ripe blueberry, blackberry pie, black plum jam, tobacco and mocha.

 

Finish:  Long and rich

 

Pairings

 

Pair this wine with full bodied foods such as grilled steak or portabella mushrooms.

 

Alcohol:  14%

 

Fermentation & Aging

 

Grapes are hand harvested at night, then 100% destemmed and pumped to tanks to help extract flavor out of the grapes.  Grapes naturally begin fermentation and are pumped over two to three times a day for two weeks before pressing.  It completes malolactic fermentation in tank before being racked to barrels where it sees 50% new American oak for 12 months before racking, blending and bottling.

 

Vineyards

 

Grapes for this wine come from attentive family growers from Mendocino County.  Based around Hopland and Ukiah, these vineyards are on west facing slopes to get the best sunshine.  They also bear the brunt of the nearby coastal influences translating to lower yields, long hang-time and perfect ripeness at the end of the season.

 

Harvest Date:  September 28, 2020 To October 12, 2020

 

 

Cline Family Cellars

 

Cline Family Cellars is a family-owned and operated winery in Sonoma, California, built on a passion for winemaking and rooted in respect for the land.

 

Fred Cline started Cline Family Cellars in 1982 in Oakley, California, making his first vintages from original plantings of Mourvedre, Zinfandel, and Carignane, some of which dated back to the 1880's.

 

In 1989, Fred purchased a 350-acre horse farm in Carneros and moved the winery to Sonoma County.  As one of the original Rhone Rangers, he began planting varietals that included a number of vineyards dedicated to Syrah, Viognier, Marsanne, and Roussanne.  Since those first plantings, Fred and his wife Nancy have continued to plant vineyards throughout Sonoma County, expanding to include more classic varieties like Pinot Noir, Merlot, and Chardonnay.

 

Grounded in Sustainability

 

Our aim is to be stewards of the land, not only through our natural and sustainable Green String farming methods, but through an awareness of bringing interconnected systems into harmony. We are committed to nurturing the land and creating wines that reflect the bounty of these complex and perfect ecosystems.

 

Cline's level of sustainability and pride in their product really made me a bigger fan of Cline than I was before.  Ashley H., Yelp

 

Quality Driven

 

There are no compromises when it comes to consistency and quality.  From excellent vineyards, to skilled teams working at the winery, to updated systems - we do it all.  The result is an expansive, award-winning portfolio of wines with a range of styles and offerings to appeal to the novice and the enthusiast.

 

Winemaking Practices

 

At Cline Family Cellars we seek complexity, elegance, power and sense of place in every wine we make.

 

We craft our wines combining timeless techniques and modern technology that work in concert with each varietal, utilizing thoughtful wine growing, gentle handling, attentive sorting, and meticulous blending to achieve wines of great flavor at a great price.

 

Our star winemaker Tom Gendall is a master at the art of making stylish Zinfandel, Rhône and cool-climate varietal wines.  He works with his team to monitor the vineyards throughout the year and make decisions that affect the winemaking process and brings out the best varietal character in the fruit.

 

Weather

 

Our vineyards exemplify the miracle that is the northern California mesoclimate.  Oakley, home of our ancient vines grapes and only 40 miles East of Sonoma County, can experience a diurnal temperature change of up to 50 degrees during the growing season.  The Los Carneros vineyards in Sonoma County experiences moderate temperatures, rarely reaching 100 degrees with cool nights and mornings.  A few miles away, in our Sonoma Coast vineyards, the ever-present morning fog, chilly nights, and more abundant rain, creates even cooler weather, ideal for varietals like Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

 

Soil

 

With a fervent devotion to the long-term health and vitality of the land, Fred Cline and Bobby Cannard have developed a method of soil management called Green String.  Pest and weed control employ helpful insects and animals instead of toxic chemicals.  Careful crop management can mean smaller harvests but ultimately higher fruit intensity and flavor.  Our soils are as versatile as the weather, ranging from shallow clay to deep sandy loam.

 

Picking

 

We pick to achieve the optimal flavor intensity and ripeness that captures each varietal’s essence and the conditions of each region where we tend to our vineyards.  Whether it’s farming sandy soil in a warmer climate such as the Contra Costa AVA, or finessing cool climate varietals grown along the Sonoma Coast, we are determined to bring out the best nature has to offer in each vintage.  Most of our grapes are picked into two ton bins with select lots picked into half-ton 4x4 bins early in the day when it’s cooler and delivered to the winery where they are gently guided into the vinification process.

 

Equipment & Facilities

 

Our Sonoma winery has evolved to combine timeless winemaking techniques with modern technology, resulting in well balanced and flavorful wines with every vintage.

 

We use a pneumatic tank press, that applies gentle pressure to the grapes while reducing tearing and scouring of the seeds and skins.  This minimizes the extracted phenolics and solids in the pressed wine.  We are able to choose the amount of whole berry and whole cluster that go into each program.

 

Our modern cooling system is integral to maintaining consistency throughout the fermentation process.  We also monitor oxygen throughout the vinification process up to bottling using a fiber optic oxygen analyzer.

 

We constantly look for ways to combine our modern winemaking equipment and talent with tools such as concrete eggs and clay amphorae to create side-by-side fermentation tests.  These comparisons allow us to look at new ways to innovate in our wine styling.

 

Our operations are run entirely from sun power created from the solar array on the roof of the winery.

 

Fermentation & Oak

 

Our overarching philosophy is to express each specific vineyard and varietal as close as possible to the true color and character of each varietal.  To accomplish this, we never add enzymes, color concentrates or fining agents.  We rely primarily on indigenous yeasts for the red wine fermentations at Cline.

 

The red wine fermentations begin with pump-overs, we use gentle equipment to spread the juice over the top of the grape skins.  We punch-down at the start of fermentations in the 4x4 bins.  The red wines are kept on skins for 7 to 14 days.  We taste wine in each fermenter daily to make the press call that will achieve the desired fruit flavors and tannin levels.

 

The wines are then aged in stainless steel tanks or oak barrels for 6 to 20 months depending upon the wine, and are later racked at bottling.

 

The white wines typically undergo cold fermentation in stainless steel tanks to bring out the fresh, bright fruit of each varietal and maintain the crisp acidity.

 

We use different types of oak with varying toast levels for each wine, always looking for a harmonious balance of oak and toast level to express each varietal’s flavor, level of complexity and texture.

 

Non-Oaked Wines

 

To preserve delicate flavors, our winemakers sometimes choose to make wines without oak.  This approach allows bright flavors and crisp acidity to shine in their purest “no-oak” form in delicate and aromatic wines.

 

Vegan

 

No animal-derived products are used in a Cline wine carrying this icon.  Simply put, it means no protein fining agents.  Rather than egg whites and gelatin wineries use to reduce tannins, our winemakers utilize blending techniques and pressing of grape skins to bring tannins into balance.

 

Gluten Free

 

Wheat, rye or barley protein never come into contact with most Cline wines, so there is no detectable gluten in our finished product.

 

Farming Practices

 

Certified California Sustainable

 

We are proud to be a Certified California Sustainable Vineyard and Winery.  The program acknowledges a long-term commitment to continual improvement in the field of sustainable winegrowing and business practices, from grape to glass.
 

Sonoma County Sustainable

 

Sonoma County is committed to becoming the first AVA to be 100% sustainable.  We are proud to help lead the way by achieving certification.

 

The Green String Method

 

Soil manager Bobby Cannard and Fred Cline are extremely dedicated to sustainable practices.  Nothing is more important than how we treat our vines.  The wine we make is a direct result of what we put into the ground.

 

The Green String farming method developed by Fred and Bobby is a system that promotes and enhances biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity.  These methods minimize pollution from the air, soil, and water, and optimize the health and productivity of soil, plants, animals and people.  We make every effort to reduce soil erosion, and other harmful ecological footprints.  Our self-nourishing system of minimal human intervention yields excellent quality crops.

 

Wooly Weeders

 

Instead of herbicides, 1500 sheep and 500 goats roam our vineyards, tasked with removing invasive weeds.  In spring, they munch on new growth between the vine rows.  During summer months, sheep clear the weeds from the vineyard floor while chomping on vine leaves, allowing more sunlight to stream into the canopy and ripen the grapes.

 

Cover Crops

 

Cover crops feed the soil; a wide mix of plant types are chosen specifically to produce soil-enhancing organic material.  Cover crops are folded back into the soil while providing nutrition to our wooly weeders.  These practices stimulate a living soil, a rich system where our vines can form deep roots.

 

Compost & Compost Tea

 

We compost and reuse all digestible organic waste and materials from our winery including: 3000 tons of grape pomace per year, prunings from our trees and vines, plus chipped materials from the landscape.  We turn this "waste stream" into biological stimulant and food for our soils.  Some rougher compost is further digested with the aid of worms, then biologically proliferated in a forced aerobic tea brewer.  This “compost tea” is introduced to vineyards through the drip irrigation system, thereby applying the broad-spectrum indigenous matter directly to our soil.

 

Minerals

 

We grind our own volcanic rock, then spread the crushed cinder onto the soil.  Having a wide spectrum of mineralogy, these cinders provide our vineyards with a complex array of nutrients and trace minerals.  We take these extra steps to make sure our vines have all the necessary components to build fullness of character in our wine.

 

Pest Control

 

Instead of harmful pesticides, we provide owl boxes and raptor perches in the vineyard.  The night owl and the day hawk are the predators of gophers and mice.  We count on birds of prey to help maintain ecological control.  We create habitat for beneficial insects to do the same; cover crops house spiders that feed upon mites and leafhoppers.

 

Powered by the Sun

 

In 2005, Cline was one of the first wineries to fully adopt solar energy.  In 2018 we upgraded the original array with the latest technology, designed to offset 100% of our winery’s electrical consumption.  Producing 586,000 kWh per year, our goal was to be energy independent.  Our commitment to sun power also spares the air 436 metric tons of CO2 annually and is equivalent to removing over 1 million miles of driving each year.

 

Non-GMO

 

We do not use genetically modified organisms in our farming or winemaking processes.