Bob’s Burn Pile Cabernet Sauvignon is
made from a tiny hillside section of Robert Young
vineyards. The vineyard is named after the location, a
spot where Bob burned the brush he cleared to plant the
vineyard and the prunings from the vines on the Robert
Young Ranch.
Over the years, when the fruit from Robert Young
Vineyards was harvested and made into wine, some
sections needed to be blended with other sections to be
complete. On the other hand, the Cabernet Sauvignon
grown among the volcanic rocks and ash on Bob’s Burn
Pile always stood on its own: fully ripe, composed of
perfect wine chemistry (tannins, acids, fruit sugars,
and PH) needing nothing extra save some fine wood from a
toasty French oak barrel. In 2004, Robert Young Estate
Winery decided to make a very limited bottling of Bob’s
Burn Pile Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine was put in 100%
new barrels and aged for two years in the winery’s cave.
The result is the finest wine the winery has to offer.
No surprise when you consider the source: the soil
filled with age old remnants of fiery explosions and the
man who planted and tended his vines in the ashes of his
own labors.
This wine has not been sent out for review.
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The
Big Rock Block is among the top 6% of our vineyards that
we save to make our own wine; it's located on the steep
hillside behind Robert Young’s house on the Home Ranch.
The hillside was covered with boulders when we cleared
it to plant the vineyard in the early 1980’s. Large
amounts of rock and stone remain beneath the surface of
the vineyard making it tough on the equipment used to
cultivate the ground and the vines that grow there. This
section always struggles to survive and is always the
latest to ripen even with the extremely small crop that
sets there. Because of these conditions, most years the
fruit on Big Rock Block is loaded with powerful and
intense flavors.
The 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon from this block made a ripe
and juicy wine, loaded with fruit and noted for soft Cab
tannins. Only eight barrels were made. This wine is an
incredible bargain in the cab world and is selling fast.
This wine has not been sent out for review. |
High on Big Rock Block hill is a very
small Cabernet Franc vineyard. The Cabernet Franc vines
on Big Rock Block have their roots in a pocket of red
clay…better to give them a grip on the 30 degree
hillside. This vineyard block is always one of the very
last to be harvested on the Robert Young Estate and is a
favorite of winemaker, Kevin Warren. Kevin likes this
Cabernet Franc vineyard because “with the way the vines
struggle up there, the berries are real small, and I
often find the flavors in the grapes are concentrated
like fruit jam. I also like the extended amount of time
the fruit hangs on the vine in that section of our
vineyards. Time turns into flavor in grapes.”
The wine made from Big Rock Block Cabernet Franc is
extremely aromatic with aromas of red berries, of dried
hay, dark tea leaves and exotic spices. The vintage of
2005 was a good one for us at Robert Young Estate
Winery. The flavors in our Franc grapes were very rich,
ripe and sweet. Cabernet Franc is not as tannic as
Cabernet Sauvignon, which makes the wine easier to drink
especially early in the wine’s development. And, while
Franc is lighter than Cabernet Sauvignon on the pallet
it has its own delicate weight. To add a little extra
character to our 2005 Red Winery Road red wine we added
a little Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, but you will
notice that this is definitely a Franc.
Only 20 barrels were made. This wine has not been sent
out for review.
This wine has not been sent out for review.
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