Timeless - Napa Valley 2017

The first vintage of Timeless Napa Valley is a harmonious wine that deftly balances elegant integration of both high acidity and supple fruit to create a wine with ageworthy structure and character.

Neither location nor variety can be overlooked when tasting this wine. Notes of pomegranate and cherry signify the ever-present diurnal shift at the property while aromas of wisteria, licorice and mint indicate attention paid to each block and their individually timed harvests. Carried by essences of rose, plum and tart red fruit, a mouthwatering ripple of bright acidity meets balancing, savory flavors of minty balsam, licorice and stewed black fruits. The dichotomy of plush, ripe fruit that still maintains high acidity is a rare result of the long growing season and multiple-pass harvesting techniques.

Once fermented and blended, the 2017 vintage rested in French oak barrels for 16 months. This time is marked by flavors of black pepper, cacao, cozy mulling spices and velvety tannins. Integrated with that of the oak barrels, natural grape tannins provide firm grip and complex flavors on the palate.

The process of making wine hinges on precise timing, from pruning the vineyard to the moment of harvest to the length of barrel aging. Once the wine is bottled, however, the dynamic shifts. Wine becomes a vessel containing the epochal story of its geography and the eternal connection between earth and vine. It becomes Timeless.

The Story

Timeless Napa Valley—the first new wine label from the Duncan family of Silver Oak in more than twenty years—captures this phenomenon, embodying a singular focus on one rare and remarkable site, Soda Canyon Ranch. The resulting single vineyard, proprietary red wine profoundly captures the singular beauty of this site while seamlessly painting a grander, classic portrait of Napa Valley itself.

The Vineyard

When the founding fathers of the Napa Valley carved out new sub-AVAs (American Viticultural Areas) in the 1980s, Soda Canyon Ranch was not yet on anyone’s map. The vineyard is neighbored to the northwest and west by the winegrowing districts of Stags Leap District and Oak Knoll District, respectively, which were among the early pioneers of California Cabernet Sauvignon to attain global fame. To the northeast and southeast—and further off the beaten path—were Atlas Peak and Coombsville, thought to be the next frontiers for the emerging wine-producing region.