Dear Friends,

It’s harvest time, and I’m taking a short break from the crush to tell you about our latest wines. Just in case you wanted to know, 2003 looks like it will turn out to be an excellent year—as I write this in the first week of October, we have enjoyed two weeks of sustained, near-perfect ripening conditions up here at Cain. Check our web site for more on the harvest.

It’s also Concept time, here at Cain. We’re releasing our third vintage of Cain Concept this fall—and we’ve really been loving it! As many of you know, this is a wine that we’ve been working on since 1997. The results have been not only fun and interesting but also gratifying. As proud as we are of the 1997 and the 1999, with the 2000 Cain Concept we have come much closer to our goal of creating a Cabernet blend drawn from the sweet spots in the heart of the Valley. The idea behind Concept is to explore vineyards in the justly famous heart of the Napa Valley; to vinify them in our inimitable Cain style; and to explore the differences between our hillside Cain Vineyard and the best of the Napa Valley proper.

As you would expect, the Cabernets from classic benchlands seem to be softer, sweeter, more lush, and rounder than those from our mountain vineyard. The palate is already balanced, so, in this case, we blend for aromatic complexity. Touches of Cabernet Franc and a bit of Merlot have added the floral and spice notes that lift the core of ripe cherry fruit. Finally, the whole is seductively pulled together by new barrels with just the right amount of toast—French, mais oui!

You will be able to see, smell, and taste that we’re working with outstanding fruit sources and that all the care and attention to detail that we give to Cain Five has also been lavished on Cain Concept. Because this is a new project, there is still less of Cain Concept than there is of Cain Five. Why, then, are we offering this wine at barely half the price of Cain Five? Two reasons: first, it still costs us more to grow grapes in our Cain Vineyard, where the yields are embarrassingly low; and, second, Cain Concept is a new wine, relatively unknown. Rather than introduce the next, latest, most expensive “cult” wine, we wanted to offer you, our customers, something of unquestionable value at a very reasonable price.

We hope that the 2000 Cain Concept will become one of your favorite discoveries for this holiday season. You can enjoy this wine now, and, because it has more than adequate depth and intensity, it will age easily for ten years.

In the fall, we usually offer the next vintage of our Cain Musqué. However, we kept the 2002 Musqué on the lees longer this year, and we bottled it later, so it will be offered next spring. Instead, for those of you who have drunk up all of your 2001 Cain Musqué, we have a bit left here at the winery, and thought we’d offer it to you with this mailing. If you haven’t yet experimented with aging this wine, you’ll be rewarded by tasting what a year in the bottle can do. Because of its fruit intensity and crisp acidity, Cain Musqué ages well for ten years. It rounds out, becomes deeper and more complex, and it takes on those characteristics that one expects from all serious white wines.

Finally, please note that we are making a small offering of our 1999 Cain Five in magnums. Based on our tasting over the past year, we know that this is a vintage that will age well, and there’s no better way to age a wine than in a large-format bottle!

Christopher Howell
Winemaker/General Manager