Fall 2005

Dear Friends,

We have three wines to offer you this fall: 2001 Cain Five in magnums (1.5 L), 2002 Cain Concept (750 ml), and 2002 Cain Syrah (750 ml), our first vintage of this wine.

The 2002 Cain Concept is our principal offering. With the 2001 vintage, our Cain Concept is beginning to find a place in our cellar in its own right— you will find it to be well worthy of your attention, as it has proven to be of ours. The 2002 Cain Concept is a substantial wine. Those of you who have followed our progress with this wine since its introduction with the 1997 vintage know that the Cain Concept is about Cabernet Sauvignon grown on the “sweet spots”’ of the Napa Valley—essentially, along the edges of the valley from Oakville to St. Helena—the fabled Benchlands. Ever since I began working with the complex, perplexing, and idiosyncratic Cain Vineyard in 1990, I’ve been wondering how the other half lives. To our chagrin, the truth is, life is indeed easier down in the Valley. Not only do the vines suffer much less, they’re much easier to cultivate, they produce a decent crop, and the wines they yield are really good. Our Cain Concept is vinified following all the same principles applied to the Cain Five and—surprise—different fruit yields a different result: more plush, and with a sweeter entry than the Cain Five, the Cain Concept immediately satisfies. To hold your (and our) interest, we’ve built in some complexity with Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and even a bit of Petit Verdot. In an uncharacteristic failure of modesty, I would suggest that our 2002 Cain Concept compares quite favorably with many of the “reference” cabernets of the Napa Valley (but, perhaps, only if you understand and appreciate the Cain aesthetic). Just 5,985 cases were bottled.

For those who want to begin a collection with the first of a series—or, more importantly, for those true believers, devotees of La Syrah—we offer our first commercial bottling of Cain Syrah, the 2002 vintage. Syrah is one of the truly noble grape varieties, and yet it is fickle. It can often yield a pleasant, even substantial wine—good, but of little character. The challenge is to break through to a wholly different level. On the steep hillsides of our mountaintop Cain Vineyard, however, Syrah always seemed like a natural. We’ve been growing it for ten years and vinifying for eight, and the 2002 is the first vintage that we deemed worthy to bottle. The wine is dark, with a sumptuous, velvety palate and a very discrete nose that opens slowly over a long period. It takes as many as 24 hours for the signature floral notes of iris to be revealed in this young wine— promising clue as to its ageability. 85 cases will be available to ship in middle to late November. This wine is so new, we’re still working on the label!

Assuming that you exercised your option to purchase some of the 2001 Cain Five last spring, and assuming that you have tasted a bottle, I hope that you’ve congratulated yourself on your good fortune and good taste to have acquired a truly bewitching wine. For the Napa Valley in general, 2001 has proven to be one of the very best in the last 10 or 20 years. The Cain Vineyard was no exception; however, the 2001 Cain Five is, in fact, exceptional—that there is no other wine like it surely has to do with the fact that it is dominated by the fruit of the Cain Vineyard. Complex, floral notes enrobe exceedingly fine tannins that flow seamlessly towards a long finish—a classic wine. I wish that I could say that “I made it,” but the truth is that it must have made itself. If ever there was a vintage to own in magnums, this is it. 394 cases were bottled in magnums.

One last note: Have you tasted any of your NV2 Cain Cuvée recently? You won’t be disappointed.

We are in the midst of harvest. I’ve got to get back to work!

Christopher Howell
Winemaker/General Manager