Cain Vineyard & Winery Cain Five 2011 750ml

The 2011 Cain Five, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (68%), Merlot (20%), Cabernet Franc (5%), Petit Verdot (5%), Malbec (2%), was tasted in early September of 2024 with Chris Howell and Katie Lazar, winegrowers and co-general managers of Cain Vineyard & Winery. It showed a beautiful medium, luminous, ruby colour. Complex and inviting aromas of rich, loamy, with a wonderfully fragrant dried herb character, much like the tarweed growing around the property, sticky with thyme, sage, rosemary, and fennel elements. Notes of black tea, star anise, leather, and tobacco follow. Incredibly muscular tannins are superfine, polished, and layered atop this fresh wine, with its rich vein of saline minerality that courses through and weaves itself around blackcurrant fruit. The grapes are cooled in the cellar overnight, destemmed, and semi-whole berries go into the tank. Native fermentation kicks off after a couple of days. The wine is racked into barrels—50% new French oak with medium toasts. Blending occurs in the spring. The vineyard site has mostly thin clay and sandstone soils with extreme exposures.