Our seventh vintage of Democracy, and 2023 gave us something we don't get every year: a truly perfect growing season. A long, even ripening curve, cool nights that held onto acidity, and warm days that let the fruit build real depth without ever rushing. It's the kind of vintage winemakers wait for.

Democracy is 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Cabernet Franc, sourced from hillside sites above St. Helena. The name is intentional — every block, every lot has a voice in the final blend, and our job is to let them all speak without any one of them shouting over the others. What we're chasing here isn't power for its own sake. It's balance, parity, and above all, complexity — layer after layer of concentrated fruit and hillside terroir unfolding as the wine opens.

That complexity starts long before fermentation. We begin with an extended cold soak to pull color and aromatic precision from the skins before any sugar converts, then move into a warm fermentation at 95 degrees to drive deep extraction and structure. Punch-downs happen every three hours, around the clock — a rhythm we hold to specifically to protect the purity of the aromatics rather than muscle out tannin. From there, the wine spends 30 months in new French oak, long enough to fully integrate and add its own architecture without ever masking the fruit.

On the nose, dark currant and blackberry layered with cedar, graphite, and beautiful floral lift of violet along with cassis bud from the Cabernet Franc. The palate opens rich and concentrated — black cherry, cassis, and baking spice — before giving way to fine, structured tannins, notes of espresso and dark chocolate, and a long, mineral-driven finish that keeps unfolding.

This is a wine built for the table. Try it with a dry-aged ribeye or braised short rib, where the tannin structure has something to work against. It's equally at home with lamb, mushroom-forward dishes, or an aged hard cheese like Gouda or clothbound cheddar — anything with enough weight and richness to meet the wine's own layers.