Our Wine

We focus on Mount Veeder Cabernet Sauvignon

Baker Canyon Cabernet Sauvignon is a wine of place. Sourced from a single vineyard block at 1,000 feet above the valley floor it embodies the hallmark intensity of Mount Veeder. Each vintage is different, of course, but our goal is always balance and complexity.

Balance begins in the vineyard. Our cane pruned vines are encouraged to form a full canopy early in the season and then we limit each shoot to carrying just one or two clusters. For us, finding balance between the vegetative and reproductive growth means yields just two to three tons per acre – a fraction of what many valley floor vineyards produce. Smaller berries with thicker skins result with each vine having enough energy to fully ripen the clusters.

We tend to pick earlier than many. Harvesting just as soon as the grapes are fully mature – but not sooner!. Maintaining the mouth-watering acidity that you’ll find in all our wines while keeping alcohol in balance.

Completely hand-harvested, the grapes are picked early in the morning while temperatures are cool and then are gently destemmed and optically sorted before moving to the fermentation tank.

In the cellar every vintage is handled slightly differently but most will see a cold soak followed by a carefully temperature controlled fermentaiton with gentle pumpovers a few times a day to keep things moving and the cap from drying out. An extended maceration follows with most vintages seeing 28 or so total days on the skins.

The wine is then gravity drained overnight with only this “free run” being used in our final blends.

Thick skinned and fully ripened grapes that are generously extracted in the tank means we don’t need to overly oak the wines during aging.

In fact, the 2022 sees saw only 5% new oak and 34% used oak. The balance being aged in clay amphorae sourced from Italy as well as Oregon. The amphorae give us similar aging effects as oak without introducing oak derived tannins or the signature vanilla and toast.

Beyond 2022

Our 2023 was recently bottled and is incredible. Our 2024, from another stellar vintage in Napa, is in the cellar aging in amphorae and barrels and is shaping up to be equally impressive and I’m particularly excited about 2025 which has shaped up to equal, if not exceed, the already spectacular 2023 and 2024 vintages and where for the first time we will likely introduce Cabernet Franc to the blend.

We made 300 cases of 2023 and 2024 and our total production in 2025 will likely be closer to 600 cases as we slowly and deliberately ramp up to the 1,000 – 2,000 cases that our winery will ultimately produce. So we’ll have a bit more to share as we grow.