1989 Moraga Red

1989 Moraga Red
Winemaker’s Tasting Notes 

The 1989 Moraga is truly an auspicious first release.  This is a wine in the Napa and Bordeaux tradition of Cabernet based wines whose structure and intensity make them worthy of extended cellaring. 

Moraga is unique in ways which yield a taste unlike any other.  It’s as if one could sense the effects of the gentle microclimate and the soil; porous sandstone over a strata of limestone abounding with fossils from an ancient sea bed. Certainly these characteristics contribute to the “signature” of the place and the wine we call Moraga.

The wine is a dark ruby color and has a wide array of aromatic sensations suggestive of blackberry and plum fruits, lavender and jasmine floral scents and many other nuances such as tobacco, cedar, mocha and vanilla.  Texturally, the wine is both silky and chewy showing a gentle initial feel followed by a firm backbone of tannin and acidity.  Ultimately, it is the concentration and persistence of flavor that make the wine fascinating to drink now as well as insuring its continuing development in the bottle.

Tony Soter, Winemaker
May, 1993