By Bruce Neyers

Wednesday 2nd March, 2022

In the March 31, 2022 issue of the Wine Spectator, there was a section devoted to recently released bottlings of Cabernet Sauvignon from the Napa Valley. Our 2018 ÂME Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon was included, and the wine was given a score of 93 POINTS. Here’s what they had to say:

Neyers Vineyards 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon ÂME Vineyard

“This has the profile of the vintage down pat, delivering a beam of focused and dense cassis, plum, and black cherry reduction notes that cruise along, while flashes of alder and sweet tobacco peak through. Ripe and solid, with a harnessed feel throughout. Best from 2023 through 2033. 277 cases made.” 93 POINTS – James Molesworth

The Neyers ÂME Vineyard is a three-acre parcel on our Conn Valley Ranch. The vines were planted by Dave Abreu in 1999. The vine spacing is 3’ X 6’ with 2420 vines per acre. We used 420A and 3309 rootstock, then budded with scion material from Abreu’s Thorvilas Vineyard. They’re trained in bilateral cordon, then vertically trellised. The parcel starts at 800 feet elevation and rises to almost 1000 feet, our highest elevation vines. The slope is 45 degrees in some parts, and faces due south. The rows run east to west across the face of the slope, so sun exposure is maximized on the south side of the vines. The soil was topped with a thick deposit of Basalt, or compacted volcanic ash. It was broken up by Buddy Meyer working a Caterpillar D8. In 2018, we harvested a crop of about 3 tons/acre on October 21.