Stix

The legendary Alexander Valley is notorious for producing some of the most complex Cabernet Sauvignon in the New World. With hot days and cool nights, the grapes from this winegrowing region develop balanced acids and thick skins by harvest, resulting in rich soft tannins and superior color. We farm our Alexander Valley vineyards with these climate conditions in mind. By managing the canopies correctly, we encourage smaller berries, resulting in a high skin to juice ratio. With these little berries we can take advantage of the excellent fruit tannins and color the vines produce. We’ve planted Cabernet clones best suited to grow superior wine grapes for the climate and soil conditions. For our Alexander Valley Cabernet, we use mostly Cabernet Sauvignon clones 7 and 337. These clones yield smaller clusters and high quality grapes. Alison Crowe has been making wine since 1995 and is the Director of Winemaking for Napa-based Plata Wine Partners, LLC. Crafting lots of wine from such premiere appellations as Russian River, Alexander Valley, Napa Valley and Santa Barbara County, Alison brings the vineyard directly to the client, from large nationally-distributed wineries as well as hot start-up brands. She got her start in the cellars of Chalone Vineyard and Curtis Winery, made wine at Bonny Doon Vineyard for four and a half years and consulted during the 2005 harvest with Michel Rolland at Bodegas Salentein in Mendoza, Argentina. In addition to her winemaking, which takes her around the state of California, Alison also sits on the steering committees of the Wine Industry Financial Symposium and Central Coast Insights Symposium. Alison is also a technical wine writer with frequent contributions to Vineyard & Winery Management, WineMaker and Wine Business Monthly magazines. Her first book, The Wine Maker’s Answer Book, was published by Storey Publishing in September 2007. Alison is a graduate of both the Viticulture & Enology and the Spanish departments at UC Davis and received her MBA with the UC Davis Graduate School of Management in June 2010.

Region: Alexander Valley, CA

Wines:
STIX Cabernet Sauvignon 2010