Time flies when you’re having fun, and drinking wine. The 2008 Artistry, our signature Bordeaux blend, is no more and we are excited to announce the release of 2009 Girard Artistry available immediately at our tasting room and on the web site!
Delightful Vintage
The 2009 season was pretty awesome all the way through for just about anyone growing any type of grapes in the Napa Valley. Rainfall was light, relatively speaking, totaling about 75% of a normal year being consistent with the previous 3 vintages. There wasn’t much frost to deal with early in the year (compared to the month long frost issues experienced in 2008) and the entire season was relatively cool, allowing grapes to slowly and more completely develop outstanding flavors, phenolic maturity and ripeness.
Wine is an Art
Glen Hugo, Winemaker
Artistry is Girard’s flagship wine and for the longest time was simply labeled as a red wine. In 2003, the name “Artistry” was designated for this wine to represent the fact that every vintage begins as a blank canvas and allows our winemakers to apply the brush strokes of each Bordeaux variety with the goal of creating the best blend possible for that year. Artistry is a true representation of the art of blending and winemaking using the best fruit possible from Napa Valley culminating two years later in a wine that will lead to years of enjoyment in the bottle.
The 2009 Girard Artistry presents aromas of toasted hazelnuts and festive Christmas spices. Boysenberries and currants saturate the palate along side flavors of exotic bing cherries. Well-structured tannins round out this vintage with a beautiful, tobacco and spice finish. Enjoy this wine with your favorite cut of meat or a tasty spaghetti with marinara.
Our grapes were hand sorted and gently crushed. We used native yeast for fermentation and the wine underwent malolactic fermentation in the barrel. After primary fermentation the wine went through an extended maceration period to soften the tannins. The wine was aged 22 months in 50% new French oak and 50% once-used French oak and then bottled unfined and unfiltered.
The Blend
- 56% Cabernet Sauvignon
- 15% Cabernet Franc
- 11% Petite Verdot
- 10% Merlot
- 8% Malbec
Case Production: 5000
Please share with us your thoughts on Bordeaux blends you enjoy, the 2009 Napa vintage or other thoughts on wine in general in the comments below. Cheers!
Would love to see one of my paintings of roses on a bottle of “Artistry.” Please visit http://www.carolynblakeslee.com/Florals.htm
Hi Carolyn, love those paintings! You are pretty talented with the brush. You know, we don’t do custom or personalized labels on our wines, however, there may be a possibility of an additional etched design (in addition to the Artistry labels) that could be done. We have a partnership with a great in-house etching facility that could do this… if you are interesting, we could look into this for you.
Cheers!
Thanks for your kind comments.
This does sound interesting! Actually, I wasn’t asking about a personalized label for myself, but was offering to let you use my artwork on your labels.
Carolyn,
Oh, I didn’t follow at first ; ) That would be pretty cool and we love your touch… our branding requirements as well as federal regulatory process to submit new labels probably inhibits us a bit in doing something like this. We have passed your information to the Girard brand manager too.