Hester Creek 2020 The Judge Red Blend 750ml

This vintage of The Judge leads with aromas of anise, sagebrush, toasty caramel and dark chocolate. Ripe cherry and caramel lead to a full, round palate of Stella cherries, eucalyptus and cocoa with a lengthy finish. Pair The Judge with a BBQ rib eye or a roasted beet torte.

For the 2020 vintage of The Judge, we incorporated five varietals to the blend. Each varietal came from our historic Golden Mile Bench estate property, was hand harvested and cold soaked for 48 hours prior to inoculation. As an earlier ripening varietal, harvest began with our Block 2 Old Vine Merlot, which was fermented separately using an extended maceration in our Ganimede fermentation tanks, then gently pressed before undergoing malolactic fermentation. The Petit Verdot and Malbec were harvested on October 20th, cold soaked and co-fermented. Our Cabernet Franc was harvested on October 29th, followed by the Cabernet Sauvignon on November 1st. After a secondary fermentation, the lots were blended and put into both new and neutral French oak barrels for 24 months of aging.

-- Winemaker