2019 Doren Cabernet Sauvignon

Doren Wines was created in 2010 by Alluvial Wines co-founder, Ben Doren when he crafted his first vintage of Cabernet Sauvignon from a small family vineyard in Kenwood (Sonoma Valley). A decade later in 2020 he added the delicate & quaffable, Josie Rosé, to the program. Doren focuses on meticulous farming by hand, practicing organic methods. Farming is managed without the use of tractors, or chemicals, such as herbicides, pesticides and fungicides. Bringing the highest quality grape crop possible into the San Francisco urban winery for vinification allows for native fermentations (Cabernet), non-manipulative winemaking, and very low SO2 levels.

Vintage: The 2019 growing season was as close to ideal as one can imagine. Record rainfall in the winter, followed by a cool spring threatened to push back harvest, while the summer growing season saw ideal temperatures allowing for the grapes to ripen evenly to perfect maturity. Yields were down 10% from usual and the grapes were packed with good flavor and balance. 2019 marks our 10th vintage of Doren Cabernet Sauvignon and we’ve updated our label to celebrate this milestone. Over the next few vintages we’ll incorporate flora and fauna representative of the vineyards and surrounding landscape’s natural beauty. This year’s addition of an olive leaf is symbolic of the olive trees residing on both of our vineyard sites. Also new for 2019 we’ve adapted an eco-friendly bottle that uses 50% less glass and requires significantly less fossil fuel burning to transport when compared to a typical premium bottle, helping to reduce our carbon footprint and preserve our environment so that you can continue to enjoy Doren Cabernet for many years to come.

Vineyard: Doren Cabernet Sauvignon is born in our family’s petite ½ acre vineyard located in Kenwood, California in the heart of the Sonoma Valley. Starting with the 2016 vintage, we also vinify Cabernet grapes from the similarly sized Sobre Vista vineyard, about 10 minutes up the road, in Glen Ellen. Both vineyards are organically farmed with minimal human intervention. We farm keeping the ultimate level of respect for our land and use sustainable practices in our vineyards to keep the soils viable now and into the future. Our commitment to keeping the vineyards free from chemicals and anything toxic transcends the crop itself. 

Winemaking: The grapes were harvested by hand on October 10th starting in the cool pre-dawn hours, at approximately 24 brix, and immediately trucked to the urban winery in San Francisco. The grapes were then hand sorted, and de-stemmed. After a four-day cold soak with twice daily punch downs the wine spontaneously started fermentation. A long, slow maceration and fermentation occurred over the next fourteen days, before the free run wine was gravity drained and berries were lightly pressed into barrel on October 28th. Five premium French oak barrels were used, equating to 20% second use, 20% third use and 60% neutral French oak, and our 2019 cab matured in barrel gracefully for the next thirty-one months. After racking from barrel on May 13th 2022, the finished wine from individual barrels was allowed to integrate in stainless steel tank for two months prior to being botted unfined and unfiltered on July 7th, 2022. In bottle the wine was allowed to rest and further integrate for eleven additional months before before release. Doren Cabernet is vegan friendly, there’s no use of animal products in its production.