About GRAVEL PIT

The Gravel Pit vineyard is named for the high percentage of gravel found on this ranch. These gravelly soils are important for the production of red varieties because of their low water holding capacity, allowing for vine stress to control bunch and berry size. The Corning series soils at Gravel Pit are well drained due to sloping terrain and to the gravel content often associated with this soil type. Well-drained soils are important for vine health, allowing for good nutrient uptake and aeration. Like the Pheasant Farm vineyard, Gravel Pit was planted with new clones of Cabernet Sauvignon to improve diversity of grape sourcing for the Matchbook Estate Bottled Cabernet. The Heritage Clones (29 – Inglenook; 30 – Silverado) represent 23 acres for the Estate Cabernet. The clones are reported as producing some of the best Cabernets from the Napa Valley region. Also of note at Gravel Pit, Petit Verdot (clone 400) produces inky black wines that are intensity bold with good tannin and fruit character. As with Pheasant Farm, the hanging curtain trellising system was employed to minimize the bunch and berry size resulting is higher levels of extraction.