Punch Vineyards "Bracero" Cabernet Sauvignon 2012
(Napa Valley, California)
Regular price $100.00 Sale price $94.97 Save $5.03
About the Winery:
Bracero is made by Director of Winemaking Miguel Caratachea, from his heart, in honor his father, Conrado. As a bracero, Conrado traveled California to work the fields and orchards, which lead him to Napa Valley. Three of his sons, including the youngest, Miguel, settled here and learned to make wine from the ground up. Miguel also hosts a Sunday morning radio show in Spanish that is familiar to many vineyard and cellar hands, who in turn supply Miguel with regular insider tips on growing conditions, best sources and cellar innovations. Miguel has made many highly rated wines for other
Napa Valley producers; Punch Bracero is his chance to make one under his own family name.
To honor his father, Miguel wished to make a Napa Valley wine of the highest order. He harvested very small lots of grapes from the best vineyards he knew in 2012, high atop Diamond and Spring Mountains. The wine was made using advice learned from his brothers and his own twenty years’ experience making Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. Five of the six components from Punch’s $35 Cabernet Sauvignon blend are included in Bracero, which contains all five red Bordeaux varieties, in keeping with Napa Valley’s finest producers.
About the Wine:
Punch Bracero is the most elevated, concentrated expression of Punch’s style emphasizing:
(1) the pure flavors from the grapes
(2) velvety mouthfeel
(3) mouthwatering finish.
The wine was aged for 21 months in new French oak barrels, but the flavors and textures from the grapes dominate the wine, and will do so for ten or fifteen years.
About the Vintage:
The weather fates offered ideal growing conditions from spring through harvest, with perfect pace between. Even on the mountains there was no frost, no mildew, no rain, no rot or sunburn. A two day heat spike at the start of harvest was a mere punctuation point in the perfect growing season.
Technical Details:
95% Cabernet Sauvignon, 1% Petit Verdot, 1% Merlot, 1% Cabernet Franc, 1% Malbec
Grown predominantly on Spring Mountain and Diamond Mountain in Napa Valley
Alcohol 14.5%
Residual Sugar 0.10%
Volatile Acidity .65 g/L
Titratable Acidity 4.2g/L
pH 3.89
150 cases made
Drink 2016-2022
Winemaker: Miguel Caratachea