Winemaker Notes | Sonoma Mountain Red is a blend of wines that showcases the diverse and healthy environment in and around the Benziger Family Estate - of 73% Cabernet Sauvignon, 14% Petit Verdot, 9% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc. This wine is made with the most traditional hands-on methods. The grapes were hand sorted in the vineyard, fermented in small tanks and serviced by hand with love and care. Native yeast and malolactic bacteria were employed throughout. The wine was aged for 18 months in French oak - about 30% of the barrels were brand new - and bottled in May of 2005.

Benziger History | Twenty-five years ago, Mike and Mary Benziger first drove up Sonoma Mountain and
saw the overgrown ranch that would become Benziger Family Winery. They purchased the land with the help of Mike’s father, Bruno Benziger, a wine and spirits importer from New York. A year later, Bruno and his wife Helen, along with their two youngest children (Chris and Kathy), moved west to help start the winery. Mike’s siblings, Bob, Joe and Jerry Benziger and Patsy Benziger-Wallace soon joined the family in Glen Ellen. Today, more than two-dozen Benzigers live on and around the estate winery in Sonoma County and eight family members actively produce and sell Benziger wines.

Benziger Farming Practices | Benziger’s Sonoma Mountain estate was the first certified Biodynamic®
vineyard in Napa and Sonoma. In addition to their Sonoma Mountain estate, Benziger sources grapes from a long established network of local wine growers. Knowing sustainable farming practices lead to more distinctive flavors in wines, Benziger Family Winery has launched a high-level sustainable farming program. The program, Farming for Flavors™, challenges the wine industry to make wines of distinction and that are more environmentally responsible. This is a commitment that has been 10 years in the making and demands all Benziger growers act at a higher level of sustainable farming than required by any other winery or wine industry standard.
 

2003 Sonoma Mountain Red
Alcohol 14.5%, Total Acidity .58, pH 3.76, Residual Sugar .16%, 965 Cases Produced