Thanks to Everybody That Helped Make Atlas Peak Wines!

As the vintage winds down I want to thank everybody that helped make Atlas Peak wines this year in our new home at the Buena Vista Carneros winery.

But before I get to this I need to explain a bit about what has transpired this year. Atlas Peak moved from our home of 20 years in Napa to the Buena Vista Carneros winery. It was difficult to leave the place that I started making Atlas Peak wines in 2002. We did not extend our lease on the facility and needed to move on and decided that it was in the best interest of the Atlas Peak brand to move our entire operation to the Buena Vista Carneros winery.

From a production standpoint, Buena Vista Carneros produces primarily Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, which ripen before Cabernet Sauvignon. Pinot Noir at Buena Vista Carneros is crafted in their state of the art winemaking facility. The "Open Top" room is lined with small fermenters that are perfect for small lot Pinot Noir production. Once the Pinot Noir is harvested, fermented, drained and pressed the tanks sit empty, so the opportunity to use these tanks again to ferment Cabernet Sauvignon is a perfect fit. And more perfect than I ever imagined.

This year we fermented 35% of our Cabernet in 10 ton fermenters, 45% in 7 ton fermenters, and 20% in 5 ton fermenters. These are great tank sizes to produce uiltra-premium Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.

A special thanks needs to go to the rest of the winemaking staff at Buena Vista Carneros. Jeff (Winemaker for Buena Vista Carneros), Jaeson (Associate Winemaker), and Anna (Assistant Winemaker). Together we make quite a team. (And the best part is that I got to stick my nose into making Pinot Noir and Chardonnay).

There are also many people to thank, so I am going to try to list them all. It is quite a big team that keeps the winery running. A big thanks to Sam and all the folks in the cellar and maintenance that keep the winery operations running. The cellar team that is led my Mario, Eron, and Panfilo. And the cellar crew of Esteban, Maria, Mario, Juan, Miguel, Rafael, Ray, Maria, Xochilt, Myra, and all the interns, Dana, Lindsay, Danny V, Paula, Danny G, and Jacquelyn. Thanks to Norm, Luis, and Ron for keeping the place running. Thanks to Debby for keeping all the records in order and to the sorting crew that stood there hour after hour making sure that every leaf and every piece of stem are removed so that we have only the highest quality of grapes going into each fermenter. A special thanks to the lab with Monica and Jose and interns Luiz and Ana who feed us all the analysis we need to make the best wines possible.

And a special thanks to Nicole, who sources amazing grapes from some of the best mountain top Napa Valley growers, which go make up our Atlas Peak Cabernet Sauvignon!

Cheers,

Darren Procsal
Winemaker
Atlas Peak