Dos Lagos Vineyards owners Tom and Marcie Dinkel

Dos Lagos Vineyards is the latest of several notable mountain cabernet sauvignon wines Foley has been making for over 25 years including Pride Mountain and Paloma from Spring Mountain and his own label Robert Foley Vineyards from Howell Mountain.  Foley has been farming on the “eastern ridge” for over twenty years and made his name as winemaker at Pride on the “western ridge” for 15 (as well as owning blocks on Mount Veeder and Diamond Mountain) so he understands the potential power and density of cabs growing at high elevation, rocky sites probably better than anyone else.

Foley came in partway through production of the 2007’s but his mark on the final product is signature. Atlas Peak AVA is known for its brawn, but with the inaugural 2007 Dos Lagos Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon ($125) Foley reigns in the power. It is highly structured, but with finesse, the finely etched tannins bringing the clarity of the vibrant black fruit forward. Foley goes to the peak without going over, with the wine full-bodied but not hot, and managing the amount of new oak to give just enough richness and subtlety. Foley believes in “lots of new French oak” but not 100% of the time, cycling the wine in new and neutral oak barrels to achieve the best balance in the wine and allowing the purity, concentration and freshness of mountain cabernet sauvignon to shine through. Mountain cab lovers will find the wine ready to drink and perfect with grilled meats but the wine has plenty of structure and fruit to cellar. There were about 120 cases of the 2007’s produced, with the 08’s and 09’s expected to reach 150 and 180 cases respectively.

Dos Lagos Vineyards is the life passion of owners Marcie and Tom Dinkel. When they first came across Dos Lagos Vineyards they loved it but couldn’t justify the price at the time and purchased a property in Healdsburg instead. They grew zinfandel vines which, while not making great wine according to Marcie, a life coach by profession, “had great self-esteem”. Fortuitously after two years, they discovered that Dos Lagos was still on the market at a lower price. Even then, Tom had to crunch the numbers to make sure it would work and feels lucky to have received advice from the well-respected viticultural consultant Ed Weber before he passed away unexpectedly and too young at the end of 2007. Ed told him “Tom, you would be crazy not to buy this vineyard.”  The Dinkels believe it was also the quality of the site and fruit that attracted Bob Foley to take on the winemaking duties, his first new label in over a decade.  The four acres of vineyards are situated at 1,650 foot elevation on rocky, volcanic soils on mostly south and south-east facing slopes. There are two small lakes on the property whose images are depicted on the label created by Marcie. She plans to create a new label for every vintage. They also recently built a new “green” home which is a natural extension of Tom’s career building green technology businesses.

The Dinkels have always loved fruit-driven, structured reds and they seem to have found the perfect formula in Dos Lagos Vineyards and Bob Foley.

The inaugural 2007 Dos Lagos Vineyard wines are available through the website or through 750wines in Saint Helena, CA.