The Quicksilver Vineyard lies on the western Rutherford bench, in the acclaimed winegrowing area on Bella Oaks Lane. The soils are predominantly well-drained loams that produce vines of moderate size. These older vines were planted to the California sprawl system, with wider spacing and a divided canopy, giving great exposure to the fruit. Minimal irrigation is needed to obtain maximum fruit potential from this vineyard.

An ideal 2012 growing season with warm days and cool, foggy nights offered the perfect conditions for fruit and tannin maturity. There were no heat spikes this year, so flavor development was at its peak. This was our first opportunity to work with this vineyard, so we pulled leaves in the center of the divided canopy to give adequate exposure and acclimate the clusters to the warm summer sun. We adjusted the crop according to vine size to maximize grape development and ripening. This vineyard was night harvested in late October as the cool weather progressed and the berries started to soften.