94 points Wine Spectator: "A supple and alluring red, balanced by a structured core, with rich notes of raspberry, rose petal, dark tea and sandalwood that glide toward a polished finish. Drink now through 2024."
Planted on a north/northwest slope in 1986 this is the second oldest block in the vineyard. It is called the Etzel block since it faces our neighbor's (Mike Etzel) property and you can see him steaming around in his vineyard (Beaux Freres) quite clearly from most of this section. It still never ceases to amaze us how this vineyard produces such an array of flavors, textures and frameworks from the different sections. This particular block is so utterly different than anything else in the vineyard, including the younger vines planted between the older rows of the block that it still blows us away even though we are more used to it than anyone else.