CAMi Napa Valley Red 2013Napa Valley

Last fall, Laurie Shelton and Trevor Mansfield met with us so we could taste their first vintage of CAMi. Named after their fifth child in 2001, Laurie and Tom Shelton purchased in 2000 this 5-acre property off Silverado Trail in Calistoga. David Abreu planted their Cabernet Sauvignon vines and up until 2013, the fruit was sold to local wineries. In 2006 they replanted the Cabernet Sauvignon part of the vineyard to a new rootstock and as Laurie will say, after Tom’s passing in 2008, “the grapes took on a new spirit”. It was then that Laurie decided to produce her own wine. They are now committed to producing 50% of their production which equates to roughly 150 cases. Their winemaker, John Giannini, rose through the ranks in the valley and is now Thomas Brown’s assistant winemaker at Outpost and also makes his own wine Cresta Velia in addition to CAMi. This 2013 Napa Valley Red is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot and immediately offers notes of dark fruit and cocoa. It offers incredibly round, silky tannins with a long satisfying finish. The 2013 CAMi Red Wine Blend comes from their Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard planted in 2006 on 101-14 root stock and their Merlot vineyard block planted in 1994 on Three Palms Vineyard root stock.