Camino Cellars En Foule Cabernet Sauvignon Moon Mountain District 2018

Not all of us follow a traditional trajectory to our chosen careers, and winemaker Tadeo Borchardt certainly had an unlikely start to his wine career. While working as an elementary school teacher with 6th graders, his intrigue with wine came late in life. Despite the fulfillment of molding young minds, Tadeo found himself searching for more and eventually tried his hand at hospitality, working in a fine dining restaurant. In a twist of fate, it was here that Tadeo waited on the reputable Wells Guthrie of Dupuis Wines and mustered the courage to ask for an internship. And just like that, he was off to Sonoma to work harvest with Wells at Copain Winery.

After a few harvests with Copain, Tadeo sought new adventures in New Zealand, Italy, and France, gleaning all the vineyard and winemaking knowledge possible from his mentors with the astute determination of his previous life as a teacher. Finally, he returned to California and joined the Neyers Vineyards team as an Associate Winemaker under the esteemed Ehren Jordan, now of Failla Wines. Since his start in 2004, Tadeo has crafted Neyers wines with precision and care and still does to this day as the Winemaker.   Tadeo launched his label, CAMINO, with a flagship Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay in 2012. CAMINO is an ode to the non-traditional "path" Tadeo has followed on his wine journey, from that classroom in Arizona to his destined home in Sonoma County.

Tadeo believes wine is born in the vineyard, and the CAMINO En Foule is no exception. Walking the 50-year-old Cabernet vines, Tadeo was reminded of France's centuries-old "en foule" vineyard planting technique. The gnarly and knotted roots of this Moon Mountain District vineyard blossomed into seemingly wild and unruly head-trained canopies that gave the impression of the crowded vines once seen blanketing the Champagne region. "En foule" is a practically extinct technique wherein vines are planted "in crowds," and young shoots are bent back into the soil to create new, fruiting plants—all in the effort to produce many low-yielding vines with concentrated berries rich in flavor. At 800 - 2,000 feet in elevation, the "En Foule" vineyard's roots weave deeply into the rugged red, volcanic soil typical in this AVA. Farmed by Chuy Ordaz for the last 30 years, the vines are dutifully cared after, yet with no irrigation, which stresses the vines even further, resulting in thirsty roots that produce a concentrated yield of intensely flavored and aromatic grapes. Connection to the vines is essential to Tadeo. He visits the vineyard regularly to monitor the progress of the grapes, ramping up to once or twice a week during harvest when changes can happen in just a few days.

2018 was a dream of a vintage regarding the growing season in California. There was a perfect amount of rain in the early spring with minimal heat spikes during the regular dog days of summer, and a cooling down right at the end of harvest allowed for weeks-long additional hang time. The CAMINO team harvested the En Foule Cabernet on October 1st by hand before pressing, fermentation, and aging. After two years in barrel, the unfined and unfiltered wine was bottled and labeled with the CAMINO label which illustrates the growth path from landscape and environment to the grapes just before harvest, depicting a close-up view of one of the old, gnarled grapevine trunks. Aromas of juicy red plums, graphite, and milk chocolate entice one into the palate of fine-grained tannins with intensely perfumed notes of dark cherries, ripe black plums, and toasted vanilla. While dark and brooding, this 100% Cabernet Sauvignon is still generous with powerful aromatics and expertly woven structure. Tadeo's debut 2018 En Foule Cabernet is a testament to his style, proving a winemaker's job begins in the vineyard, and this wine is a job well done.