There are a multitude of superlatives being used to describe the 2023 Napa Valley vintage, and while we like to avoid hyperbole, it’s not a stretch to say that our experience of this vintage was one of the most joyful in quite some time.
The best growing seasons give us the least to talk about, no drama, just smooth sailing. 2023 was that kind of blessedly uneventful season across the Napa Valley. It began with above-average rainfall, replenishing reservoirs and erasing drought conditions. Budbreak came on the later side due to all that rain, but the trade-off was an extra month or more of hang time on the other end.
Patience was key. Once we got past a certain date on the calendar with no intense heat events, we felt confident de-leafing the cooler side of the vines. Another heat milestone passed, and we’d exhale and de-leaf the afternoon side of the canopy as well. So it went, making little tweaks to the clusters and a series of micro passes as the days got shorter using every last hour to ripen the fruit to our liking; 2023 afforded us that luxury.
We harvested the Policy Estate Vineyard on October 21, bringing in a sizable yield. Our farming is so dialed in it feels like a Goldilocks story every vintage. Whatever the crop size, weather story, or other aspects of the season, the wines from this vineyard just get better and better. Part of that is vine age. Another part is continuous improvement and maniacal focus on quality: the team has been working this site for two decades, growing and making the wine better every year.
Winemaking & Tasting Notes
2023 gave us a big crop with big berries, yet the fruit was so fully developed it extracted easily, without super high sugars. We selected the best barrels of Clone 7 for the 2023 Pulido~Walker Policy Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, landing on a total of eight barrels, six of which were new at bottling. Once again it was the Clone 7 block planted closer to the house that most impressed us. We always assumed the blocks farther away, with their rockier and less hospitable soil would prevail—but this close block has definitely become the high-water mark.
This wine has all the best traits of its valley floor location: it is fruit forward, with balanced black and red fruits and a pleasing savoriness that distinguishes it from wines grown further up-valley. It exhibits a distinct sense of place. Ever the charmer, this vintage of the Policy Estate is particularly beguiling and will drink well upon release as well as age beautifully.
Thomas Rivers Brown, Winemaker
Data
Estate Grown
Varietal: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon
Clone: 7
Aging: 20 months in 100% French oak (80% new barrels)
Barrel Coopers: Baron, Darnajou, La Grange, and Taransaud
Alcohol: 14.9% by vol.
Titratable Acidity: 5.5 g/L
pH: 3.9
Bottling Date: June 2025
Production: 248 Cases
Site
Appellation: Yountville, Napa Valley
Acreage: 9 acres between the Mayacamas and Vaca mountain ranges, on State Lane north of Kapscándy Family Winery
