2003 Black & Blue 750ml

$40.00

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As the man who was Kind of Blue said, “never play anything straight.”
- Havens 2003 Black & Blue back label

As a winemaker who is known for not playing anything straight (shades of his Bourriquot and Albariño wines and his early focus on Carneros for Merlot and Syrah), Michael Havens offers Black & Blue 2002. A Cabernet-Syrah blend, Black & Blue is Havens’ 10th anniversary return of a wine originally made in 1992 for Manfred Krankl, then proprietor of Campanile Restaurant and La Brea Bakery in Los Angeles.

While Cabernet-Syrah blends are quite common in Australia, these are not Havens’ model for Black & Blue. Rather, it is a more exotic, structured, and singular wine -- this from the rocky, breezy hills of Provence.

Our little vineyard on Hoffman Lane, just under seven acres, is planted to Syrah (5.1 acres) and Cabernet Sauvignon (1.7 acres). When we decided to make the “Black & Blue ten-years-later” blend, we found these two wines a perfect complement: the Cabernet’s richness and soft tannins were complemented by the spicy, exotic notes of the Syrah. As a 50/50 blend, they offered a good expression of the vintage’s richness, but with a decidedly wild element from the Syrah.

The 2003 Black & Blue offers a load of sweet fruit and balancing spice. But it will no doubt age into something even more exotic and subtle with years in the bottle; ten years from vintage should be really interesting. It’s a variation on a theme most wine lovers have heard, the Napa Valley Cabernet theme, but it’s played a little differently, more wild and haunting.