The Leaf Cabernet Sauvignon
Obsidian Ridge Vineyard sits at nearly 3,000 feet on the side of a volcano. The combination of climate, altitude and volcanics results in a vineyard that is an adventure in extreme winemaking. Each season is unique, teaching us to work with whatever nature throws in our path. Observing. Adjusting. Discovering. Some years, the lessons are tough.
On one particularly difficult day years ago, we were walking among lush vines weighed with beautiful clusters of ripe Cabernet Sauvignon that would never become wine. Overhead, smoke and ash drifting from distant fires blocked the sun, and a single silver leaf floated gracefully to the ground at our feet.
A thing of terrible beauty—flash-carbonized in an instant—we captured it in a photo that has since become a talisman, a work of art that reminds us of the impermanence of all things, and compels us to appreciate nature's magnificent beauty wherever we find it.
The Leaf is a wine inspired by this understanding. A wine that can only be made in a rare vintage, when pristine fruit of natural balance can ferment and age undisturbed for two years in a single 1,000-liter Hungarian oak cask.
It took us 25 years to make the first vintage of The Leaf in 2019. Three years later, after some of the hardest years we've known, 2022 was damn near perfect. Obsidian 2022 The Leaf is now available, in 750ml and 1.5L magnums.
Fire Leaf: Photograph by Hannah Henry
