From high up on Mount Veeder, to the sun-drenched hillsides of Stags Leap, to the tippy-top of Spring Mountain, ACME proudly presents three incredible Cabernet Sauvignons from one of the most creative minds and cheerful spirits in the wine industry today, winemaker Aaron Pott!
Simply put, Aaron Pott is one of the coolest guys we know. On top of brightening up our shop when he comes to visit, he also brings us delicious little gems he makes from around the valley. Not too long ago we got one of those cheery visits and were able to taste through his latest releases. Being the consulting winemaker for many other wineries (Blackbird, Fisher Vineyards, Martin Estate, Perliss, Quixote), he uses his own project with his wife Claire to focus on hand crafted wines, with a focus on each individual vineyard site. All of his wines are produced in extremely small quantities. For his own brand, Aaron makes wines he enjoys drinking, not always the case when consulting for others, and yet a defining attribute of Aaron’s skill and dedication. He can bend at will to produce wines of different styles and origins depending on a client’s needs, broadening his palate and providing him many brushes with which to paint. True to Aaron’s nature, these wines are big, colorful, and extremely joyful!
A true leader in so many ways, Aaron has amassed a loyal following over the years due to his dedication to not only making amazing wines but his responsible stewardship of the land from which they’re grown. At his vineyard on Mount Veeder, lovingly named Chateauneuf-Du-Pott, organic and biodynamic farming are at the root of Aaron’s winemaking choices for POTT. This bucolic southeast facing slope sits at 1600ft of elevation and the soil is comprised of mostly sandstone and slate, something Aaron refers to as “The remnants of a cold sea”. With help from his wife Claire, they brew their own compost tea, a vital application to return nutrients to the ground which are then taken up by the vines and fed to each beautiful grape that eventually becomes a POTT wine. A thriving garden, organically fed chickens and rabbits, and all the shells from their somewhat outrageous personal oyster consumption all find themselves as part of the liquid-gold-steeped-in-nature-concoction that helps to quench the vineyard’s thirst for life.
In the cellar, Pott wines see an intense sorting process with not one but four stages of selection allowing only the purest fruit to make its way to the large oak barrel and clay amphorae fermenters. Relying on spontaneous, native yeasts and employing hand punchdowns only, long, slow macerations ensue which delicately extract tannin and intense color as well. Fermentations are constantly monitored and revaluated every day allowing for micro-adjustments based on the individual needs of each lot. After 20 months in barrel, the wines are bottled and spend up to a year at the winery before being released.
100% Cabernet Sauvignon from the Ballard Vineyard on Spring Mountain that Aaron helped to layout and plant in 2001. The mountain's cool climate gives this wine keen power and endless age-ability. Darkly colored and exotic. Blackberry, forest floor, black truffle, mint and boysenberry instantly attack from the glass. The wine is supple in the mouth with multiple layers of fruit and it is very rich and velvety. The finish is long and lingering with plum, blackberry, coffee and coconut. Pauillac meets Spring Mountain!
