Tooth & Nail is one of four brands from Rabble Wine Company, the others being Rabble, Stasis, and Amor Fati. Rabble was founded by Rob Murray, a longtime wine grower with a vineyard-first mindset. The company has relied on four vineyards for more than 10 years, carefully overseeing all aspects of farming.
The Tooth & Nail estate vineyard is in the Willow Creek District of Paso Robles , California. about halfway between Santa Barbara to the south and Carmel to the north. It occupies rolling slopes at the base of the Santa Lucia mountains. The gravelly soils feature the type of limestone-rich ingredients found in some of the world’s greatest winegrowing regions. The vineyard spans 10 acres, including 20-year-old Cabernet Sauvignon vines and newer plantings of a Tempranillo clone from Rioja; a Malbec clone from Bordeaux; and a head-trained block of Mourvedre. The second vineyard, Murmur, is southwest from the winery and over the mountains, just 13 miles from the Pacific Ocean. Murray personally planted this vineyard and knows it intimately. The final two vineyards, Mossfire and Armour Ridge, are in the Estrella District, about 10 miles north of Paso Robles on Highway 101.
Winemaker Jeremy Leffert offered, “My approach is to treat everything with such care that it’s almost transparent and you hear this voice from the vineyard.” He is tries to avoid what he calls “the dominance of the winemaker’s hand,” so that vineyard expression must only be accentuated, and never obstructed.
A note about the bottle label. Rabble prides itself on striking and extravagant labels, and these are no exception. (There is even an augmented reality app available for smart phones that adds audio to the labels. Radical.) Each one features a reproduction of a drawing from the pen of naturalist James John Audubon, where he captured birds and animals of the early 1800s fighting “tooth and nail” to survive, and a quote from his notebooks that inspired the name of each wine.
Tooth & Nail The Possessor 2016
69% Cabernet Sauvingnon
15% Merlot
10% Petit Syrah
6% Syrah
This selection is an inky brick red, has a nose of dark berries and roast plum, and clocks in at about 14.5% ABV. The wine presents flavors of dark berries and roast plum aromas, coupled with currants and cassis, and a hint of sweet cherry and dust. These are supported by bright acidity, and the wine ends with a firm finish and lingering tannins.
Audubon depicts two red-tailed hawks fighting to become the sole possessor.
For my review of two Rabble-brand wines, click here.
www.rabblewine.com/wines/#tooth-and-nail-wines