Notes from Hiyu:

"We just released the first vintage of Draco; two barrels from a half acre parcel on a gently sloping plateau, with views of the mountain, in the NE corner of the farm. Bordeaux varieties occupy an important place in our imagination. We spent years reflecting on how they might express themselves on our alpine site. The process began with taste and memory, as flavors from remarkable bottles swirled in our head. We were never going to make a wine with the opulence of a hillside Napa Valley Cabernet or coastal Tuscan Merlot, so it was an amalgam of more aromatic, detailed, but still hedonistic bottles that inspired this wine: ethereal and almost Burgundian bottles of Chateau Lafleur from cooler vintages; the long-lived, limestone-born Cabernet Francs of Clos Rougeard; and more esoteric bottles from Collio. We took a similar approach to planting this parcel as we took for Aedin and Feis, using ancient varieties from the Southwest of France to add aromatic and textural nuance. Then, instead of basing the field around Cabernet, we focused on heirloom clones of Cabernet Franc and Merlot. 

The parcel itself is a half-acre and produces two to three barrels a year. It's located on the fence line in the Northeast corner of the farm, adjacent to Noctua. Alongside Crataegus and Sun Dog, it is always one of the last parcels to ripen. The cool nature of the 2019 vintage played to the wine’s more delicate and aromatic tendencies. It's 11.5% alcohol, the texture is extremely fine, and the perfume is dispersed in a way that has more in common with Burgundy or Barolo than what one would normally expect from these grapes. The flavors themselves are classic: perfectly ripe purple plum, tobacco leaf warmed in the sun, and a freshly split log of cedar lying alongside the tips of some of its aromatic spring needles."