The Mascot


— About —

THE LABEL

The inspiration for the label is two fold – First was The Bar Sinister, published in 1903, by Richard Harding Davis, a friend of Theodore Roosevelt’s and one of America’s greatest war correspondents, who reported from the front lines during the Boer War, the Spanish American War, and the First World War. His classic tale of a white English bull terrier called Kid had a special place in the Harlan’s upbringing; the first edition copy that once sat on the shelves of Will’s grandparents’ library became well-worn by their hands.

The second cue – and the source of The Mascot’s label – came from their family’s collection of favorite engravings. The image to which they were drawn was of a white English bull terrier named Prince that the Farmers Deposit National Bank of Pittsburgh commissioned to illustrate its stock certificates. Prince lived at the bank and stood watch there, enthusiastically greeting customers and employees alike.They think of Prince and Kid as blood brothers, akin in their attitudes of integrity, conviction, and loyalty.

 

THE 2019 VINTAGE

“Winter leading into the 2019 growing season delivered impressive rainfall (nearly 30 inches in the first four months) that lasted into May. The cool, wet spring delayed budbreak; yet this respite in a sequence of mostly arid years imbued the young vines with renewed energy. This potential for vigor required thorough and thoughtful pruning, early in the season, to ensure that energy would be most nobly directed: to maturing the fruit.

Early autumn was met with even and steady warmth, and picking commenced in mid-September and stretched across five and a half weeks. This “leisurely” approach allowed for collection of the fruit in precise, well-delineated passes, and the wine extracted from these berries confirmed our decision to, in places, wait a little longer. The wine is beautifully supple with a broadly fanned aromatic spectrum and an effortless depth of fruit. From a center point on the palate, the 2019 vintage undulates outward in all directions. Gentle, velvety swells pause and fold in on themselves, their liquid whorls of refined tannin and gratifying acidity gliding across the surface of smooth curves before retreating gradually to reveal, on the finish, the burnished dimensions beneath..”

– Notes by The Mascot