The single estate vineyard ARK is located just outside St. Helena, California, at the base of Howell Mountain. It was originally planted in the 1880's, but was sadly lost to Prohibition. It took us five years to rebuild; she is our pride and joy. The ARK is comprised of nine different blocks of Cabernet Sauvignon, planted meter by meter in nine different volcanic soil strata. The vineyard stretches through a sixty million year time sequence; three ancient beach fronts, a prehistoric weapons quarry, and spans a 180 degree arc of the sun over its half-mile length. Hot afternoon sun known to damage aromatics in the fruit (on the hottest days), is blocked by the shade of Glass Mountain (named for the rare obsidian rock found in the soil and used for ancient weapons such as arrowheads) which rises to the western side of the ARK. As with all of our vineyards, we pick only when the fruit is perfectly ripe; this doesn't always happen at once. It is common for us to make multiple passes through the vineyard, picking different clusters from the same vines as they reach perfect maturity. This attention to detail is critical to making a wine the caliber of Hundred Acre.