Palate
Our Estate Syrah is made to showcase the depth and power of the varietal from our soil. Shows off dark and extracted in the glass. Upfront on the palate it is full of juicy blackberry, dark cocoa and tar mingling with rich fully ripe tannin.
Growing Conditions
The 2020 Estate Syrah is comprised of grapes from all 4 of our Syrah plantings. Consisting of clones of Alban, Estrella, 27, and 877, we run the gamut on the various expressions of Syrah to create a singular wine the speaks equally of place and varietal. The 2020 vintage came on slow through summer then was kicked into gear by some early fall heat. This created Syrah with a lot of tannin and structure that should make this a potentially long aging wine that will complex and evolve considerably over time.
Winemaking
The Syrah for this vintage was de-stemmed and fermented in 3.5 ton open top concrete tanks. Twice daily pump overs were performed until 70% completion of fermentation. We then, changed to gentle punch downs to ease extraction of flavors for a total of 16 days on skins. The tanks were pressed and 40% racked into a new French Gamba and Fouially barrels. The remaining 60% was aged in neutral French barrels.
Aging
Aged for 18 months with no racking and topped exclusively with Estate Grenache from block 14 to add a bit of lighter fruit to the overall structure. After racking, a bit more Estate Grenache has added to the final blend just before bottling.
Food Pairing
This massive wine is built for marbled rib eye and slow smoked pork shoulder.