Palate

Impenetrably dark purple in the glass exudes aromas of ripe bramble berry with hints of menthol. Upfront, meaty Syrah texture and dark fruit combine with great structural tannins and juicy acidity to create a perfectly balanced yet complex mouthfeel.

Growing Conditions

The 2019 Moose is a showcase for the Syrah from our 2.65-acre block 8 clone 99 Syrah planted in 2002. This block is planted on an extremely steep section of our estate; thus, the limestone is exposed with almost no top soil. The resulting fruit is a prime example of what farming on high pH (9.2) soils can produce. We blended in Petit Verdot from our head trained block 15. 2019 was a vintage built for blends. With wide ranging states of ripeness in the vineyard, blending these 2 varietals allowed us to precisely balance all the nuances of the vintage.

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 12 days on skins. The tanks were pressed and 50% racked into a new French Oak tank, 20% into Gamba and Fouially barrels. The remaining 30% was aged in neutral French barrels. Aged for 19 months with no racking until being pumped out for bottling.