Nose
Aromas of cassis, black fruits, sweet tobacco and a hint of black olive.
Palate
A palate generous in its weight, with lush dark fruit, sweet oak and tobacco lifted by beautifully integrated dry tannins.
Growing Conditions
The Parmelee-Hill vineyard, planted in 1996 in south west Sonoma Valley, is owned and farmed by Steve Hill and his wife Gwen. This is the same Steve Hill who manages the famed Durell Vineyard, right next door. The fruit for this block-designate wine is from the Camp Block, a 1.5 acre parcel that sits hillside near the family’s camp site. Here, the Durell clone selection is planted on S04 Rootstock in clay loam (red/brown) soils.
Winemaking
As with all Saxon Brown wines, we emphasize gentle handling and slow fermentations followed by lengthy aging to promote wines of elegance and longevity. We harvested our Parmelee-Hill ‘Camp Block’ Syrah at about 25 Brix in the cool early morning hours. The must was cold soaked/extracted for at least three days, yeasted with a low rate of yeast – for slow fermentation – and pressed to barrel after 19 days. The wine was barreled down cloudy in new and one-year-old French oak barrels. After completion of malolactic fermentation, the wine was racked off the lees and returned back to the same barrels for an additional 10 months.
Aging
10 months in new and 1 year old French oak barrels.
Appearance
The first thing you’ll notice is the very dark and dense color, which hints at the depth and richness of the wine to come.
