GOLD MEDAL, TEXSOM 2023 WINE COMPETITION

Sourced from a legendary Heritage vine producer in Northern California, this meaty, dark, ethereal Santa Barbara County Syrah hails from vineyard sites in Alisos Canyon (52%), Sta. Rita Hills (25%), and the legendary Bien Nacido Vineyard in the Santa Maria Valley (23%).

The producer only bottles a Bien Nacido Syrah and I believe these to be components or a portion of the final blend for a California Syrah program. Perhaps 2021 will see additional single vineyard designate Syrahs? I am not sure to be honest.

One thing I am sure about is that the wine is super-cool. And I mean not just cool-climate, but cool-kid winemaking by way of whole-cluster fermentation and older puncheons and demi-muids to preserve the unique sense of place each component has to offer. It offers purity of fruit and earth with little to no oak oak; instead, it showcases the spicy perfume and pretty violet aromatics of Syrah while amplifying the meaty blackberry character of its more primordial nature. The structure is iron fist/velvet glove - potent but perfectly attenuated.

The producer's Syrah bottling has been offered at $50+/bottle, but you can have this rockstar for just $17!

Dark, meaty, peppery and savory with umami notions of beef jerky, leather with a violet-led garrigue. Linear on entry offering savory plum underpinned with brown sugar leading to peppercorns, iron/iodine as it unfurls. Absolutely palate staining. As the wine gets some air, the palate becomes more generous with peppercorn and fennel haloing blackberry, plum reduction/fruitcake and scorched earth notes.

100% Syrah
Alisos Canyon (52%), Sta. Rita Hills (25%), and Santa Maria Valley (23%).
Aged 14-months in older puncheons and demi-muids 
14.4% alc
300 cases available