About Ampelos Vineyard - Located in the cool Santa Rita Hills AVA this vineyard is owned by our freinds Peter and Rebecca Work. The vineyard uses Biodynamic farming practices and is undergoing Organic certification. We have a small block of Syrah in this vineyard that produces extremely small berrys that yield maximum concentration.
About the wine....
The 2006 Ampelos Vineyard Syrah is again the biggest, thickest, chewiest, deepest and most primary syrah of the vintage. It has no new oak, yet gobs of tannin. The best designated syrah of the vintage. Only three barrels of this wine were made from first year fruit. This powerful wine is balanced, dark and complete. Made one new French and two older French oak barrels. (120 cases produced) - we wish we had more....
• This is our second vintage of wine from this promising new vineyard.
• This is Syrah from the sandy loam of Peter and Rebecca Work’s hillside planting in the Santa Rita Hills appellation. This vineyard will be a force in the years to come – watch out for it.
• Ampelos Vineyard harvested October 7th at 26.6 brix, 3.3 pH, 1.2 TPA.
• The fruit was stemmed but not crushed. Intact, whole berries were placed in small bin boxes for fermentation.
• Inoculated with Williams-Selyem yeast.
• Fermented on the skins for 14 days as individual lots in small bin boxes after a 48 hour cold soak.
• Went through ML fermentation, completing in January.
• Racked in July, and again prior to bottling.
• Unfined and lightly filtered.
• Bottled in August 2007.
Food Pairing: This is a highly flavored wine which works well with similarly flavorful food. Try dark sauces, even some with dark fruit. Makes a great reduction sauce. Try spiced or BBQ pork, lamb, or beef. Slow roasted short-ribs in syrah reduction cannot be beat. Seared, spiced Ahi is a favorite, as is smoked salmon.