2007 Santa Barbara County Syrah
The 2007 Santa Barbara County Syrah combines fruit from most of the vineyards we work with. As usual, it is big and bold, and clearly more than the sum of its parts. This year’s vintage has a little Petite Sirah blended in to add power and complexity. It is a serious, dark, powerful wine that is approachable in its youth. Sharing the same farming and winemaking techniques as our vineyard designated wines, it is a wine of great complexity and lower price. (924 cases produced)
• This wine includes fruit from the Tierra Alta, Verna’s, and Hampton vineyards. Individual barrels from Thompson and Larner Vineyards were also included.
• In addition, a few barrels of Thompson Vineyard Petite Sirah were included to round out the flavors.
• Larner Syrah harvested October 30th (Clone 174 26.1 brix, 3.4 pH, Clone 383 24.1 brix, 3.3 pH)
• Verna’s Vineyard Syrah harvested between October 23rd (Clone 174, 26.5 brix, 3.4 pH) (Clone 877, 25.8 brix, 3.3 pH).
• Tierra Alta, Estrella Clone syrah harvested October 23rd, 26.2 brix, 3.6 pH.
• Thompson Vineyard Syrah harvested October 24th at 26.0 brix, 3.35 pH.
• Thompson Vineyard Petite Sirah harvested November 11th (25.0 brix, 3.5 pH)
• No Viognier was added to this wine.
• The fruit was stemmed but not crushed. Intact, whole berries were placed in small bin boxes for fermentation.
• RC212, D254, PDM, and W.S. yeast used.
• Fermented on the skins for 14 days as individual lots in small bin boxes. Cold soaked for 48 hours before primary fermentation was initiated,
• Went through ML fermentation, completing in April
• Slightly less than one quarter of the barrels used for aging were new, and the rest were older. Roughly half of the barrels were made of American oak. The rest were French oak.
• Wine was racked in July, and again before bottling.
• Unfined and lightly filtered.
• Bottled in August 2008.
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.