Hope

2016 Syrah/Grenache

Sta. Rita Hills

Sta. Rita Hills is known for fog and coastal breezes.  This is what allows the grapes to ripen slowly and make fantastic wines.  Harvest began first with our estate Syrah on September 28 and ended with estate Grenache on October 8, 10 days apart.  The benefit of this is that it produces high color and flavor concentration with sugar levels between 23.5 and 25.0 brix, nice balanced fruit to work with! The fruit then spent 24 hours in a cold room to drop the temperature and avoid dry ice.  All part of the biodynamic process.  The grapes were de-stemmed and crushed into small 1 ½ ton open top fermenters, cold soaked for 6-10 days until the native yeast kicked in and fermentation started. After 7-11 days, with 2 daily punch downs fermentation was done.  The Syrah was left on the skins for 3-5 days of extended maceration after which we drained the free-run juice (~75%) and gave the remainder a gentle press.  Over time and from experimentation we have learned that the Grenache can pick up too much tannin from the skins – we now get it from the skins before the primary fermentation is done. The wines were racked into oak barrels and allowed for the native malolatic fermentation to begin. The barrels we not racked during aging and the wine is unfined and unfiltered.

Charred carne asada and rich spice, thick blackberry jam on crisp toast points, fresh baked cherry cobbler and french vanilla ice cream, the “sum” of great grapes from our cold climate vineyard, a great example of Chateauneuf-du-Pape meets Sta. Rita Hills!