Vineyard Notes
What formally was known as our Block 6 Estate Syrah has evolved into Devil’s Canyon over the past few years. The vines here survive on what is our steepest, chalkiest, and warmest section of all our plantings. The reputation of this block grew not only because sampling of it is typical used as punishment for any cellar transgressions, but also for the remarkable quality of the fruit produced. The unique combination of exposed limestone soil, direct Southwest facing exposure, and over 45% gradient combine to create a wonderfully rich and complex expression of Syrah.
Winemaker Notes
2011 was a cool vintage, as summer temperatures remained almost exclusively in the 80’s. This allowed for much longer hang time in Devil’s Canyon, with picking taking place in mid October, where it is usually picked right around September 1st. Harvested by hand, the clusters were destemmed and hand sorted before being gravity fed uncrushed into 2-ton open top stainless tanks. Due to bigger than usual tannins, the typical cold soak was avoided and fermentation was allowed to begin immediately. During primary fermentation, we used a gentle routine of 2 daily punch downs and a delestage every 5th day. The ferments spent a total of 25-29 days on skins. The completed ferments were gently pressed and racked directly to barrel. The wine was racked once on completion of malolactic fermentation and a small amount of Estate Block 7 Cabernet was blended in to add a touch more structure. The tannin in the skins was very course and powerful in youth, thus the need for additional oak tannin from cooperage was lessened. Thus the 2011 Syrah saw about half as much new oak as is typical for our vineyard with only 15% new oak used. A long 31 month ageing was called for to give this wine adequate time to evolve and bring the tannin and fruit into balance.
Production Notes
380 Cases Produced
Other Notes
95% Syrah, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon
