Napa Valley

Grape Source: Syrah- Babcock Vineyard, Green Valley

                                      Presenti Vineyard, Green Valley

                          Petite Sirah- Chavez-Leeds Vineyard Rutherford

                          Cabernet Sauvignon- Rasmussen Home Vineyard, St. Helena

                                                              Gordon Ranch, Napa

Varietal Blend   Syrah with a small percentage of each Petite Sirah and Cabernet Sauvignon

Barrels: A Blend of French and American Oak Barrels

Bottling Date   August 11, 2003

Notes:

Syrah has long been one of my favorite grapes.  I have worked with Syrah in South Africa and Australia in addition to making Ramsay Syrah since 1988.  This wine is a marvelously rich and elaborately elegant Syrah.  Making up this rather eclectic blend of Syrah with small amounts of Petite and Cabernet was fun.  The Syrah wine was near perfect; rich, fruity, meaty and dense--but also slightly too tannic. Blending in a small amount of Petite Sirah gave the wine a bigger “fleshier” aspect, and the Cabernet added a bit of “backbone” without increasing the astringency at all. The wine simply came together after the blend.  This is certainly one of the best Syrahs I have made.

Describing a wine like this is always a joy--there is so much in the wine that the senses are almost overwhelmed.  The color is a deep, clear purple-red.  The nose is packed with brambles, blackberries and tobacco.  These aromas carry through into the mouth, but here the wine really opens up and presents all sorts of subtleties; vanilla, celery seed, kid leather and cassis.