2007 SYRAH “CENTRAL COAST”This wine is 98% Syrah and 2% Grenache from both Santa Barbara County (67%) and San Luis Obispo County (33%). The breakdown of appellations is Santa Ynez Valley (SYV) 33%, Santa Barbara County (SBC - not in an AVA) 30%, Santa Maria Valley (SMV) 4%, Paso Robles (PR) 32%, and Edna valley (EV) 1% (first crop off our new Sawyer Lindquist Vineyard). The vineyards used, in order of percentage with their AVA, are (and only real wines geeks should read the rest of this sentence): French Camp (PR); Mesa Verde (SYV); Los Alamos (SBC); Chabot (SBC); Carriage (PR); Vogelzang (SYV); Bien Nacido (SMV); Alisos (SBC); Windmill (SYV); Colson Canyon (SBC); Demetria (SYV); Nielson (SMV); and Purisima Mountain (SYV)… that's 17 different vineyards from 5 different AVA's!
The wine is essentially a blend of cool-climate Santa Barbara grapes and warm-climate Paso Robles grapes. The cool-climate fruit gives spice, acidity and balanced alcohol while the warm-climate fruit give softness, roundness, ripeness and more up-front fruit flavors and aromas.
2007 was a fairly cool vintage, in general. The first grapes in this wine to ripen were from French Camp on September 5th, the last were grenache from the Sawyer Lindquist Vineyard on November 5th… that's two full months apart for anyone keeping track! All of the lots were fermented separately, and aged separately, at first, in mostly neutral French oak barrels (the percent of new barrels would be less than 3%). The majority of the blend was made at the first racking in March; the final blend was made before bottling in August 2008. 20,500 cases of 750ml and 3000 cases of 375ml were produced
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