Anthill Farms Sonoma Coast Syrah 2016
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We love Syrah, and we have a particular soft spot for Syrah from the Sonoma Coast. While many consider the area to be marginal for proper ripening of the varietal (and, indeed, we are often picking well into November), the cool days and downright cold nights of the far coast create wines of tight focus and tense balance. We feel that the distinct aromatics and classic characteristics of these Syrahs are more than worth a bit of late picking.
The nose on the 2016 expresses straightforward and profound cherry, cassis and blueberry with hints of sage and violet. There is a supreme elegance to this wines fleshy, dark berry and floral, pastille flavors. It is a supple and fresh Syrah, with gentle tannins adding support and shape to the long, smoky, appealingly sweet finish. Once again, this wine is a stunning value. Ready to drink now and until 2022.
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Wine & Spirits
The team at Anthill Farms—Anthony Filiberti, Darren Low and Webster Marquez—met as cellar rats at Williams Selyem and later started their own label, focused on pinot noir, chardonnay and syrah from far-coast vineyards. Filiberti holds down a day job at Hirsch, and Low at The Withers—while Marquez left his post at Bluxome Street in 2015 to handle day-to-day winemaking at Anthill. They don’t make a lot of syrah, but what they do make is definite far-coast wine: This 2016 opens to pink-peppercorn spice, its fruit layering earth and animal scents into dark grape flavors, its cool tannins lending briskness and tension. If you love hiking on the Sonoma coast, this is a wine that will take you there.
Anthill Farms is an exciting project that focuses on producing exceptional Pinot Noir from a broad range of North Coast vineyards. The properties are managed with intensive and meticulous farming practices, with minimal ecological impact. As for winemaking, there are two unchanging goals: to make wines that express the growing site and the characteristics of the vintage above all else, and to make wines that, simply put, taste good. These goals require gentle handling from crushing to bottling, judicious use of oak, and, perhaps most importantly, leaving the wine alone as much as possible. “We didn’t know whether the name was really great or really dumb,” admits Anthill Farms Winery partner Webster Marquez. “It came about because we’re all winemakers and people would see us all scrambling around trying to grab the same hose at once; they said it was like watching a bunch of ants.” This trio of ants—Marquez, Anthony Filiberti and David Low—met while working at Sonoma’s Williams Selyem. Says Marquez, “We realized that we have the same approach: using Pinot Noir—the most ‘transparent’ grape in the world—to communicate the way vineyards from cooler areas create distinctive wines.” The partners themselves farm many of the small plots where they buy their grapes, and the results of this labor of love are remarkably seductive wines that combine concentration and finesse. Now that the company has grown from producing 200 cases in 2004 to 1,800 this year, the trio’s work is becoming ever more demanding. Notes Marquez, “It’s a good thing we’re young and don’t need much sleep.” –Food & Wine Magazine’s “Most Promising New Winery” 2009