Winemaker Notes
The 2023 Estate Grown Syrah is a beautifully layered wine, where fresh yet expansive ripe red berries deliver vibrant energy, balanced by savory notes reminiscent of sliced, marbled meat. Its inviting, lavish purple hue is matched by chalky, fine tannins that create a refined and structured finish.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2023 Syrah Estate Grown is shaping up to be a gem. Bright and focused to the core, the 2023 offers up an exciting mélange of inky dark fruit, lavender, licorice, cloves and new leather. I especially admire its energy and overall brilliance. The Estate Syrah bodes quite well for the vintage.
Barrel Sample: 92-94 -
James Suckling
The Stolpmans' largest-production syrah offers a really vibrant blueberry and blackberry character laced with mineral and chalk notes, for which they credit the limestone soil. Full-bodied with moderate tannins. Good concentration and length.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Fermented with one-third whole clusters, the 2023 Syrah Estate exudes a lovely balance between high-toned energy and grounded depth. The nose is classically bright, savory and herbal before the palate takes a deep, darker-fruited turn, showcasing a beautiful, velvety texture supported by sturdy tannins. It finishes on a lifted yet weightless note with impressive precision.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Fresh plums, blueberries, ground pepper, violets, and some gamey, gunflint notes all define the aromatics of the 2023 Syrah Estate Grown, a 100% Syrah fermented with 50% whole clusters and aged 11 months in neutral French oak puncheons. It's medium to full-bodied, round, plump, and delicious.
Marked by an unmistakable deep purple hue and savory aromatics, Syrah makes an intense, powerful and often age-worthy red. Native to the Northern Rhône, Syrah achieves its maximum potential in the steep village of Hermitage and plays an important component in the Red Rhône Blends of the south, adding color and structure to Grenache and Mourvèdre. Syrah is the most widely planted grape of Australia and is important in California and Washington. Sommelier Secret—Such a synergy these three create together, the Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre trio often takes on the shorthand term, “GSM.”
Accounting for only ten percent of the greater Santa Ynez AVA, Ballard Canyon’s north-south orientation provides an ideal pattern of sunshine and martime fog for producing excellent Syrah. While Syrah is planted to half of the total AVA acreage, an additional third is dedicated to other Rhône varieties, red and white.