Winemaker Notes
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.
Professional Ratings
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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.
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.”
A vast appellation covering Sonoma County’s Pacific coastline, the Sonoma Coast AVA runs all the way from the Mendocino County border, south to the San Pablo Bay. The region can actually be divided into two sections—the actual coastal vineyards, marked by marine soils, cool temperatures and saline ocean breezes—and the warmer, drier vineyards further inland, which are still heavily influenced by the Pacific but not quite with same intensity.
Contained within the appellation are the much smaller Fort Ross-Seaview and Petaluma Gap AVAs.
The Sonoma Coast is highly regarded for elegant Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and, increasingly, cool-climate Syrah. The wines have high acidity, moderate alcohol, firm tannin, and balanced ripeness.