Winemaker Notes
Reminiscent of a Crozes-Hermitage due to a warmer than normal vintage, this wine has a blueberry mixed with black olive aroma sweetened by wafts of bacon fat that those who know Crozes associate with the region. The flavors on the palate are not quite as plush as the nose would suggest, showing the Peay terroir with less fruit and more muscle. As the wine carries to the back of the mouth, garrigue notes enter the overall taste profile and a squid ink quality also adds weight to the fruit making this a more interesting and multi-dimensional wine.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2020 Estate Syrah is scented of blackcurrant, bitter chocolate, mint, olives and charcuterie. The full-bodied palate offers dark, minty fruit structured by chalky tannins, and it has a long, fragrant finish.
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.