Winemaker Notes
Painting with large brush-strokes, the 2014 vintage produced exotic wines within the Donelan red portfolio; no wine better exemplifies this concept than the 2014 Cuvée Christine. This vintage has traded in characteristics of grilled-meats and red currants for prosciutto and ripe dates. The composition of Cuvée Christine has made a small shift as we no longer source fruit from the Walker Vine Hill Vineyard, and instead promote the cooler-side of Syrah with fruit from the Kobler Vineyard in Green Valley, along with a debut vineyard, Lawer Vineyard in the Knights Valley. This new source of Syrah adds an interesting combination of masculine qualities not unlike Obsidian Vineyard, along with an additional pantry of spices, making this vintage exceptionally suited for pairing with a Sunday roast, wild game, or foraged mushrooms. Like a Chef in the kitchen, we assemble unique Syrah lots from multiple sites to create texture, mouth-feel, and intrigue. The nose opens with fig-paste, dates, star anise, and garam-masala—a combination of aromatics that is alluring yet extremely subtle and elegant. The mouthfeel is well knit and plush, creating a silky texture that is extremely pleasing now. Freshness imparted from our cooler-climate vineyards provides an uplifting finish that will weave well with your favorite fare.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
The 2014 Syrah Cuvée Christine comes from 100% Syrah sourced from the Kobler Vineyard in the Green Valley of Russian River and the Lawer Vineyard in Knight’s Valley. Seeing 30% stems and 21 months in one-third new French oak, it has a terrific blend of classic Sonoma Syrah fruit mixed with plenty of gamy, savory, green olive, and Northern Rhône-like nuances. Picking up even some meat, cured ham, and exotic notes with time in the glass, it's medium to full-bodied, has a supple, seamless texture, beautiful balance, and integrated, fine-grained tannins that emerge on the finish. This is a quintessential Sonoma County Syrah that's going to benefit from another 2-3 years of bottle age (although it's far from unapproachable today) and keep for another decade.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Produced using 33% whole cluster and aged for 21 months in French oak, 33% new, the 2014 Syrah Cuvee Christine has a deep garnet-purple color and a great core of black and blue fruits—wild blueberries, black cherries and cassis—with touches of Mediterranean herbs, roses, tar and black earth. Medium-bodied with an elegantly fruity yet intensely flavored palate, it has a harmonious frame of rounded tannins and plenty of freshness, finishing with a perfumed lift.
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.”
Home to a diverse array of smaller AVAs with varied microclimates and soil types, Sonoma County has something for every wine lover. Physically twice as large as Napa Valley, the region only produces about half the amount of wine but boasts both tremendous quality and variety. With its laid-back atmosphere and down-to-earth attitude, the wineries of Sonoma are appreciated by wine tourists for their friendliness and approachability. The entire county intends to become a 100% sustainable winegrowing region by 2019.
Sonoma County wines are produced with carefully selected grape varieties to reflect the best attributes of their sites—Dry Creek Valley’s consistent sunshine is ideal for Zinfandel, while the warm Alexander Valley is responsible for rich, voluptuous red wines like Cabernet Sauvignon. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are important throughout the county, most notably in the cooler AVAs of Russian River, Sonoma Coast and Carneros. Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot and Syrah have also found a firm footing here.