Winemaker Notes
Blend: 95% Syrah, 5% Grenache
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
From the Napa Stagecoach Vineyard the 2013 Broken Axle Stagecoach Vineyard is a blend of 95% Syrah (15% whole-clusters included) and 5% Grenache from John Alban’s clone in Arroyo Grande. The clone is believed to have been taken from the famous Château Rayas Vineyard in Châteauneuf du Pape. The wine was bottled unfined, but slightly filtered, after having spent 20 months in puncheons and smaller Taransaud barrels. A rich wine made with the Syrah and Grenache fermented together, there is no doubt about the heftiness and punch of this wine, although it is not hot. It finishes at 16.1% alcohol. The wine exhibits blackberry and cassis fruit, spring flowers, a touch of pepper and lavender. It is a sexy, lush, hedonistic style of wine to drink over the next 7-8 years.
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Wine Enthusiast
This is serious, ripe wine at its most heady and extreme, a gripping, fleshy wine that's dusty and tight in leathery black fruit and pepper, a gaminess lurking in its hinterlands. The addition of 5% Grenache adds plushness and lifts the blackberry and notions of fig compote.
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Wine Spectator
Ripe but well-balanced, with black cherry and dusty herb aromas and layered flavors of smoky raspberry, white pepper and licorice. Syrah and Grenache. Drink now through 2026.
Undoubtedly proving its merit over and over, Napa Valley is a now a leading force in the world of prestigious red wine regions. Though Cabernet Sauvignon dominates Napa Valley, other red varieties certainly thrive here. Important but often overlooked include Merlot and other Bordeaux varieties well-regarded on their own as well as for their blending capacities. Very old vine Zinfandel represents an important historical stronghold for the region and Pinot noir is produced in the cooler southern parts, close to the San Pablo Bay.
Perfectly situated running north to south, the valley acts as a corridor, pulling cool, moist air up from the San Pablo Bay in the evenings during the hot days of the growing season, which leads to even and slow grape ripening. Furthermore the valley claims over 100 soil variations including layers of volcanic, gravel, sand and silt—a combination excellent for world-class red wine production.