Winemaker Notes
Blend: 98% Syrah, 2% Viognier
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2019 Syrah is a brilliant wine. The long, cool growing season yielded a Syrah with striking aromatic nuance and tons of complexity. The 2019 is young, young, young, so readers should be prepared to cellar it. Texturally beautiful and persistent, the 2019 is going to need a few years in bottle. It's an exquisite wine to be sure.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Lastly, the 2019 Syrah has a vibrant, youthful, focused style carrying lots of pretty red and blue fruits as well as peppery herb and violet notes. More medium-bodied, nicely textured, and concentrated, it has the tight, focused style on the palate that this cuvée always shows.
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.