Lava Cap Syrah 2017
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The 2017 Lava Cap Syrah is robust, bold, and has the most amazing finish that displays a complex array of flavors. On the nose, hints of prosciutto and sage open to cherry cola, complimenting the rich and intriguing flavors of dense bright candied cherry and black olive. This wine barrel aged for 32 months in second fill French oak, allowing the tannin structure to mature into a velvety texture on the finish. A wine that does well with age, aging 3-5 years while building more complex earth and forest flavors on the nose and palate. Drink young if you prefer the robust and grippy tannin structure in red wines.
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Wine & Spirits
Exotic and spicy when first poured, there’s a cardamom-currymole savor in its complex aroma, delivered with an inky intensity. The flavors are dark and spicy clove, leather, new suede, even a bit of animal fur, with fine-grained tannins that keep the wine on point and play up all that feral energy. It will take on a range of foods, from squid-ink pasta to butter chicken.
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Lava Cap is a small, family owned and operated winery dedicated to the production of premium estate bottled wines utilizing only mountain grown grapes. The winery is located high in the Sierra Nevada foothills in the heart of the Apple Hill region of El Dorado County. Our elevation - close to 3,000 feet - is about the maximum permissible for growing grapes due to the prevalence of intense periods of frost during early Spring months.
Lava Cap was established in 1981 with the purchase of a 65 acre pear ranch that dated back to the 1860's. This property, perched high above the deep canyon of the South Fork of the American River (not far from where gold was first discovered in 1848) at an elevation of 2,400 to 2,800 feet, is blessed with an abundance of water, excellent soil, and varied sun exposure. In 1990, an adjoining 18 acre orchard was purchased to allow for future expansion of the vineyards. Lava Cap now has over 100 acres of high elevation vineyard land in production or awaiting vineyard development.
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.”
As home to California’s highest altitude vineyards, El Dorado is also one of its oldest wine growing regions. When gold miners settled here in the late 1800s, many also planted vineyards and made wine to quench its local demand.
By 1870, El Dorado County, as part of the greater Sierra Foothills growing area, was among the largest wine producers in the state, behind only Los Angeles and Sonoma counties. The local wine industry enjoyed great success until just after the turn of the century when fortune-seekers moved elsewhere and its population diminished. With Prohibition, winemaking and grape growing was totally abandoned. But some of these vines still exist today and are the treasure chest of the Sierra Foothills as we know them.
El Dorado has a diverse terrain with elevations ranging from 1,200 to 3,500 feet, creating countless mesoclimates for its vineyards. This diversity allows success with a wide range of grapes including whites like Gewurztraminer and Sauvignon Blanc, as well as for reds, Grenache, Syrah, Tempranillo, Barbera and especially, Zinfandel.
Soils tend to be fine-grained volcanic rock, shale and decomposed granite. Summer days are hot but nights are cool and the area typically gets ample precipitation in the form or rain or snow in the winter.