Winemaker Notes
La Bruma will provide much enjoyment on release if you pop the cork and drink straight away. But this is a wine that will engage all of your senses with 5 years or more in bottle. It has the structure, the depth of fruit and the breed to be a superior wine.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
The fog at Peay's far-coast vineyard seems to invest syrah with meaty peppercorn spice, the element in this wine that powers the red fruit with a nearly electric buzz. The color translates the fog into a vibrant, rosy edge: the tannins take it to mean minerals, as if picking up on the same soil character that pinot noir might translate into wine. La Bruma continues to grow more distinctive and elegant with each vintage.
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.