Winemaker Notes
If you open a bottle now, do not decant but instead watch it develop in the glass. We recommend holding the 2007 La Bruma for 3+ years for maximum pleasure.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
2007 was a warm, early vintage, Andy Peay recalls. Both powerful and elegant, the 2007 Estate Syrah La Bruma is drinking beautifully. It has a medium-ruby color and intoxicating aromas of briar fruit, olives, charcuterie, pepper, leather and graphite. The full-bodied palate is bursting with surprisingly youthful, concentrated dark fruit flavors. It’s structured by powdery tannins and soft acidity and has a very long, savory finish.
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Wine & Spirits
Black plum cushions the black and red peppercorn spice of this wine. It's dense, but not heavy with extract, the wine's chocolatey richness balanced by lighter scents of lavender. Grown at Peay's far-coast vineyard in Annapolis, this should develop more complexity with ages.
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.