Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Enthusiast
Aromas of tar, gravel, baked soil and tightly wound boysenberry show on the nose. The palate is savory in tones of seaweed, squid ink and iodine yet rounded by elderberry and toasted sesame.
-
Wine & Spirits
“It smells like fog,” was the first thing I wrote about this wine, Bob Lindquist’s swan song for Qupé, which he left in 2018. It feels cool, with a quiet concentration that seems like a Bien Nacido signature, the fruit grounded by scents of olive, smoke and black pepper. It’s youthful right now; some cellar time should bring it into better balance.
-
Jeb Dunnuck
Lastly, the 2017 Syrah Bien Nacido Hillside Estate is all Syrah that saw 30% stems and 18 months in 20% new French oak. It has a richer, riper bouquet of blackberries, ground pepper, leather, and sappy herbs. This carries to a medium to full-bodied wine with good acidity, a focused, mouthfilling texture, ripe tannins, and solid length. It should keep for a solid decade.
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 lesser-known but elite AVA within the larger Santa Barbara district, the Santa Maria Valley AVA runs precisely west to east starting near the coast. The valley funnels cool, Pacific Ocean air to the vineyards more inland, allowing grapes a longer hang time to ripen evenly and achieve their full potential by harvest time. Combined with minimal rainfall, consistent warm sunshine, and well-drained soils, it is an ideal environment for grape growing.
Many of the wineries here are small and highly respected, having established a reputation in the 1970s and 80s for producing excellent Central Coast wines like Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. More recently, Syrah has also proven quite successful in the region. Many vineyards are owned by growers who sell their grapes to other wineries, so it is common to see the same vineyard name on bottlings from different wineries. Bien Nacido Vineyard is perhaps the best-known and most prestigious.