Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Also from the Larner Vineyard, the 2017 Red Wine Larner Vineyard is deeply colored and offers rocking notes of blueberries, blackberries, ground pepper, crushed violets, bouquet garni, and classic Syrah gamey, meaty aromas and flavors. It's ripe, sexy, and full-bodied, yet stays beautifully balanced and seamless on the palate. It's terrific today but will be better with another year or two of bottle age and keep for a decade. This cuvée is a blend of 80% Syrah, 16% Grenache, and 4% Viognier, all aged 18 months in 50% new French oak.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Red Wine Larner Vineyard is a blend of 80% Syrah, 16% Grenache and 4% Viognier and was bottled a couple days before I tasted it. Opaque ruby-black in color, it's showing well, with aromas of red and black currants, black cherry pie, blueberry preserves, charcuterie, cracked pepper, olive and dark chocolate. Full-bodied, rich and intense, it gives up oodles of savory tricolored fruits with pleasantly chewy tannins and surprising freshness, finishing very long. This is a beauty! Give it another couple years in bottle.
With bold fruit flavors and accents of sweet spice, Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre form the base of the classic Rhône Red Blend, while Carignan, Cinsault and Counoise often come in to play. Though they originated from France’s southern Rhône Valley, with some creative interpretation, Rhône blends have also become popular in other countries. Somm Secret—Putting their own local spin on the Rhône Red Blend, those from Priorat often include Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. In California, it is not uncommon to see Petite Sirah make an appearance.
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.