Winemaker Notes
The 2019 Red Wine offers a nose of blueberries, cracked black pepper, and rose petals. The mouth is medium-bodied and balanced, with soft tannins and ample acid to provide a long finish.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2019 Red Wine Larner Vineyard is a blend of 87% Syrah, 10% Grenache, and a splash of Viognier. It offers a deep purple hue to go with a totally brilliant nose of ripe blackberries, blueberries, ground pepper, game, and violets. Pure class on the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, has a seamless, layered mouthfeel, beautiful tannins, and a great finish. Spectacular juice, it should evolve for a decade.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium ruby-purple, the 2019 Red Wine Larner Vineyard has savory wafts of beef drippings, cast iron, laurel leaves and aniseed with a core of red and black currants. The medium-bodied palate is silky and seamless with alluring layers of sweet berry fruits and a long, uplifted finish. It deserves another 2-3 years in bottle.
Rating: 95+
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.