Winemaker Notes
The 2019 Roussanne offers a nose of white peach, baked apple, and toasted spice mix. The mouth is medium-bodied with plenty of acid to keep the wine fresh and structured well through the finish.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Roussanne Stolpman Vineyards has a broad, gently savory style and energetic acidity that will allow it to gain complexity with time in bottle. It has crystalline aromas of citrus blossoms, clover honey, warm apples and stone with bass tones of earth and mushrooms. The medium-bodied palate has expansive, honeyed fruits opposed by stony mineral character and focused acidity to lift the long finish.
Full and silky in body but also charmingly crisp, Roussanne is native to the Rhône Valley of France. It is responsible for some of the finest Northern Rhône white wines. Roussanne adds richness and acidity to Marsanne’s soft, fruitiness, making age worthy and highly respected whites. Somm Secret—Roussanne takes its name from the French word, roux, meaning rouge or red because of the berry’s pink glow. In California, virtually all of the 339 acres of Roussanne come from true clones brought over by Tablas Creek and John Alban.
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.