Winemaker Notes
True to form, the 2018 El Dorado Syrah’s deep aromatic intensity suggests this is a very serious wine, brimming with varietal purity and earthen expressions. The nose exudes a peppery lift, Mirabelle plum, lavender, Earl Grey tea and prosciutto. These aromas follow through on the palate, with an explosive core of lush black fruit, framed by glossy tannins and lilting texture. Possessing spectral palate presence, delicious and occasionally austere, this Syrah never gets boring.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Blackberry, bramble, black olive and sage aromas. The palate is fresh and lively, while retaining an upright and serious structure alongside dried black fruits, charcoal and liquorice flavours. Skinner consistently offers fantastic quality-to-price value throughout its portfolio.
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Wine & Spirits
A tiny estate production, this wine fits stylistically with winemaker Adam Smith’s other reds in its heady fruit expression. It settles down with air, the acidity providing a frame and contour for its spicy, dark violet-scented purple fruit. The texture is sensuous, velvety and supple, lasting on a long and savory finish
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.”
As home to California’s highest altitude vineyards, El Dorado is also one of its oldest wine growing regions. When gold miners settled here in the late 1800s, many also planted vineyards and made wine to quench its local demand.
By 1870, El Dorado County, as part of the greater Sierra Foothills growing area, was among the largest wine producers in the state, behind only Los Angeles and Sonoma counties. The local wine industry enjoyed great success until just after the turn of the century when fortune-seekers moved elsewhere and its population diminished. With Prohibition, winemaking and grape growing was totally abandoned. But some of these vines still exist today and are the treasure chest of the Sierra Foothills as we know them.
El Dorado has a diverse terrain with elevations ranging from 1,200 to 3,500 feet, creating countless mesoclimates for its vineyards. This diversity allows success with a wide range of grapes including whites like Gewurztraminer and Sauvignon Blanc, as well as for reds, Grenache, Syrah, Tempranillo, Barbera and especially, Zinfandel.
Soils tend to be fine-grained volcanic rock, shale and decomposed granite. Summer days are hot but nights are cool and the area typically gets ample precipitation in the form or rain or snow in the winter.