Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Connoisseurs' Guide
Looking back over our notes of other Stolpman Syrahs from this vintage – this is our first encounter with the 2014 Ruben’s Block – it is clear that year was a stellar one for Stolpman, and this wine ranks among the winery’s very best efforts to date. A tad riper than the pair from 2012 and 2013 and a wine of immense fruity stuffing and depth, it offers layers and layers of berries, mocha, pepper and woodsy spice all joined in a marvelously seamless mix. What is more, it has retained an altogether unexpected sense of freshness and energy as it heads into its seventh year, and if a wine that invites long and slow contemplation as its reveals more and more as it sits in the glass, it is destined to age famously for another five to ten years…and very probably more.
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.”
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.