Winemaker Notes
This wine was blended with 5% Grenache and 5% Syrah from the Sawyer Lindquist Vineyard. The Grenache added a lovely aromatic quality and the Syrah a juicy, spicy layer.
While fermenting the wine was punched down twice a day for the first couple of days, then pumped over twice a day. The wine was aged in 40% new French oak barrels for the first year and aged another additional year in neutral barrels.
Because of the extra barrel ageing the wine has been really showing beautifully right outside the gate. It's a balanced wine with lush tart cherry fruit framed by hard spice with hints of smoke and a back note of cocoa.
Blend: 90% Tempranillo, 5% Grenache, 5% Syrah
Notoriously food-friendly, long-lasting and Spain’s most widely planted grape, Tempranillo is the star variety of red wines from Rioja and Ribera del Duero. The Rioja terms Joven, Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva indicate both barrel and bottle time before release. Traditionally blended in Rioja with Garnacha, plus a bit of Mazuelo (Carignan) and Graciano, the Tempranillo in Ribera del Duero typically stands alone. Somm Secret—Tempranillo claims many different names depending on location. In Penedès, it is called Ull de Llebre and in Valdepeñas, goes by Cencibel. Known as Tinta Roriz in Portugal, Tempranillo plays an important role in Port wine.
California’s coolest wine growing area, Edna Valley excels in the production of high quality Central Coast wines like Pinot noir, Chardonnay, Rhône Blends and aromatic white wines. It has a cool Mediterranean climate and an incredibly long growing season, giving late-ripening varieties plenty of opportunity to develop great phenolic complexity.
Its northwest to southeast orientation creates a direct path for cool Pacific air and fog to penetrate the valley from the Los Osos and Morro Bay area inwards. Low hillsides of both calcareous and volcanic soils are home to much of the vineyard acreage of the Edna Valley.