This is our ‘household’ wine grown on our own property in the Santa Cruz Mountains in California. The vines are around 20 years old and well taken care of. It is known as a ‘John Alban Syrah’ and it produces an elegant, floral and compelling Syrah. In the Rhone wine district in France, it is called “Serine” and it originated in Côte Rôtie. It is now highly sought after by vignerons and is the basis of many new plantings. Syrah originated in the Rhone Valley over 2000 years ago.

We pick our Syrah grapes around end of August and beginning of September and aim for an alcohol of around 14.5% abv. We ‘cold ferment’ our Syrah wines around 20C for 10-14 days and leave the wine on the skins (cold maceration) for another 10-12 days to full extract the colors and tannins. We then move the wine into new American oak barrels to be matured for 24-30 months. This is longer than average, but we feel the wine develops really well and softens the tannin over time in oak barrels.

Our 2016 Syrah won Silver at the California State Fair, and our 2017 Syrah won Gold at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition.