2006 LOS OLIVOS CUVÉE - Notes Coming Soon

2004 LOS OLIVOS CUVÉE

This wine is 50% syrah and 33% Mourvèdre, both from the Ibarra-Young Vineyard in Los Olivos and 17% Grenache from Purisima Mountain and Vogelzang Vineyard just outside of Los Olivos.  This is the first time we’d worked with grapes from Vogelzang, a warmer site on the eastern side of the Santa Ynez Valley.  This wine is our homage to the Southern Rhone but with grapes grown in a cooler climate which yields a more elegant wine with balanced alcohol at 13.9%

The warm vintage of 2004 gave us pretty rich and intense grapes that ripened earlier than normal.  We harvested the syrah on September 9, the Vogelzang Grenache on September 18 and the Mourvèdre on September 21, all about two weeks early.  The Purisima Grenache, the coolest of the three sites, held off the September heat wave and came in on October 12 with lower acidity than normal.  All of the lots were fermented and aged separately in neutral French oak barrels.  They were blended in July 2005, returned to barrel, and then bottled in November 2005 after 13 months in barrel.

This wine is always one of my favorites and a bit under the radar of the more powerful syrahs.  I love its balance, elegance and versatility with food.  The aromas exhibit Asian spices, wild cherry and distinct meatiness from the Mourvèdre.  This ’04 is quite dark and forward – again reminiscent of the 2003 wine.  Drink it over the next 3-4 years.  Along with the Bien Nacido Syrah, this is the best value of our higher end reds.