2008 Syrah Bien Nacido Vineyard

This wine is about 75% syrah from Block Eleven and 25% syrah from the X Block at Bien
Nacido. 2008 was another cool vintage at Bien Nacido with a crazy heat wave in June right
around the Summer solstice. Normally, a heat spike that early in the growing season is not a concern, but this was a record breaking 3 days that topped out on the second day at 118
degrees!! Some young green clusters of syrah got fried and never developed properly.
Luckily we had set a decent crop and we were able to thin the most visibly damaged clusters right away. With some clusters the damage wasn’t as severe and didn’t show up until ripening. This prompted the expensive but necessary practice of multiple passes through the vineyard to pick the grapes at their optimum maturity. The resulting wine turned out beautifully. Classic cool climate, cool vintage spice with layers of dried raspberry, blueberry and a hint of cola. The sugar and acid balance were also about as good as it gets.

Best Buy-Wine and Spirits Feb. 2011