Wine Article

“48% Syrah, 24% Carmenère, 11% Merlot, 10% C.S, 3% Malbec, 3% Mourvèdre, & 1% Petit Verdot planted on their own roots in the Los Robles Vyd (on the foothills of a mountainous outcropping in Lo Moscoso) in deep soils of colluvial origin which are quite rocky @ the surface; The Vyd is @ 245m elev, yields an ave of 6 ton/ha, & was manually harvested between 3/27 & 5/25/13. Selected bunches were destemmed, & the individual berries were selected by size via a vibrating table for better precision. The grapes were then gently dropped into s/s tanks for fermentation with native yeasts at 24–26 °C with a program of pumpovers determined by enological criteria. The new wine then remained on its skins for a 5-day post-fermentation maceration at 22–24 °C, for a total maceration time of 20–25 days. Malolactic fermentation occurred naturally in oak barrels. The wine was aged for 13 mos (85% FR oak, 15% AM oak; 34% new, 33% 1 prior use, & 33% 2 prior uses), during which time it stabilized naturally without any treatments. 14.5% abv, 2.24 g/L R.S., 4.84 g/L T.A., & 3.63 pH; 18,268 cases bottled Nov ’14.”

94 pts Tim Atkin, 93 Suckling, 92 WA, 90 (3x) winealign.com, 88 @ '17 Decanter World Wine Awards, 17/20 Jancis Robinson, & Silver @ '16 Int Wine & Spirits Comp.