Wine Article
2005 Stolpman Syrah Estate Santa Ynez Valley
Last edited on 1/18/2008 by RPerro
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From website: 2005 Syrah Estate
Winemaker Notes: The past decade has revealed that Syrah is one of the most important varietals grown on the Central Coast of California. It is a varietal that consistently makes some of the most compelling and critically acclaimed wines in all of California. Aside from the “cult Cabernets” of Napa Valley, it is only the premium Syrah based wines of the Central Coast of California that annually garner comparable reviews (at a fraction of the price). With producers such Alban Vineyards, Saxum, Sine Qua Non and now Stolpman Vineyards there is a critical mass of vineyards producing truly world class Syrah and Roussanne that rival any other new world region.
The winter preceding the 2005 vintage got off to an early start with 9 inches of rain in December of 2004, which is nearly half of our entire annual rainfall. Another 22 inches of rain fell over the remainder of the winter, including a rare Spring shower in May of one-half inch. This late, wet winter keep the ground cold and the vines budded late. When the vines began showing significant growth in May and June there was so much available moisture in the ground that controlling excessive vigor became the paramount task. We had to leave extra shoots during the Spring, which we later went back and cut in the Summer. These “vigor diversion canes” helped dry out the soil and limit the vine’s vigorous growth.
Significant and successive “green drops” of unnecessary and unwanted fruit were essential to producing premium wine in 2005. At times it looked like there were more unwanted green clusters dropped on the ground than were left on the vine. As is always the rule and necessity at Stolpman the yields are cut back to 2-3 pounds per plant. For the entire state of California it was the most prolific harvest ever (tonnage wise) due to the heavy crop. Low yields in the vineyard were one of the keys to producing excellent wine in the 2005 vintage.
The Syrah harvest began October 15th after a final burst of warm weather in the second week of October, pushing the grapes to full ripeness. All the fruit received the usual manual double sorting process of clusters first followed by a sorting of the destemmed berries. Fermented in two-ton stainless steel tanks for 28 days, the must was pressed into a combination of 225 liter and 500 liter French oak barrels, about 30% of which were new. Half of the wine spent 10 months in barrel, while the heartier lots spent 15 months in barrel before going to the bottling tank.
The wine is a blend of a number of different French clones (877, 174) as well as some of the traditional California clones (Durrell, Estrella). There is a small amount (3%) of Grenache that also finds its way into the blend. The wine was bottled in March of 2007 without filtration.
Production: 2,485 cases
Blend: 97% Syrah, 3% Grenache
Elevage: 10 - 15 months in 30% new French barrels
Alcohol: 14.95%
pH: 3.65
TA: 5.8 grams/liter
RS: less than 1 gram/liter
Free and total SO2: 27ppm & 62ppm respectively
Winemaker Notes: The past decade has revealed that Syrah is one of the most important varietals grown on the Central Coast of California. It is a varietal that consistently makes some of the most compelling and critically acclaimed wines in all of California. Aside from the “cult Cabernets” of Napa Valley, it is only the premium Syrah based wines of the Central Coast of California that annually garner comparable reviews (at a fraction of the price). With producers such Alban Vineyards, Saxum, Sine Qua Non and now Stolpman Vineyards there is a critical mass of vineyards producing truly world class Syrah and Roussanne that rival any other new world region.
The winter preceding the 2005 vintage got off to an early start with 9 inches of rain in December of 2004, which is nearly half of our entire annual rainfall. Another 22 inches of rain fell over the remainder of the winter, including a rare Spring shower in May of one-half inch. This late, wet winter keep the ground cold and the vines budded late. When the vines began showing significant growth in May and June there was so much available moisture in the ground that controlling excessive vigor became the paramount task. We had to leave extra shoots during the Spring, which we later went back and cut in the Summer. These “vigor diversion canes” helped dry out the soil and limit the vine’s vigorous growth.
Significant and successive “green drops” of unnecessary and unwanted fruit were essential to producing premium wine in 2005. At times it looked like there were more unwanted green clusters dropped on the ground than were left on the vine. As is always the rule and necessity at Stolpman the yields are cut back to 2-3 pounds per plant. For the entire state of California it was the most prolific harvest ever (tonnage wise) due to the heavy crop. Low yields in the vineyard were one of the keys to producing excellent wine in the 2005 vintage.
The Syrah harvest began October 15th after a final burst of warm weather in the second week of October, pushing the grapes to full ripeness. All the fruit received the usual manual double sorting process of clusters first followed by a sorting of the destemmed berries. Fermented in two-ton stainless steel tanks for 28 days, the must was pressed into a combination of 225 liter and 500 liter French oak barrels, about 30% of which were new. Half of the wine spent 10 months in barrel, while the heartier lots spent 15 months in barrel before going to the bottling tank.
The wine is a blend of a number of different French clones (877, 174) as well as some of the traditional California clones (Durrell, Estrella). There is a small amount (3%) of Grenache that also finds its way into the blend. The wine was bottled in March of 2007 without filtration.
Production: 2,485 cases
Blend: 97% Syrah, 3% Grenache
Elevage: 10 - 15 months in 30% new French barrels
Alcohol: 14.95%
pH: 3.65
TA: 5.8 grams/liter
RS: less than 1 gram/liter
Free and total SO2: 27ppm & 62ppm respectively