2004 Ampelos Grenache Harrison Clarke

Community Tasting Notes (1) Avg Score: 88.5 points

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  10/11/2007 - bcdieter wrote:

  Winery notes:
  
  harvest and fermentation: this is one of the few pure grenache bottlings done in santa
  barbara county. our grenache is from Harrison-Clarke vineyard, located in high
  elevations above the stolpman and the purisima mtn. vineyards off ballard canyon in the
  santa ynez valley. the vineyard has extreme weather conditions which is perfect for
  rhones in our program. grenache is a temperamental vine that is starting to show its
  beauty. we picked the grenache grapes twice –first on sept13 (26.2 brix) and later on
  sept 27 (26.4 brix). our first pick was meant to be used for our “syrache” but we got a little
  less than expected. trying to compensate for this we got some more in the second batch
  –and now we had more than we needed. based on this as well as the quality of the
  grenache we therefore decided to make this small batch –and we love it!
  aging: we use 35% new french oak barrels. the wines were racked twice prior to
  bottling.
  
  tasting notes: the color is a rich burgundy with a nose of ripe blueberries and figs
  leading to a delicious creamy strawberry shortcake on the mouth. chocolate and
  cinnamon resonate on the back palate for a deliciously spicy finish. when the berries
  came in from the vineyard peter kept eating them out of the fermenter–surprisingly
  something was left, they just tasted so good.
  
  production: 48 cases bottled march 22 06 –planned release nov06. going forward we
  will now start to have a small, annual release of grenache
  
  what is this greek thing? ampelos is the greek word for vine –this is where it all begins.
  rebecca and i love greece. we were married there and visit there every year! “epsilon”
  is a small, positive constant and we will every year release a small quantity of something
  special with this name.

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