Pressing syrahhhhhh

Santa Barbara County syrah came in beautifully ripe a couple weeks back and we pressed it today after a textbook fermentation. I just never get enough of that deep purple that syrah does so well.

Beached Syrah

Our syrah was harvested from White Hawk vineyard in Santa Barbara County after last week's dash to the vineyard showed the grapes to be in great condition for the pick. Check out this shot of the vineyard when I visited it and youi can see that it looks like the vines are growing on the beach. Sure enough, while the vineyard is miles inland the soil is pure sand. It took a visionary grower to plant in this stuff and boy did it pay off - this fruit makes amazing wine.

WOW - this wine is spot on

Spot On is actually the winery name and this syrah is a beautiful fit with the name. It is a 2006 whole cluster fermented wine and it has all the funky complexity a good syrah should with minimal oak so the good stuff really shines. Outstanding wine. The only problem is tiny production so it may be a while before a Texas distributor picks it up. Watch for it though. We have a co-op member workin to get it here

wow - syrah by any other name

Last weekend a few of us Rockroom co-op-ers got together to enjoy some spring weather, spring lamb and syrah. Syrah can have so many different personalities and the picture shows a couple that you might consider trying. First of course is Shiraz from Australia, but not your garden variety grocery store colorful critter wine. This 2003 Brokenwood is more serious, complex and chewy than those simple or over-amped cocktail wines. Aged for a few years too which makes a big difference in allowing flavors to integrate and mellow. And then there is the Cornas, a syrah from France's Northern Rhone River valley. A very complex and aromatic wine, this 1995 example just kept getting more and more interesting with color and aromas almost like a fine Bordeaux with a pinch of black and white pepper added. Both beautiful food wines and stellar with chargrilled rack of lamb.

Blending 07 syrahhhhhhh

Here sits consulting winemaker Mike Z measuring out some samples for blending trials as we consider final thoughts before bottling the 2007 Rockroom syrah. Yes, bottling time is approaching for this our third vintage of the Santa Barbara County syrah from White Hawk Vineyard. "But I've only had the 2005!" you say, "What about the 2006?" Patience, grasshopper - you haven't missed it: it's in bottle aging mode. Now if you are a Rockroom co-op member (or know someone who is) you may have had some pre-release tastes. Tasted great whenever you tried it, right? - so why the long wait? Well, as anyone who has been tasting the 2005 since release will tell you, this wine gets better and better with a little time. So expect this year to see the 06 released and next year the 07.
And how did we end up with the blending trials? Well the baseline wine is really nice so we mostly just played with some small additions of syrah from other barrels to punch up certain bright flavors. And then for just a tad of dark fruit and tannin structure to fill out the mid-palate profile a bit, we went with a 2% add of dark, brooding petite syrah. This seemed to hold the wine together nicely, maybe because we were missing the contributions from stems that we got in prior years as the 07 was made with fully destemmed grapes. Whatever the reason, the minute tinkering was great fun and we look forward to a final verification test before bottling next month.

Hey, syrah syrah

White Hawk Vineyard down in Santa Barbara County picked yesterday and we destemmed the fruit today. Well most of it - as we did last year we will do some whole clusters of grapes still on the stems. A little nod to France's Rhone valley approach to syrah. And see those brown patches in the bin? Another French touch is to include a couple percent viognier grapes in the mix, so we will do likewise. Did it last year and the results (still in barrel) are promising.

w.o.w. - ya gotta start saving

As a fan of ripe bananas I figured out long ago that today's banana is edible but in a week it will sweeten and gain flavor. No added cost, just time. Same deal with wine, especially reds. Everyday wines are fine today but will often improve, sometimes dramatically, with even a year or two of aging. So if you are not already, you must start setting aside some wines to revisit at a later date. This 2000 Guigal Crozes Hermitage is a great example. A simple 20 dollar wine a few years ago, this French syrah has matured into a flavorful intense wine that went great with an order of County Line smoked brisket. Well worth the wait with flavors way beyond its unpretentious status and price tag. So how do you end up with a few humble gems like this? My suggestion is that each time you do a wine buy, get enough bottles to get the volume discount and include a couple picks for the cellar. Maybe grab an extra bottle of a red you like that has just a bit more tannic edge or acidic tang than the typical juicy jam-bomb. Even if your cellar is a dark corner of the coat closet, you will be rewarded over time with a couple cases of eclectic wines to be popped after a year or two of bottle aging. Can be fun to share these with friends over a special meal.

wow - patience rewarded

I was reminded this Memorial Day weekend about the benefits of aging and breathing to a big red wine. Like this 2002 Napa syrah from Novy. A good fruit forward syrah in its youth, it has gained even more smoky, gamey complexity with a few cellar years. But it took being open a couple hours for the really great stuff to kick in. Glad I waited (well for part of the bottle anyway).

07 barrel samples ready to taste

The 2007 wines are ready for tasting! I recently brought chardonnay, syrah and cabernet samples so we can monitor progress in our most recent barrels. Certainly not finished wine but fun to try as we watch the evolution. Hope to see you in the rockroom Austin headquarters this week for a sniff, swirl and sip.

California crush finale

Rockroom's 2007 crush came to a close yesterday with the pressing of our White Hawk Vineyard syrah. The wines now begin their beauty sleep leading to bottling in 2008 or 2009, depending on varietal. Of course by then we will have some 06 wines to enjoy!

WOW - rockroom bottles a sequel...

So often the sequel just does not live up to the original, but every now and then along comes Aliens, The Wrath of Khan or The Two Towers to disprove that rule of thumb. Now our premier "professional grade" wine was/is really good stuff - the 2005 pinot noir from Anderson Valley's Hein Vineyard. As follow-up, yesterday I was in San Fran for the bottling of the sequel: 2005 Santa Barbara syrah from White Hawk Vineyard. Big, complex syrah loaded with fruit and bright acidity - this is no jammy shiraz! (not that there's anything wrong with shiraz, mind you!). Not necessarily better than the pinot but, like a good sequel, great fun all on its own. Watch for formal announcements in the future and a chance to purchase this bad boy. cheers!

w.o.w. - shine on

Spent Saturday hangin out in San Francisco with the gang at the winery and got some great info on status of the 06 wines and what is coming up for 07. After all the learnin' we were ready for some practical exposure so we popped some shiners (ya know - unlabeled bottles) of 05 syrah and 06 sauv blanc. So wait, you say, why are those wines of the week? I mean, where are we supposed to get shiners of new wine????? Well the rockroom of course! Stay tuned as we have some barrel samples of 06 wine ready for tastin...

On the scene report as White Hawk syrah gets crushed

The following is David's hands-on report from Saturday where he was on location to sort our White Hawk syrah:

Report from sorting white hawk syrah: white hawk first, but had the opportunity to taste inkgrade and hein pinot for this year, all are early and in barrel, so just some impressions, and for those of you who I don't know well, had Jlin to confirm.

White hawk fruit was very clean, but a bit late picking. Having said that, acidulating is easy, and it is ideal to let those grapes hang a bit, because you can never replicate what is 'earned' in the vineyard by getting some more hang time with the clusters. Tasting the fruit...about every fourth cluster was peppery, and we replaced lots of thepre-sorted fruit with browner stems for the whole-cluster component. Still, whole cluster this year is 20% at most, which is fine for the fruit nature gave us...opulent, refined, ultra-aromatic fruit...hints of spice, pepper, but most delicate and important for syrah, floral elements....who didn't as a kid pull off a honeysuckle flower and 'sip' it! That is one of many components our '06 syrah has. Better yet, we got (twist an arm) pulled to the numerous barrel rooms and tried all sorts of 2005-vintage White Hawk Syrah, and I must say the formula rockroom will use this year was the best of what we barrel tasted from 2005...come on out and try it yourself if you don't believe! The best of class was 25% whole cluster, 25% new oak (zebra barrel, recooped with staves so ratio is 25% new French oak...those guys in Sebastapol are forward thinking), which exhibits fruit and nature, which in '06, imho will be stellar, and not oak bits, which are easily overdone.

We also tasted through the 2006 Hein Pinot and Inkgrade cab. In order, here is the progress report: Hein-damn, must be better than last year...why? been in barrel a month, so fully fermented but still has 9 months to pick up character-I tasted stawberry preserves, and loads of cranberry, the whole-berry variety you find when you're lucky. This differs from the '05 rockroom Hein in magnitude....the '05, if any are Burgundy fans, is Anderson Valley*read cool climate*, and is oppulent and pretty, with ultra-floral notes. The '06 will be that, if barrel samples hold true, just more preserved fruit qualities, so look for both, and try them side by side. Next, Inkgrade. Do you know how hard it is to find a cabernet with chocolate/cocoa notes? tough to do with a young one, and that is EXACTLY what Inkgrade is yielding this year so far. This is an inaugural year for availability of Inkgrade fruit, and thank goodness we jumped on it. Scott C. was all over this one, as he was out here to meet the fruit, and since the cab came from 2 VERY distinct blocks, both good but one higher altitude with more sun, I think we got the best ratio of fruit, and damn it's good. Inkgrade just finished malo, and has a complexity and flavor, so far, which easily tops your favorite Napa cab if you are looking for something aside from ultra-toasted, oaky cab. Nothing wrong with that if that's your Parker preference, but this is less oaked, and meant to be so because it shows what nature gave us this year. I like 'oaked' too, but this exhibits real varietal character, and with well treated *thank you Scott* Howell Mountain fruit, chocolate/cocoa notes get to show themselves. It's going to be a yummy cab, gang.

That's it from the source, and realize that is mostly one pallette, all opinions stated are mine, not necessarily from JLin, our resident sommelier, who was there too, and sure she'll have her say as time permits, but think we were of a mind for basic impressions. Rockroom wineauxs, this year is looking good across the board, so pay attention!