2006 Qupé Bien Nacido Vineyard Syrah, Santa Maria Valley, California

Compared to the more savoury, minerally examples from the Northern Rhône, Bob Lindquist has managed to preserve the grape’s inimitable pepper/plum character while imbuing it with a lick of West Coast sunshine. Yet ironically, Bob has chosen to stick with ‘Syrah’ rather than sell out to ‘Shiraz’, perhaps in deference to the grape’s heritage. This wine offers rich damson, toasty wild thyme & mint aromas, while the palate is silky textured, decadently opulent with plum & blackpepper fruit flavours and a terrific umph! One for those venison sausages.
(David Berry Green-BBR Buyer)

2006 was a very cool vintage and we harvested the various lots of Syrah from Baja and X Blocks between October 24th and November 1st. The grapes were absolutely perfect. Lignification in the stems allowed us to keep between 22% and 50% whole clusters in the X Block lots. All lots were fermented in small open top fermenters with manual punch downs done twice a day. Pressed at dryness, settled for a couple days, and then put to barrel. Ageing was done in all French oak with about 25% new oak using a combination of François Frères and Ermitage barrels. It was aged between 13 and 15 months in barrel.The cool vintage yielded a very fragrant and spicy Syrah with lots of black and white pepper, lavender and deep berry fruit. This wine has plenty of depth and body but with a sleek, crisp mouthfeel that makes you keep wanting more.