Glad to be back on here. This Syrah is just getting better and better.
It took gold medals at the Sonoma County Harvest Fair back in October 2016 and San Francisco Chronicle in January 2017.
This Syrah is denser than most. I bled of some juice to make the Angelica but kept the skins, which resulted in a higher juice to skin ratio. The result is a rich dense lip smakin’ delicious Syrah. It is drinking great now, but will certainly age 7-10 years if you have the discipline to do so.
Hey all. For me, this is a must buy if you have room and you like Syrah…or red wine.
I love this wine and bought a case of it. For the price, you can’t go wrong. Really balanced and drinkable wine.
Here my notes from last time.
Wonderful.
Juicy with a great acid/tannin balance. Fruit is marvelous.
Red plum. Slight tart, raspberry.
Some pipe tobacco dark sweetness.
I am kicking myself in the butt right now for not making any more in 2014, 2015, & 2016.
Engracia was started with the Silva Vineyard wines and in addition to that vineyard we have experimented with others - Deerfield, Cavedale, and Ricci.
Now that I see what a wonderful wine it is, I am talking with Robert Rex from Deerfield and see about being able to make this wine for the long haul.
As we experiment with vineyards and see how the wines turn out, our goal is to build long -term relationships with growers as we have with the Silva’s.
It’s sort of a mix between old world / new world. The flavors have nice rich dark fruit mixed with earthy and spicy notes.
The winemaking technique is more new world by bleeding off some juice before fermentation to make the Angelica. Whole berry fermentation (de-stem only)rather than crush and de-stem.
Elevage technique is more old word in style by using neutral French Oak, 30 month barrel age. I always age my wines 2 years or more in barrel. This allows any microbial activity that will play out, play out in the barrel. After 2 years all that activity will have done its thing. Then I can bottle my wines without sterile filtration which (in my opinion) strips a wine of much of its character.
Hi Mike, two quick questions. Did Clark Smith work with you on this wine or is this a solo venture? Second, I tend to like Westside Paso (TH Estates, Denner, Epoch and so forth) as well as Washington strays (K Vintners, Reyvann Family, etc.). How might your syrah compare to these types of wines? Thanks!
Clark and I like to say that I’m his assinstant winemaker and he’s my assistant winemaker. Not quite a collaboration but we certainly taste the wine together as it is “growing up” and bounce ideas and decisions off of eachother.
As far as the Paso wines, I’m not familiar the labels you mentioned but I probably should be. If you let me know what those wines are like: appearance, aroma, mouthfeel, flavor, etc I’d be happy to make a comparison.
But either way this is some delicious wine and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. I understand it’s hard to trust a wine from a “new to the game” winery, but I invite you to check us out.
Thanks for the response! These syrahs tend to be velvety with very fine tannins, almost black in color, and I especially like the more savory syrahs with meaty undertones.
