Our wonderful 2007 estate syrah was handpicked at dawn in order to keep the fruit as cool as possible. We then carefully destemmed the grapes with an effort to achieve 20-30% whole berries. The whole berries add to the bright fruit flavors inherent in syrah.

We fermented the syrah using a special rhone isolate yeast in order to retain varietal character. The fermentation lasted for 14 days. The must was then basket pressed into neutral French oak barrels. The syrah was barrel aged for 16 months and went to bottle in March 2009.