2021MatthiassonSyrah,ZayanteVineyard,SataCruzMountains

<p>Located in the Santa Cruz Mountains, the Zayante vineyard is the perfect place for Syrah. Organic and dry-farmed, it sits up at 1160 feet of elevation, on sandstone, shist, and shale soils. Cool morning fog and ocean breezes flow up from the Monterey Bay, followed by warm afternoon sun.</p><p>Furthermore, the farmer, Prudy Foxx, is an old friend, who worked with Jill back when she was in grad school studying cover crops, in the late 1980s.</p><p>To capture the Syrah spice, we used 100% whole clusters in the fermentation. The whole clusters also gave us plenty of structure and depth. We fermented in a small open top bin, with two punch downs per day. We gently pressed just after dryness, and aged the wine in neutral puncheons for 10 months.</p>