Product Description:

The Wine
This Syrah, sourced from the foggy Carneros region of Napa, features what I love about Syrah—a savory foreground of smoke, salt and bacon that frames a fresh black-and-purple fruitiness. This cool-climate wine has a sailor's aspect, something animal and savage to accompany a briny night on San Francisco Bay, which adjoins this hilltop site. The savory theme continues on the palate with fleshed-out tannins backed by bright acidity.

Vineyard
Tony Truchard farms hundreds of acres of grapes in the Congress Valley region of Carneros, with the bulk of his property planted to excellent Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. His land also features small south-facing hilltop sites that still feel the bite of fog off the SF Bay, but also get enough afternoon sunshine to fully ripen grapes like Syrah. Tony has long recognized sites like these as the best environment for complex Syrahs that avoid the over-roasted, jammy aromas that can plague the grape.

Winemaking
1.02 tons of Syrah were received on October 11th and destemmed, but not crushed. Fermentation, which lasted for 15 days, was completed on the strength of the grapes' native yeasts. The 2012 Syrah spent 17 months in 3-year-old French oak, and was neither fined nor filtered prior to being bottled on March 31st, 2014.