Stolpman Vineyards Estate Grown Syrah 2015 | Hermitage-like Concentration

Stolpman Vineyards Estate Grown Syrah 2015 presents purple to the edge.   While adding precise notes of black fruit, crushed rock minerality, violets, and dark plum.  Deeply concentrated and elegant on the attack.  Plus packed with black cherry, plum, and underbrush.  So, at once dense and beautifully restrained, braced by a vibrant Northern Rhône acid-backbone.  As a result, the wine is a knockout.

Ruben Solorzano — Wine Enthusiast’s “grape whisperer”

Robert Parker’s longtime California reviewer, Jeb Dunnuck, called the Stolpman Vineyards Estate Grown Syrah “ripe, sexy and polished.   Among “the best wines to date from Stolpman Vineyards, it’s no surprise, given the talent behind this bottle. The tag team of consulting winemaker Sashi Moorman (Ojai, Domaine de la Cote, and Evening Lands) and vineyard manager Ruben Solorzano — Wine Enthusiast’s “grape whisperer” — crafted a terrifically ripe, and beautifully compact expression of Stolpman Syrah.  While the explosive fruit and seductive texture suggest a much higher price point.

Read more about Red Gems under $35

First of all, being one of California’s most iconic Syrahs, Stolpman Vineyards Estate Grown Syrah 2015 is the best since the 93-point Parker 2005 vintage.  While fantastically rich, juicy, and complex, don’t wait another 10 years for a $25 Syrah as good as this. Our clients have a special opportunity to secure their bottles today, before America’s best restaurants snap it up.

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Ballard Canyon is home to many of California’s best Rhône-styled wines, and Solorzano is the AVA’s hardest working man. He’s also a night owl.  Hence taking advantage of Santa Barbara’s chilly nights to harvest nocturnally preserving the berries’ scintillating acid vibrancy. Equipped with a headlamp and a smile, he presides over dry-farmed, head-pruned vines.  Furthermore, calls to mind the northern Rhône slopes of Côte-Rôtie and Hermitage.

Winemaker Sashi Moorman | Stolpman Syrah

Solorzano and Moorman are masters of Ballard Canyon. The 2015 vintage in Santa Barbara’s Ballard Canyon started off with heavy spring winds, whistling through Stolpman’s tightly planted vines. Once fruit began to set in May, Sashi Moorman realized that the winds had blown off more flowers than usual, trimming yields from the get-go. With the drought further depleting yields, the tiny clusters of Syrah that remained delivered incredible concentration.