Fall Release Greywacke Vineyard Eddie's Patch Syrah
2016
Winemaker’s Notes
From the iron-rich soils of Greywacke Vineyard, our new vintage of Eddie’s Patch is one of our finest efforts from this special vintage. The wine comes from a two-acre steep east-facing hillside parcel of vines that ekes out an existence in meager, shallow soils composed mostly of rocks and gravel. In this regard, it’s a very different animal from our Estate Vineyard bottling, and the two wines complement one another beautifully. While the Estate Syrah is entirely pure fruit and succulence, this wine is firmer, more dramatic and elemental. A bit wild and hard to contain, it could be considered Syrah in its more feral state.
Greywacke’s iron-rich soils confer an extremely ferrous character to the wine that we see every vintage (terroir!), a trait I describe as mineral/red vapor. This distinctly ferrous note interweaves with spicy dark fruits (tart and savory), mint and a soy-like meatiness. On the palate, the wine is immediately fruit-driven—a slight surprise given the savory nature of its aromatics—with a sense of tiny wild berries, intense, potent and spicy. The wine possesses prodigious structure and deep texture from ultra-low yields due to such unforgiving soils. While you can sample your allocation soon after release (frankly, this wine could outlive most of us), I think it will be best enjoyed between 2020 and 2030. Our finest Eddie’s Patch since the 2013 vintage, and one of our greatest efforts ever.
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Vineyard
100% Greywacke Vineyard
Harvest Date
September 21st
Appellation
Russian River Valley
Clones
Alban and APB
Age of Vines at Harvest
12 years
Barrel Aging
AGED 16 MONTHS IN 40% NEW FRENCH OAK HOGSHEADS FROM TONNELLERIE ERMITAGE
Production
300 cases of 750mL
12 cases of 1.5L
12 bottles of 3L
Press
94 points Wine Advocate, June 2018
96+ Jeb Dunnuck, June 2018