This wine is 100% Syrah from the Z Block at Bien Nacido Vineyard in the Santa Maria Valley. Z Block was our first “customer” planting at Bien Nacido, planted in 1992 on a perfect southwest facing hillside.

The grapes were destemmed into small open-top fermenters. Cold soaked for 3 days with pump-overs and then manually punched down twice a day for the duration of the ferment. On day five we drained off a little saignée from each fermented into new François Freres barrels (Bertranges, Troncais, and Vosges) for barrel fermentation. This saignée barrel-fermented portion was later added back to the final blend. Bob Lindquist used this technique every year for the Hillside Estate and it’s become an important part of the style, adding a toasty-mocha dimension to aroma and flavors. After pressing, the wine was aged for 22 months in François Frères Burgundy barrels. For the first year in about 60% new barrels, then racked, blended and returned to neutral barrels for the additional time. We then selected our favorite 6 barrels and bottled.

This is our 13th release of this special single vineyard; 1994 was the first. This vineyard block just keeps getting better with age. It is rich without being heavy, and with moderate alcohol, has great balance for aging. We aged it two years in barrel and two years in bottle, so it shows well on release. It is deeply colored with well-integrated flavors of blueberries, cola and hints of black pepper. If you do keep a cellar, you could put this away for another 10-15 years!