Stolpman Estate Syrah Santa Ynez Valley

BACKGROUND The most representative flagship bottling of the vineyard Estate Syrah has become the calling card not only for Stolpman but for the Ballard Canyon AVA. Estate Syrah also symbolizes the evolution in viticulture and winemaking at Stolpman Vineyards. In the 1990s and well into the 2000s this wine was made in a more traditional style – employing extended macerations forceful punch-downs multiple times daily and new French oak barrels – all in the effort to make bigger more extracted wines. Today we rely on concentration derived from our version of dry-farming – no irrigation from fruit-set through picking. We are able to harvest small undiluted grapes at the peak of freshness without the jammy flatness associated with longer hang-times and dehydrated fruit. Confident that our grapes provide plentiful color flavor and texture; we now manage our fermentations much more gently – delicately circulating the juice and only using free run wine in an effort to elimin