2011 Lytton Estate Syrah

Medium garnet. Seductive red berry fruit, forest floor aromas. White pepper, fennel seed, integrated oak. Elegant creamy-textured entry, polished tannins, medium body. Lengthy, complex clay/mineral finish.

An unusually cool summer delayed harvest until late September; it finished in mid-October. Viognier fermented with whole-berry syrah, enhancing aroma and texture. Grenache was included for its complementary fruit. A portion of rich press wine contributed additional color and tannin. This cool growing season has yielded a classic wine, which will be at its best in ten to twelve years. EB (9/13)

At Lytton Springs West, Ridge has just over three acres of twenty-one year old syrah noir, the California selection from plantings in 1916 and three and a half acres of younger French clones. These parcels are situated in the well-drained Sites soil on the bench overlooking Norton Creek. Since 1996, we have produced limited amounts for the Advance Tasting Program (ATP). Over time, the consistent quality showed syrah to be well matched to the climate and soil of Lytton Estate. As in the past, the 2011 vintage was co-fermented with a small amount of grenache and viognier from an adjacent parcel. Following harvest, it was assembled, in blind tasting, from the most intense and distinct lots.

Rainfall: 42 inches(above average)
Bloom: Late-May
Weather: Wet spring and atypical cool summer, with no sustained heat spells.

Harvest: Dates 28 September and 14 October
Grapes: Average brix 24.1˚
Fermentation: Whole-berry, destemmed, not crushed, fermented in open top tanks on indigenous yeast; pressed after eleven days; natural malolactic.
Barrels: 100% air-dried american oak barrels (15% new, 45% three years and 40% five years old).
Aging: 23 months in barrel

All estate grown grapes, hand harvested; destemmed and whole berry fermented on the native yeasts, followed by full malolactic on the naturally-occurring bacteria; 0.11g/L tartaric acid addition; minimum effective sulfur for this wine (35 ppm at crush, 106 ppm over the course of aging); pad filtered at bottling. In keeping with our philosophy of minimal intervention, this is the sum of our actions.

Average Rating: 91.0

No. of Tasting Notes: 51

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