2017 Cimarron Vineyard Syrah
Wine Specs
Vintage
2017
Varietal
Syrah
Appellation
Willcox
Vineyard Designation
Cimarron Vineyard
Harvest Date
August 11
Acid
TA: 5.7 g/L
pH
3.79
Aging
Aged 5 months in 50% 1-year-old French oak (Vallaurine Cooperage) and 6 more months in 100% neutral oak barrels. Twice racked. Filtered, but unfined.
Alcohol %
14.4
Wine Profile
Tasting Notes
We’ve been working with Cimarron Syrah for six vintages now and it’s become a real staple in our cellar. Not only does this wine make its way into a couple of our important blends, we always pull our favorite few barrels for a vineyard/varietal designate. Instead of using Romanian oak on this wine like we have in the past, we aged this vintage briefly in a French oak barrel from the Vallaurine Cooperage – the lone cooperage of France’s Rhone Valley. Due to limited volume, we were only able to spare our best two barrels of this wine in 2017.
Production Notes
Destemmed but not crushed to open-top, 3⁄4-ton bins. Lot was left ~20% whole cluster. Cold-soaked 24 hours, then inoculated with specially selected yeasts (Rhone2056 & VRB). Hand punched 3-4 times daily.
Inoculated with Malolactic bacteria (Omega) around 7 Brix.
Pressed at dryness after 10 days skin contact. Settled 2 days before barreling.
Other Notes
Winemaker: Joe Bechard