2020 Sta. Rita Hills Syrah - Gamma

Soil. Vines. Wines. This is the order in which great wine is made. Ampelos is the Greek word for vine. The Greek symbol Gamma: “the complex” is used mathematically for complex functions. The ultimate expression of this Syrah comes from farming three different clones to blend for this complex wine.

The relationship we cultivate with our land is paramount in producing hand crafted, minimally invasive wines that both whisper and shout about the terroir from which they are grown. Our Ampelos Vineyard in Sta. Rita Hills is the first in the US to be certified sustainable, organic and biodynamic. Our commitment to natural farming and winemaking is evident in every sip.

Wine Making Style:

• The fruit spent the night in a cold room to drop the temperature
• The grapes were de-stemmed into small 1½ ton open top fermenters
• Cold soaked for 3-5 days after which the natural, wild fermentation kicked in. we do not use any man-made yeast any longer – we just let mother nature do her job.
• After 12-16 days, with 2 daily punch downs, we drained the free-run (~80%), press off the rest and barrel down the individual batches
• Then the second fermentation (converts malolatic acid to lactic acid) kicks in utilizing the natural wild malolactic bacteria
• The wine was racked twice during the barrel aging – it is unfined and unfiltered