The Black Bear Block at Zaca was planted in 1978- Estrella River clones from Eberle that were planted ungrafted. Today they’re producing about a ton per acre. Ken Brown was Zaca’s winemaker then and made the call to put in Syrah. The first Syrah harvested from the block was 1981 and the first ‘Syrah’ bottling was 1983. Legend has it that the clone was a suitcase clone from Hermitage.
I’ve attached an article that Edible Santa Barbara did at Zaca Mesa’s 40th anniversary- It features all the original players at Zaca- Ken Brown, Jim Clendenen, Bob Lindquist, Adam Tolmach, Dan Gehrs and more. It gives a nice perspective on the move toward toward Rhone varietals in our area of Santa Barbara County. If you haven’t seen it before it’s a good read. Edible - Zaca U Article (1) (1).pdf (1.01 MB)
•2005 Arcadian Syrah Sleepy Hollow Vineyard - USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Lucia Highlands (3/1/2015)
Northern Rhone like with a bit of funk, stones, underbrush, bright red fruits and white pepper. Medium to long finish and complex. The best Syrah I have sampled this year. (94 points)
Just bought some 2001 Russian Hill Estate Winery Syrah Windsor Oaks Summit at our local Grocery Outlet (discount grocery store). I read about it on one of the blogs and bought a bottle to try.
PnP. Nose is muted, but there’s still some Syrah notes. Syrah funkiness surrounding some red fruit and no noticeable tannins. [Rated 90 but wife would give it 92]
Went back to get some more and it only cost $5.99/bottle!
Nick, Thanks for the detail. I don’t have much of my wine at home, so just looked at the couple of bottles I happen to have here (2002, 2004, 2008). Hopefully my thoughts came through that I think Peay is one of the places Craig might find the wines he is looking for. God knows I’ve been saying this for a lot of years, to the point where any time we have a syrah event, my friends assume that’s what I’ll be bringing
So aside from a mindblowing '86 Clape from a paper cup on Tennessee Valley Beach, the other seminal Syrah experience I had was tasting a 93 Qupe Bien Nacido. The folks at Bien Nacido thought the Estrella stuff was pretty special as that is what they originally planted (or grafted over - I think their original Syrah vines were grafted over from Reisling). I in turn sourced one of my selections from those Bien Nacido Estrella vines. Does anyone think Bien Nacido is a pretty cool site for Syrah (much cooler than Paso/Estrella River)? Anyone remember (or still have) a 94 Qupe Bien Nacido? Cooler vintage there than 93 i had. I remember at the time I preferred the 93.
So the story I heard was… it came from Chapoutier’s Hermitage holdings via Australia to Estrella River. Not reliable info though.
