An elegant Syrah made from some of the oldest vines remaining in California.
In the 1970s, Syrah was relatively unknown in the United States. Garry Eberle obtained vines from UC Davis that had been brought from Chapoutier's vineyards in Tain-la-Hermitage, France. He In 1975, he expanded 20 acres of his Estrella River Vineyard with this Syrah clone, becoming the first winemaker in the United States to produce a 100% Syrah wine.
Howie Steinbeck, Evalle's vineyard manager, partnered with Evalle to establish Steinbeck Vineyards in 1982. The Syrah block was own-rooted and planted in 1991 from a cutting of the original Estrella clone from Estrella River Vineyard. It is now one of the largest and oldest Syrah vineyards in California.
The grapes were hand-harvested, sorted and destemmed at the same time. The two varieties were fermented together in stainless steel tanks for 15 days. The must was pumped over twice a day and after fermentation, the wine was transferred to French oak (15% new), American oak (10% new) and Hungarian oak (10% new) barrels, with the remainder aged in neutral oak. The wine was aged for 15 months before bottling.
Rich fruit flavors of dark berries, raspberries, and plums. Earthy with white pepper, tobacco leaves, and violets. Moist, grippy tannins create a firm structure. Perfect with stewed beef, pork ribs, and duck with plum sauce.
Gary Eberle, one of the pioneers in the wine industry in Paso Robles, also contributed greatly to the recognition of Paso Robles as an appellation when he established his own winery. Eberle focused on Syrah, which was not widely available at the time, and spread it throughout California. Based on seedlings owned by the University of California, Davis, which were originally cultivated in Chapotier, Tain-l'Hermitage, he planted a 20-acre vineyard with a clone of Syrah, and in 1978 released the first 100% Syrah wine in the United States. His new endeavor gradually attracted the attention of other wineries, and today Paso Robles has established its position as a premium wine producing region for Rhone blends. Eberle, who knows the Paso Robles appellation inside and out, produces all of his wines with his name on them.
"Winemaking is both an art and a science"
Ben Mayo, winemaker/partner at Evalle Winery, is the epitome of this. With nearly 10 years of experience at Evalle, Mayo sees winemaking as a never-ending process and looks forward to each harvest with great anticipation. He says that science is everything up until the harvest, and blending and creating beautiful wines are all about trusting your own aesthetic sense. Mayo skillfully blends his own artistic sense with his background in science to produce highly acclaimed wines every year.