2005 Elaine St. Clair Syrah, Napa Valley

With gentle handling of the fruit and careful barrel selection, Elaine strives to preserve all the unique fruit, floral and spice qualities of her vineyard.

The grapes are picked by hand early in the morning. The fruit is destemmed but not crushed into to small one ton open-topped fermenters. The must is kept cold for 4 days before adding yeast. Once the fermentation has commenced, each lot is “punched down” by hand several times per day to maximize the grape skin to juice contact. This gentle processing extracts color and flavor from the grape berries without astringency.

The wine is pressed at dryness and transferred into specially selected Burgundian barrels from the Billon and Cadus cooperages. The wine ages in barrel for 10 months.

The 2005 vintage is a fruit forward wine with fragrant aromas of currents, cherry and plum and a hint of sassafras and cassis that follow through to the full bodied palate. The wine has bright acidity which balances the concentrated fruit and finishes with caressing tannins.

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