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current releases Our wines are released throughout the year, but as we don't make very much, they sell out quickly!
If you would prefer to send us an order via fax or mail, please click here for our printable order form.
The 2007 harvest kicked off with an early morning pick of viognier at the Cuatro Vientos vineyard, and later that same morning we pulled in fruit from Jack McGinley vineyard. Though we would have liked more fruit, crop levels were low so in total we picked a little over 2 tons from both vineyards. The grapes were gently pressed to cold, stainless steel. On October 16 we picked the one row of viognier in our ampelos vineyard for a total of 1100 pounds, with the final blend of the three vineyards made in December 2007. With the color of sand from a tropical beach and a nose of jasmine, lemongrass and crystallized ginger, this viognier is sure to please. Balanced acidity and gravel-like minerality give way to a mouth bursting of juicy white peach and grandma’s lemon meringue pie. Cool, crisp and ready to be paired with your favorite spicy foods. Just 170 cases produced. Click here for full winemaking notes.
This may be the wine we all find the most fun to make! What makes our rosé different is the crushing and cold soaking of the initial syrah grapes we picked, which not only gives us a beautiful glowing pink color but it adds a deep, red mouth feel that we find lacking in many rosés. The wine is never touched by oak and does not go through malolactic fermentation. We want to keep the ripe flavor of the syrah grapes alive and allow for the natural aromas and flavors to come forward. The 07 rosé is like liquid fuschia in a glass. A nose of strawberries and watermelon give way to a mouth of ripe raspberries and currants. Spicier than the ’06, this rosé is done in the provençal style with a soft tannin structure that comes from the 3 days of 35% skin contact we allow for. Always great as an aperitif, or paired with fish, chicken or our favorite – spicy thai food! 240 cases produced. Best when served at 50°. Click here for full winemaking notes.
0n September 20, 2005, we started the second harvest from our own vineyard!! We picked 19 tons of clone 115 and 8 tons of Pommard clone 04. The pinot harvest lasted until September 27th and 2005 was a big crop year. With the vines trying to produce an exorbitant amount of clusters, we had to remind them what it means to make quality wine. This was a problem throughout the appellation and if we did not stay on top of the crop levels, the wine would suffer. With our vineyard consultant Jeff Newton leading the charge, we dropped between 30-40% of our grapes to eliminate any green flavors. And alas, we were successful! L lambda is used mathematically as a cosmological constant – this is our main program and we will make this wine every year going forward. This wine is bursting with rich cherry notes and the underlying flavor of cola, this pinot shows us what one more year of growth can do for vines. The nose offers a hint of milk chocolate and blueberries. Enjoy this wine with your summer cuisine from salads to quiche and especially barbeque. Please click here for a printable version of these notes.
r is a correlation coefficient – each year we will make different blends of clones to optimize this wine. The 2005 rho consists of the top 20% of our estate pinot noir lot for the vintage. We tasted through all of the pinot barrels and determined which were of a caliber for the rho blend, with the final blend consisting of 16 total barrels. 2 barrels were clone Pommard 4 and 14 were clone 115 and 9 of those (56%) were new barrels. The barrels chosen were from coopers TW Boswell, Remond, Sirigue, Radoux and Marsannay. 11 of the barrels were from sections of the vineyard where we employ branch locks for parallel vertical shoot positioning. The rho is bottled at the same time as the lambda pinot noir but to give the rho extra time to age in bottle. We release it one year after the bottling date, as we feel this final step lets the rho achieve its maximum potential! The nose of brown sugar, sarsparilla, and bing cherries on this garnet hued beauty captivate at first scent. Offering a pleasing palate of cinnamon infused molé , dark berries and bing cherries, the 2005 rho is lush, and fruit driven with a big, long tannin structure that will aid beautifully in aging. 535 cases and 24 magnums produced. Smooth and polished up front, showcasing ripe cherry, raspberry and blue berry fruit, yet gaining traction, with a nice presentation of firm, loamy tannins that gain complexity and depth. 91 points, Wine Spectator Please click here for a printable version of these notes.
We planted grenache in the ampelos vineyard in 2004, but since we wouldn’t have any of our own fruit to work with until 2006 we found some delicious cool climate grenache from the prestigious Byron Vineyard. Smooth and integrated and very dark for a grenache. D delta is used mathematically to symbolize a difference. this grenache differs from your typical red wine with its fruity profile. The nose shows high notes of black currant. Most grenache in our experience is over ripe with the scent of strawberries, ours has a glimpse of the fruit but nothing overpowering. The palate is long and finished off with more black currant – good wines finish last! Just 79 cases and 36 magnums produced. Please click here for a printable version of these notes.
2005 marked the second harvest from our estate vineyard! We began harvesting syrah on 10/8/2005 and finished on 10/14/2005. All together we picked 1.5 tons of clone 99 and 2.4 tons of the estrella clone, 50% of which was branch locked. to optimize the sunlight exposure to the leaves and ensure consistent photosynthesis. G gamma is used mathematically for a function including complex numbers, and there could not be a better wine in our program to fit this descriptor than our estate syrah. This is our black beauty. Gamma offers a nose of toasted oak and dark cherries. The palate of almonds, orange peel and dark chocolate are the signature of syrah from the ampelos vineyard. 258 cases plus 35 magnums produced. Please click here for a printable version of these notes.
We were originally going to use these Alisos Vineyard grapes for our syrache blend. When we barrel tasted we learned that the flavors were so good that we just had to bottle it on its own – the 2005 epsilon was born! We also used 35% new oak and 65% neutral barrels on this syrah but decided to try a couple of new things: with the french oak (Remond) we combined a hungarian (Trust) and a hybrid barrel, where the staves are american and the heads french. The wine was been aged in the barrel for 17 months, and of the 14 barrels we selected our favorite 6 and used them for the epsilon. e epsilon is used mathematically as a small, positive quantity. At ampelos, it designates special wines released in extremely limited quantities. A deep, dark garnet red color promises a big wine. The nose indicates spices and dark fruit as well as a little vanilla and crème brulee. The palate is big: candy, rainier cherries, chocolate-raspberry tart, a hint of cinnamon and violets while the oak flavors are light and very well integrated. 140 cases and 33 magnums produced. "...the 2005 Syrah Alisos Vineyard...
offers beautiful sweet, chocolaty, creme de cassis fruit intermixed
with meat juice, underbrush, and forest floor notes. With lovely
ripeness as well as opulence, it is best consumed over the next
5-7 years."
Truly a Santa Barbara County wine if you count the miles on our odometer! On 10/7 we picked Syrah from Alisos Vineyard, and then on 10/8 Syrah from the Byron vineyard. Then, on 10/13 harvested Grenache from Byron and Alisos. 10/14 brought in Bien Nacido Syrah, and 11/3 the last of the Syrah from Alisos. Whew! The wine is 27% grenache and 73% syrah from different climates. Full of bright fruits on the nose and palate especially cherries. This wine is all about the fruit, not the oak. We made a dish of leftover lamb, potatoes, peppers, heirloom tomatoes, fresh black and white pepper, basil, thyme and chipotle for a kick - the syrache was dynamite along side. Give it a try! 538 cases and 36 magnums produced. Please click here for printable winemaking and tasting notes. |
