2004 Petite Rousse Paso Robles Syrah

With my spirit freshly rekindled from two nights in Yosemite and one night in Mammoth with the entire family, I harvested Rolling Hills the 25th of August. We were blessed with 62 tons of fruit off of 15 acres or 4.1 tons per acre. Sugars in the tank averaged a very modest 24.5 degrees Brix compared to a very risky 27.75 degrees Brix for the 2003 vintage. With my commercial yeast of choice held up in US Customs I feverishly called my contacts at Lallemand for an alternative recommendation. Thus, after a couple days soaking at cellar temperature the must was inoculated with half the recommended dosage of rare yeast isolated from the soil of "Pic Saint-Loup" in the "Coteaux du Languedoc." The wine fermented completely dry while on its skins, which, for the record, was a first for "petite rousse." Identical to the 2001 and 2002 "petite rousse" the 2004 "petite rousse" comes from 100% free run juice which (1) allows me to avoid fining and (2) greatly tames the amount of rustic tannin evident in Paso Robles Syrah. Knowing there was approximately 9500 gallons of "vin de goutte" in my 62-ton fermentor, I started draining the tank on day 14 at 4pm. At 3am that night I realized I was not going to be able to finish draining the entire tank. A little more than half of the free run juice was pumped to another stainless tank. In order to extend the average maceration length beyond 14 days I decided to wait another seven days before draining the remaining free run off the skins. Hence, on day 21 I spent another 18-hour day (err, night) draining the tank. Without being able to press the tank until day 30, I resolved to coax a little more free run out of the cap on day 28 and again on day 30. Thirty days is much longer than I intended to macerate Rolling Hills for sure, but the circumstances offered me a chance to evaluate two barrels of 28-day free run and two barrels of 30-day free run. Today I can proudly say the beauty of the 2004 "petite rousse" is in the maceration. Six different lots make up the final blend. And five of those six lots saw maceration times beyond 20 days. The final 100% Syrah blend includes 4% of Brave Oak Vineyard which adds a very concentrated essence of Northern Rhone "je ne sais qu' a" to the "assemblage." The Rolling Hills component witnessed 10 months in four to seven year old Seguin Moreau 225-liter "château" barrels. The Brave Oak component witnessed 7 months in 4 to 8 year old Seguin Moreau 225-liter "château" barrels. These trusty barrels preserve the wine's fruit first and foremost. They further allow a tremendous amount of evaporation and concentration in my experience. The filling, the topping and the emptying of the barrels were done by hand (my hands exclusively) with 100% gravity and without the use of a pump. Indigenous malolactic fermentation took place in barrel 100%. The barrels were transported from CCWS to the new winery on a Saturday as soon as Clos Mimi's bond was officially transferred by the TTB. The wine was transferred to its very own brand new bottling tank between the 16th and 25th of August. The wine married for 7 to 16 days before being bottled with Steve Rasmussen's spotless mobile bottling line the 1st and 2nd of September. This was as close to the new moon as Steve would bottle my wine since the new moon rose on the 3rd of September, which happened to be a Saturday during the Labor Day weekend. "Tant pis!" The 2004 "petite rousse" was never fined nor filtered nor acidulated. Alcohol weighed in at 14.5%. Total production was 4067 cases of 750-milliliter bottles and 2 cases of 1500-milliliter bottles.