Shell Creek Vineyard is located thirteen miles southwest of the site of James Dean's fatal head-on collision near Cholame and twenty miles east of highway 101. The Sinton family has been farming Shell Creek Vineyards since the early 1970s. In 1990 the Sintons were encouraged to plant a small block of Syrah after so much success with growing Petite Sirah. Clos Mimi was fortunate enough to be offered tiny quantities of Syrah starting with the low-yielding 1996 vintage on a handshake basis. With tremendous faith in Tim's winemaking ability and initial reviews for Clos Mimi, the Sinton family decided to plant a one-acre block of Syrah in 1999. The gently sloping calcareous sandy loam soils here contain significant quanitities of fractured marine limestone, hence producing very dark anthocyanins in the grapes. Very warm days on the east side of the Paso Robles appellation combine with brisk summer nights to yield high grape sugars, high pHs, and low acids. The UC Davis Syrah clone #1 is grafted onto 5C rootstock at 1037 vines per acre resulting in twice the vine density of the block planted in 1990. To insure low yields and high quality Tim has been pruning his baby block since day one. This unilateral-cordon, vertically-trained vineyard will yield approximately 1200 bottles of wine starting with the 2003 vintage.