2017 Descendants Liegeois Dupont - Syrah
Tasting notes
A beautiful Red Mountain Syrah. Classic characters of red tart fruits, blueberry pancakes, black pepper, fresh ground cumin seed, and hint of vanilla, dark cocoa powder and chili powder. The entry is tart with a lot of fruit and spice flavors. There is a slight aggression on the mid-palate which leads to a smooth and creamy finish. This Syrah has a rugged elegance to it. Smelling and tasting this wine reminds you of the Red Mountain landscape. Slightly savage, yet beautiful.
Grapes are from Les Gosses Vineyard, which is in the Red Mountain AVA, and has both the Joseph Phelps and Tablas Creek clones. The wine was destemmed and partially crushed into stainless steel fermenters where it was pumped over twice daily until desired tannin extraction was achieved. It was then pressed to barrels where it underwent malolactic fermentation, then racked off lees and 100% barrel aged in 52% new oak and puncheons (48% neutral oak) for 19 months. The new oak and puncheons consisted of 49% American and 51% French.
Harvest Notes: 2017 started off cold! January stayed in the upper teens for most of the month and dipped into the negatives for a day or two. Along with the cold we had a lot of snow! People were calling it the 60-year freeze, we hadn’t seen a winter like that since 1955. Spring was damp and the hills had never been so green. Things started to heat up around July and August and by August we were surrounded by fires originating in Canada and all up and down the West Coast. There was a blanket of smoke in the sky, which really dampened the suns UV rays. We think this actually helped the vines slow down ripening due to less photosynthesis taking place. Luckily the fires were far enough away that smoke taint was not an issue at all. We had a mild September and October which really stretched out the maturation period allowing flavors to develop nicely without Brix getting too high. 2017 was a really interesting year and an exciting one! The resulting wines have been full of color and flavor, especially here on Red Mountain.
| Vintage | 2017 |
| Varietal | Syrah |
| Varietal Composition | 100% Syrah |
| Appellation | Red Mountain |
| Vineyard | Les Gosses |
| Acid | 5.3 g/L |
| PH | 3.95 |
| Aging | This wine is lovely now but, like other Red Mountain wines, should age well, probably peaking in 5 years, but still very drinkable at 10 years old. |
| Alcohol | 13.50% |
| Volume | 750 ml |
| Bottling Date | 04/22/2019 |
| Cases Produced | 2278 6 pack cases, 750ml bottles |
