Crunchy Roastie 2023

A Cherry - Sangre - Crunch Trifecta
Over our decades-long winemaking journey, we have become less and less extractive in our classic red wine fermentations. As we grew more confident in the natural concentration of our arid, undiluted terroir; we transitioned from “punching down” the floating skin caps of our open-top fermenters from three times a day, to three times total, throughout an entire native fermentation.  Our Syrah cuvees remained dark and rich, yet the profile showed even more nuance with delicate prettiness joining the wines’ bold core.
Our journey to reduce extraction eventually led us to try whole-grape fermentation (no extraction at all) with the first Carbonic Sangiovese cuvee bottled from the 2013 vintage. After falling in love with the lighter bodied Carbonic Sangiovese, we chose to experiment with the carbonic fermentation of Syrah.  Because we wouldn’t extract any tannin, we could pick the Syrah earlier, with the grape skin still crunchy.  We borrowed the Côte Rôtie (Roasted Slope) trick of co-fermenting a dollop of earlier ripening Viognier for floral aromatics and more weight bonded with the bright mid-palate fruit.
Crunchy Rôastie has become a seriously delicious Featherweight version relative to Stolpman’s classic Middleweight and Heavyweight macerated Syrah cuvees.  By taking such a delicate touch to the intensity of Santa Barbara County, we can deliver a Syrah in the same weight class as our favorite Northern Rhone wineries.

Healthy late season rains pushed back bud-break and the growing season by 3-4 weeks. We escaped the summer without any extreme heat events that would have accelerated ripening. This all led up to even, slow ripening and a strategic harvest.  
Certainly, the moderate weather and long hang times of 2023 lent a further layer of richness to Crunchy Rôastie.  However, the biggest differentiator came in the winery, where we decided to lay down the wine in oak 3 months longer than any previous vintage, including past “extended elevage” bottlings of Crunchy Rôastie.  The ten months total in barrel allowed for the wine’s primary fruit to unfurl into a seamless beauty and this aging regimen will likely be our new the path forward.
A Cherry – Sangre – Crunch Trifecta. Splash of juicy red fruit over the signature black tar and bloodiness. Dried tobacco leaf carries the savory torch rather than herbal stems of past vintages.  That firm crunchy cherry shines like a polishing light spray of red through the palate, sparkling with energetic firmness. Most delicious, captivating Crunchy Rôastie in the 5 year history of the cuvee.  Our patience in letting the fruit flesh out in barrel rewarded us without sacrificing freshness!