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RE: What draws you to this grape?

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triodesteve

In Reply to: RE: What draws you to this grape? posted by jimbill on January 16, 2011 at 21:02:45

I do make Cab and Merlot, and Riesling, and even Cab Franc. And you are right, I can sell my Cabernet for more money. The single best lot I bring in every year is probably Merlot. But the market for Merlot is down, so I'm a little afraid to sell it on its own. All of my Merlot goes into my Cabernet.
I do think Syrah grows well here, but in different places than Cab and Merlot grows well. I prefer cooler spots for my Syrah. Remember this a huge growing area...lots of different microclimates.
Do I prefer Syrah as a consumer? As always the answer is it depends..what am I eating? What kind of mood am I in?, etc, etc.
Too me Syrah is just more fun to make I guess.

Follow Ups:

That begs another question... - jimbill 09:16:23 01/17/11 (1)
Why more fun?
- RE: That begs another question... - triodesteve 20:02:29 01/17/11 (0)
  I guess because you have more options as a winemaker.
  To me winemaking is about the 500 little decisions you make. With Syrah you have even more.
  Let me try to explain. I have blocks of a vineyard that I share with other winemakers. We pick on the same day and then the fruit goes to three different wineries. We all know the same basics, but we all individually do things a little different. They don't seem like big things, but they add up and add up until the wine made from those grapes picked on the same day from the same block tastes quite different from each other.
  With Syrah, that multiplies. For example, a few years ago I made an "experiment" with one vineyard. I broke up the Syrah into three fermentors and they were all teated differently.
  Number 1: destemmed and treated like a "normal lot
  Number 2: destemmed but layered with stems to make sort of a layer cake
  Number 3: grapes fermented whole cluster on the stem
  
  All three ended up completely unique from the other..to me that;s fun I guess.

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