We’ve been anticipating the release of this wine ever since we picked the grapes 16 months ago. Rarely are we this excited about a new wine but the 2004 Novy Susan’s Vineyard Syrah is truly something special.

Susan, you see, is Gary Pisoni’s sister and the Susan’s Vineyard is the highest, steepest, poorest soil section of the Pisoni Vineyard. Quite simply, there has always been something magical about the wines born at the Pisoni property and this is no exception.

We still remember that when the grapes arrived they literally stained the picking bins with small, purple circles. The yields were tiny (but that is to be expected from such poor soil and young vines). We treated the grapes and burgeoning wine as gently as possible using all indigenous yeasts for fermentation, hand punching down the skins twice daily, and pressing the wine to barrel after 24 days on the skins. The wine grew up in these 3 barrels— all French oak with only 1 barrel being new. Finally it was bottled, by gravity and by hand, without fining or filtration, in December of 2005.

The 2004 Novy Susan’s Vineyard Syrah is a surprisingly forward Syrah. The aroma of fresh acacia flowers along with concentrated blackberry fruit greet you right off that bat. In the mid-palate there is a hint of vanilla from the oak but also a sweet, rich, full spectrum of plum flavors and dark berry fruit cobbler. The finish does possess good tannins but, at this early stage, the fruit is so concentrated that they are barely noticeable. This wine is certainly forward enough to drink now but we are going to save a bit for ourselves to see how it ages as we think it may only become more complex with the passage of time.

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