Production:
140 Cases
Release Date: August 2008
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The Parsons’ Vineyard has very quickly
moved to the head of the pack as our favorite Syrah vineyard. Part of the reason for this is
that the clusters seem to mature physiologically at the same pace as sugars. In other words,
we get ripe flavors and ripe stems at lower sugar levels.
And these stems aren’t just partially ripe, but truly lignified and brown. Thus we use a
good bit of whole cluster fermentation on this wine. In 2006 we utilized about 80% whole
clusters, simply adding some crushed fruit to the top of the tank. This high percentage of
whole clusters necessitated the use of pigeage (jumping in the tank and tredding on the
clusters). Despite this extra work we believe that the ends more than justify the means.
The 2006 Novy Parsons’ Vineyard Syrah is a full bodied Syrah. It shows a remarkable concentration
of dark plum fruit flavors along with a real earthy, mineral character. It is not
shy on the tannins and thus we would recommend letting this wine sit in a cool cellar for
several years or, if you want to pop a bottle now, give it several hours of breathing time and
have it with a large hunk of meat.
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