Vintage 2016 gave us yet another beautiful vintage in the Napa Valley. This following the fabulous vintages of 2012-2015. Marked by a few late-season heat spells, the wines are as opulent as the 2012s, with the concentration of the 2014s. We at Kuleto Estate still don’t understand why Syrah isn’t more popular with the average consumer. It’s certainly one of our top sellers in our tasting room, probably because it’s always an in-house favorite. There are few places in the Napa Valley with the right combination of shale soils that limit a naturally vigorous variety, constant winds that interrupt bloom yielding open clusters, warm days, cool nights – all of which add up to perfect growing conditions for this primally evocative grape variety. I say ‘primally’ because Syrah has an animal-like nature with its smoky charcuterie elements and its wet stone-like character. Dark and inky in the glass, our 2016 Syrah offers bold aromas and flavors of wild blueberries, cherry cola, black pepper and lavender. This vintage, we co-fermented it with a portion of Petit Verdot for additional depth and structure. It was aged for 18 months in larger format barrels (500L rather than 225L) without racking to preserve its essence.