the syrah

Arnot-Roberts Wines: Duncan Meyers was assistant winemaker at Pax Wine Cellars and, along with Pax Mahle, was intimately involved in all decision-making regarding our syrah vines and fruit. Duncan and his partner Nathan Roberts sourced syrah from us when they began their winery a few years ago. These young men have both talent and passion— we think their wines are awesome and we're not surprised that the critics agree. www.arnotroberts.com

Bedrock Wines: Morgan Twain-Peterson's self-described "itsy-bitsy winery" is new for us with the 2009 vintage. Morgan grew up at Ravenswood (with dad Joel Peterson) and made his first wine at age 5 (really). He intends "to spread the gospel of syrah in California by sourcing fruit from the great terroirs." That says it all. www.bedrockwineco.com

Culler Cellars: From the first syrah harvest in 2002 through the current vintage, Karen Culler has made a single-vineyard syrah from Griffin's Lair. Karen offered us valuable advice in choosing clones and laying out the syrah block, and helped us survive the growing pains of young syrah. Now winemaker at Ladera Vineyards in Napa, Karen continues her own highly praised program of winemaking. www.cullerwines.com

Pax Wine Cellars: Our relationship with winemaker Pax Mahle also began with the first harvest in 2002. The talented Wells Guthrie (Copain) was Pax's consultant at that time. The 2006 Griffin's Lair Pax syrah was just released; 2007 and 2008 are in barrel, although these vintages will be bottled and released without Pax Mahle who has left PWC to found a new winery. Our syrah grapes will follow him to Wind Gap Wines. www.paxwines.com

Wind Gap Wines is the latest project from Pam and Pax Mahle, a project dedicated to naturally produced, honest wines of nuance that tell the story of special vineyard sites, and their appellations. Pax will continue utilizing his section of vineyard for the designated Syrah program at Wind Gap (2007 will be the first Griffin's Lair release), and he's signed on for some of our Pinot Noir--an exciting prospect for the future! www.windgapwines.com