Snapshot Wines

Glass Island is a Blend of 66.7% ZInfandel, 22.2% Merlot and 11.1% Syrah.  This wine shoots for complexity and refinement in a way that ease and grace.  

The wine centers ona  juicy, blackberry core with soft edges of vinalla and toffee.  There is some of the warmth of a classic Dry Creek Zin on the front of the palate, but instead of a dusty summer day, it feels more like lying in the sun to dry off after a swim at the beach on a hot day. 

2018 Among Lynx
Snap Shot Series
North Coast

The third release for our "Snapshot Series" wines is a blend of Pinot Noir (50%), Zinfandel  (33.3%), and Grenache (16.7%). Lucas was inspired to create this blend after he tasted a wine from the Jura region of France, known for its Pinot based blends, and is excited to share his own creation in this shipment.

60% Syrah, 40% Zinfandel
Dry Creek Valley - Sonoma County
14.8% Alcohol by volume

We made this wine to reflect the rustic values of the earliest prospectors in the Sierras and our 40-year winemaking tradition in the red dirt of Dry Creek Valley. Big, tannic, age-worthy, and ready to both join you by a ribeye tomorrow or lay down in the cellar for another decade.  Limited production of 85 cases.

The goal for this wine was to make a power-oriented Grenache wine that served as a counterpoint to the varietal Grenache bottlings we love so much and as a foil to the Grenache/Syrah/Mouvedre blends from Gigondas.

This wine retains the same juicy strawberry core of Grenache, but builds from that starting point into something altogether more driven and rustic.   This wine will be a beautiful fit for everything from tandoori chicken and chickpea curry to roasted root vegetables and flank steak.  

We expect that this wine will age for at least 10 years, but this wine is really built for now through 2023. 

Reviews:

"This very dark ruby-colored unique blend from Meeker opens with a pleasant mild acai berry and boysenberry bouquet with a hint of faint strawberry. On the palate, this wine is medium-bodied, balanced, and a little juicy. The flavor profile is a tasty mild stewed black plum with notes of gentle oak and faint minerality mixed in. I also detected hints of acai berry. blackberry and dried herbs in the background. The finish is dry and well-managed mild tannins drift away nicely. This wine would pair perfectly with beef bourguignon." - Ken's Wine Guide 91pts.

2017 "Directrix"
Snapshot Series # 5

60% Cabernet Franc
40% Syrah
Dry Creek Valley

In geometry, a directrix is a fixed line that describes a curve or surface. The Latin root, dirigere, means "to guide". A parabola, for example, is a set of all points in a plane that are equidistant between a focus and the directrix. In an ellipse, the directrix prefectly splits the two focii. Directrix is also an archaic spelling of "directress", or the feminine equivalent of 'director'. This wine is a practical exploration of the perfect split between two focii, Cabernet Franc and Syrah. Obliquely, it's a wine about relationships – an homage to the women who shape our wines.

The Snapshot series of wines is about moments or ideas that we want to explore and reflect with a wine. Sometimes the wines are about a few ideas at once, and Directrix is a good example of that. This wine started with the goal of spotlighting Cabernet Franc and Syrah. What it became, however, is an exploration of relationships, balance, the nature of influences in winemaking, and about challenging expectations. 

As the blending evolved, we found that both Syrah and Cabernet Franc ere jostling to feel in charge, but we wanted to find the point where the push and the pull felt in balance. Where is the balance point between these two grapes? Can we make the most awesome, grayest area? Can we make the word "neutral" feel like a party? Is balnce a  literal concept or is it more about feel? What would if feel like if Syrah and Cabernet Franc were both the lead singer in Def Leopard? Can we teach ourselves not to make assumptions about the forces that play into a wines character? Can we ask better questions?

We bottled our attempt at answering these questions. Neither Cab Francy nor Syrah-ish. this wine is the best kind of weird; it revels in its vagueness. A lush core of blueberry cobbler and dried figs are wrapped in a briney, savory balnket like dry-cured black olives. The palte is lush and full edge to edge, with a leathery softness and a rolling structure that builds gently and then recedes slowly. Drink now orlay down for 10-15 years.