We visited Bartholomew Park Winery last October and tasted some mighty good wine. The wine we present tonight is from Sonoma Valley where Bartholomew Park’s Estate Vineyard is located at the base of the Mayacamas Mountain range, tucked up by the Arroyo Seco. Warm temperatures, constant breezes and excellent drainage make this vineyard ideal Syrah producing land.
The vineyard is on a west facing slope and was planted with clones 877, 470 and Alban Hermitage vines in 2002 on a vertical trellis system. The Syrah is planted in the coolest part of the vineyard, slowing down the ripening of the fruit.
The grapes are hand harvested and fermented with a prepared yeast in stainless steel tanks with gentle pump-overs. The wine is aged in French oak barrels, 30% new for 14 months. The production was 1155 cases. BartPark wines are only available through the winery.
Pictured here is my trusty heavy helix corkscrew. This corkscrew and I go back to my graduate student days when I found it at a yard sale for $0.50. This is one of the best buys of my life and has been with me on moves to six states. This little beauty has never failed to extract a cork for me.
Syrah, Estate Vineyard
Bartholomew Park Winery
Sonoma County
Vintage: 2005
AVA: Sonoma Valley
Alcohol: 14.0%
pH: 3.67
Acidity: 0.60 g/100mL
Price: ~$38.00
Color: Ruby Red
Intensity: Moderate
Aromas: Blackberry, cherry, jam, raisin, currant, oak, smoky, earth, struck flint, toast
Flavors: Blackberry, cherry, prune, black current, mint, anis, allspice, cinnamon, black pepper, smoked meat, oak, smoky, tobacco
Body: Full
Acidity: Moderate
Sweetness: Dry
Tannins: Suede
Finish: Long 
Summary: Interesting intense black fruit and suede tannin structure. Very beautiful red color just invites you to admire the color of this wine. The wine kept me coming back to see what would be revealed next. For me, that is what makes a fun wine.
We are having this tonight with oven barbequed baby back ribs. Sometimes when a wine is so good, it is hard to put it down after the meal. Taster B and I decided to experiment with chocolate. Oh, it was so good with chocolate. Tomorrow, we will have Minestrone soup and polish off the bottle. Yeah, it’s that good.
Saturday, December 29, 2007
"Old Reliable" and a Sonoma Valley Syrah
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2 comments:
Wow. Your cork screw really a high QPR find. I have one very similar as yours but I got it off ebay for $2.50 (shipping extra). Very functional corkscrew although these days I tend to use a $1 sommelier corkscrew most of the time.
Regarding the Syarh, it sounds interesting and I'll try to seek it out. Thanks for the intro.
RougeAndBlanc,
I was at a friend’s house for Thanksgiving a year ago. They just got one of those new fangled gear and cog driven, lever action wiz bang cork pullers. It actually pushed the cork into the bottle. (LOL, now what?) I looked it up and it was a $50 contraption.
My backup cork screw is a simple waiter’s friend. Hope you can fiend the Syrah!
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