Meet my Syrah Growers, the Yorks
This weekend, Tom and I had special guests at the winery. As I've mentioned, we both made Syrah from a new Amador vineyard, York Vineyards. George and Pam York came down from Fiddletown to taste through our wines. Pam is viticulturist w/ green thumb; she refers to the vines are her "babies". Excited to try wine from their vineyard, we tasted barrel samples and tried some blending trials.
Tom made the wine in French style (extended maceration, neutral barrels), where I emulated Australian style (pressed early with slight barrel fermentation, hybrid barrels,). The wines tasted great yet distinctive. The Eno Syrah has a smoky, tarry nose from new oak with bright fruit but finishes quietly. Tom's on the other hand, has less primary fruit but excellent mid-palate and finish.
The Yorks were great people. Having moved from the Bay Area to Fiddletown, they bought the property 20 years ago (1983) and build a white ram dirt house. Neighboring the Eschen (now Rinaldi) Vineyard, the property sits kittie corner to Damas Vineyard.
In 2000, they grafted over 5 acres of Syrah. They decided to plant Syrah because: 1) George visited Cote Rotie ("Roasted Slope") and observed that the topography was very similar to Fiddletown 2) Bill Easton loved Amador for Rhone varietals so much he started the Terre Rouge Winery. 3) Believed that Zin had over saturated market. Their goal is to grow ultra, ultra premium grapes that regionally unique varietal. Their hard work and research has paid off; their grapes and resulting wines taste great. Even Scott Harvey, the winemaker from Folie � Deux, believes the vineyard has great potential.
The proud parents of Syrah are two French varietals, Dureza and Mondeuse Blanche. Dureza is a traditional yet unpopular varietal grown. It is grown in the northern France region, Ardèche, west of the Rhône river. Mondeuse Noire is a mainstay in France's Savoie region.
In 2000, Carole Meredith, then Professor at UC Davis, and Jean- Michel Boursiquot from a university in Montpelier, conducted genetic tests to identify Syrah's origin. They debunked myths that it originated in the city of Shiraz (once Persia, now Iran), or it was introduced to France from Syria, or that it came from Egypt, via Syracuse.
They determined the grapes came together as a happy accident of nature. Meredith believes, the union was a natural one, before folks learned how to make genetic crosses.
Charles Sullivan reports in his book Napa Wine: A History, Syrah was one of the first French varieties brought into California. Arguably, the first planting was the Drummond Vineyard near Glen Ellen in Sonoma in 1878. After a long hiatus, in 1919 McDowell Valley in Mendocino County planted a whole vineyard of it. These days, Syrah is extraordinarily popular and has some of the most new plantings in CA.
In the 1970's, Scott Harvey reestablished Amador County as one of California's best Zinfandel growing regions.
Having grown up there, he returned to the Sierra Foothills and attended California State University at Sacramento before he began practicing enology at Montevina winery in Amador County. After further training back in Germany, Scott returned to Montevina as Assistant Winemaker for the 1976 and 1977 harvests. In 1978, Scott became winemaker for Story winery, also in Amador County. Scott went on to develop a winery for the Santino family and eventually started Renwood winery which operated out of Santino. Finally in 1996, Scott signed on as Winemaker for Folie � Deux. from: Folie � Deux website