Winemaker's Notes
I first met Otis Holt, owner/operator of Calypso vineyard in the early 2000’s. He had been growing Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot for a highly regarded local winery that bottled a blended wine from his site. The winery sold and they truncated the program to focus only on burgundy varieties. This was about the time the Sideways movie denigrated Merlot in an ironic way that was lost on most of the population. Otis and I were introduced at this point yet I did not have the bandwidth to add on to our current Cabernet Sauvignon from the Scherrer vineyard. However, I had worked with Merlot and Syrah side by side for over a decade prior while at Dehlinger and was then taking a larger stand on Syrah. So we ended up collaborating on refining his site for Syrah in all its beautiful manifestations since then.
Otis is an intelligent and accomplished home winemaker who constantly integrates new information into his gestalt after thinking deeply about every facet he can imagine. We have enjoyed one and a half decades of collaboration on refining his site for this variety via clonal selection, rootstock, trellis and spacing decisions. A decade older than I, he had other projects to focus on and realized he needed to remove the ‘commercial’ portion so he could move on with more of his lifetime ambitions. Despite my selfish desire to continue, I agree with him.
He has kept some of the vineyard in production for his own use and there is a small chance in the future that he might decide to cut loose a barrel’s worth for us someday. Regardless, I am grateful for the relationship, experiences and wines we created during our time working together. 2019 is our last vintage of this exciting collaborative run.
Beautiful, primary Syrah nose of sandalwood, savory/fruity nexus of panforte, fresh fig, fine Corinthian leather (I’m dating myself with TV commercials), fennel, amorphous dark fruits and just generally compelling mysterious non-fruit notes that make one’s mouth water. It fills the mouth perfectly. This is everything a Syrah lover needs, regardless of stylistic sweet spot. It is not quite as hefty as a typical Aussie Shiraz and it is not an insipid Cote du Rhône in a cold, rainy year (I love the wines in general, by the way). It is more like an insanely over-achieving Crozes-hermitage or a very good Hermitage in a fine year. I say this as a lover of classic Northern Rhone wines in great years with a go-to crazy low price compared to the ‘established estates.’ Do a blind tasting and decide for yourself, at any age of the wines.
