Keith and I are tasting through our 2013 Lewis Syrah experiments today. One lot was barrel fermented in a special barrel made by Seguin Moreau out of tank staves rather than traditional barrel staves. They are much thicker with super tight grains. It has a really dark, smokey/bacon note and is really structured right now. We plan on doing an extended barrel aging with this wine to see what it becomes. You can tell that there is a ton of fruit in there but right now it is hiding behind some of the oak notes. The second lot is aging in 2 Seguin Moreau ICONE American oak barrels. I used to use American oak on Lewis Vineyard when I was at Basel Cellars, but have not used it in quite a while and this is a new project for SM so we thought we would give it a go. This lot is much brighter and shows VERY little of the traditional American oak notes of coconut and vanilla. Very low impact barrel which really protects and PROJECTS the fruit forward. Awesome raspberry notes with terrific acid profile. Also, terrific length. Very happy with these. Finally, we have Lewis in neutral barrel to compare. Pure fruit, it is dynamic and multi layered and will certainly be the base of the final Levitation. Just a gorgeous wine from an amazing vineyard!
Posted on: Wed, 22 Jan 2014 20:47:53 +0000
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