2015 Stolpman Vineyards Syrah Ballard Canyon 750 ml

Stolpman’s 2015 Estate Syrah: A Four-Peat Miracle

The California drought vintages of 2012, 2013, and 2014 were unforgettable, already recorded in the history books as possibly the greatest three-peat in the history of the state. In a fit of enthusiasm, Robert Parker published a rather long headline: “Higher and Higher Quality in an Unprecedented and Historic Succession of Great Years.” A question hovered over the heads of California winemakers at the start of the 2015 season: Could they outdo themselves once again?

“Nature answered that question for us,” says Peter Stolpman, with a laugh. If you’ve been paying attention to the vintage reports, you already know 2015 was a historically low-yield harvest in Santa Barbara and elsewhere, making for light fruit loads of incredible concentration. For many wines, as was the case with Stolpman’s astonishing 2015 Estate Syrah, production was cut in half.

Thanks to their dry-farming methods, fanatical pursuit of quality (using only free-run juice), and the southern Ballard Canyon heat, that’s half of not very much to begin with. Stolpman and his crew usually pulls a ton and a half of fruit per acre. In 2015, they barely eked out a ton. That adds up to just 2,400 cases of one of California’s most iconic Syrahs, from a vintage marked by sheer opulence and scintillating vibrancy. Did we mention we’re getting a jump on the market before critics publish their scores? That means WineAccess customers are being treated to a special price before soaring demand clears out the Stolpman cellars.

Early in the growing season, strong gusts whistled through the vineyards, not an atypical occurrence in the region. But once fruit began to set in May, Stolpman realized that the winds had blown off more flowers than usual, trimming yields from the get-go.

A crucial heads-up from wunderkind winemaker Sashi Moorman, who was harvesting Pinot Noir at Domaine de la Côte, clued Stolpman and vineyard manager Ruben Solorzano in that they should prepare for one of the lowest-yield vintages in years. That was the key to Stolpman hitting this wine out of the park.

“We were armed with the knowledge that were were going to have a super-concentrated vintage,” Stolpman told us. “We knew the texture was going to be there at a lower sugar level. So we could just concentrate on picking when grapes were still firm and taut, making for the incredibly vibrant, lively profile you get with the 2015s.”

The 2015 Stolpman Estate Syrah is a knockout. Purple to the edge, with precise notes of black fruit, limestone, violets, and dark plum. Deeply concentrated and elegant on the attack, packed with black cherry, plum, and underbrush, at once dense and beautifully restrained, braced by vibrant Northern Rhône backbone.  

Just 200 cases available of this powerful, dry-farmed Syrah, walking a tightrope between Hermitage-like balance and New World opulence. 2015 is a year we’ll be talking about for a while. But today’s offer isn’t going to last long at $24.99 per bottle — a head start just for WineAccess members before the critics weigh in, alerting collectors from New York to San Francisco. Shipping included on 6.