2016 Dragonette Cellars Syrah Seven Santa Barbara County 750 ml

Galloni: Dragonette’s Wines Are “All Superb” in 2016

John and Steve Dragonette and Brandon Sparks-Gillis have emerged as a trio of all-star winemakers and forces of nature who are proving that Santa Barbara County is America’s rightful home for Burgundian and Rhône Valley grape varieties, just as Napa is home to Cabernet Sauvignon. That's why we've selected them to be the first in our new recurring feature called Highway 101.

California’s famous 101 highway runs from Los Angeles north into Oregon and Washington. A bevy of important wineries line the east and west sides of 101, and we’re highlighting our favorites, beginning with Dragonette.  

Antonio Galloni of Vinous calls Dragonette “one of the most fascinating wineries on the Central Coast,” and deems their wines “truly world-class,” so it is no surprise that very few cases of Dragonette Cellars’ small-batch 2016 Santa Ynez Valley “Seven” Syrah ever make it beyond their diehard mailing list and a few favored restaurants. We are extremely fortunate for the chance to offer this wine to you.

Dragonette’s Syrah sources include some the finest vineyards in Santa Barbara County’s Santa Ynez Valley, and “Seven” combines all their viticultural expertise, precision farming, and masterful winemaking into one complex snapshot of a great vintage. The critics have noticed too—Wine & Spirits named the 2016 Seven one of the "Year's Best US Syrahs," calling it, “a fascinating, shape-shifting wine.”

So, how did Dragonette’s gifted team suss out the absolute best plantings in America to make real-deal Syrah? In 2006, while the first Dragonette Syrah they ever made was aging in barrel, John dove into Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc, while Sparks-Gillis leapfrogged harvests to focus on Syrah. First, he apprenticed at Torbreck in Australia’s Barossa Valley with founder Dave Powell, whom Robert Parker has called “unquestionably one of the world’s finest wine producers.” With Powell, “we made it like they did in the 1800s, with concrete fermenters and a basket press for every single grape,” says Sparks-Gillis. Returning Stateside to Sine Qua Non, he absorbed everything he could from Manfred Krankl whose “Syrah begs to be compared with the greatest of France, California, and Australia,” Parker says.

So, yeah, experience. By late 2007, John, Steve, and Brandon began to hone in on about seven different Syrah sites throughout Santa Barbara’s Santa Ynez Valley. They observed that Syrah from John Sebastiano vineyard in Sta. Rita Hills, “supplies darker fruits like blueberry and blackberry, along with aromatics and richly textured mouthfeel, taught, and with energetic acidity,” says Sparks-Gillis. “Stolpman in Ballard Canyon shifts into more red fruit character, lending that classic charcuterie, and savory quality to Syrah.”

Dragonette’s “Seven” is the complete synthesis of all the complexities that each individual area brings. Just four of the seven sites were selected for the 2016 cuvée: the organically farmed John Sebastiano and Spear in the Sta. Rita Hills AVA; Kimsey, and the sustainably-farmed Stolpman Vineyard in Ballard Canyon AVA.

2016 was “a dream vintage,” says Sparks-Gillis. Antonio Galloni found the 2016s with “quite a bit of energy, freshness and verve,” singling out Dragonette’s wines as “all superb.” A warmer winter, in general, meant early bud-break with ideal conditions from spring into summer. Sunny, but cool, late into August, Dragonette’s Syrah berries ripened slowly and were harvested under a blanket of fog by mid-September. For Santa Ynez Syrah, it doesn’t get any better than this rich and mouth-filling, blackberry and black plum-infused, crushed rock mineral red.

Of the 575 cases produced, the majority goes to the mailing list or is sold through the tasting room in Los Olivos. Very little makes it out of the valley, let alone out of Southern California. This wine isn’t even distributed east of the Mississippi. Aside from a few select restaurants, and special hand-sell focused bottle shops in California, this is the only place you’ll find it.