2016 Stolpman Vineyards Originals Syrah Ballard Canyon Santa Ynez Valley 750 ml

Santa Barbara’s Original Syrah

Vines rest this time of year. Pete Stolpman doesn’t. He is preparing to bottle ten different cuvées of Stolpman Vineyards wine between January and March, so we were lucky to catch him in between appointments to talk about the 2016 Stolpman Syrah Originals Ballard Canyon, a brooding, peppery, and graceful Syrah that Jeb Dunnuck called “brilliant” in his 95-point review.

In 2013, Ballard Canyon became the only Syrah-focused AVA in the country, and Originals hails from the vineyard that started it all. Brooding and dark, teeming with black plum and pepper and framed by fine tannins, this is a new California classic. 

For the few Wine Access members who don’t already know the Stolpman story: In the 1980s, Pete’s father Tom searched the “undiscovered areas” of Santa Barbara for potential vineyard sites. They placed an offer in 1988, and finally, in 1990, took possession of a piece of land in Santa Ynez Valley’s Ballard Canyon. They started planting with the intention of being growers, and not winemakers: They would focus on quality—limiting yields, irrigating minimally—and supply the area winemakers who were willing and able to pay for top-flight grapes.

Almost immediately, Stolpman fruit was claimed by two of the titans of California’s Central Coast: Manfred Krankl of Sine Qua Non, and Ojai Vineyard’s Adam Tolmach, one of the true pioneers of Santa Barbara County. Steve Beckmen of Beckmen Vineyards was also an early purchaser of Stolpman’s Ballard Canyon grapes, and was so impressed that he ended up purchasing an adjacent property.

Stolpman started producing their own critically lauded wines in the early 2000s, and has produced the “Originals” Syrah since 2008, sourcing exclusively from the seminal block of Syrah that supplied those winemakers more than two decades ago. Planted in 1992, the Originals blocks consist of two old California heritage clones: Estrella River and Durrell Vineyard. These were not just the first Syrah vines to take root on the Stolpman property—they were the founding Syrah vines in Ballard Canyon, the area that, due largely to Pete Stolpman’s efforts, earned AVA status in 2013. It is now the only Syrah-focused AVA in the country.

Because of the age of the vines and the extremely limited irrigation (the vines are only given water in winter to “wake them up”), the block yields a mere 1.5 tons of grapes per acre—and they have a gorgeous, hard-won concentration to show for it. The wine also boasts freshness, and what Pete calls a “pinpoint balance,” something he credits to using only free-run juice. Fermented in concrete, then aged in neutral oak, this is not a jammy, highly extracted wine, but  a Cornas-inspired Syrah of intensity, grace, and stunning value.