2018 Beckmen Vineyards Syrah Purisima Mountain Vineyard Ballard Canyon 750 ml

We hope the non-viticulture obsessives among you will forgive us for how deep we go into Steve Beckmen’s biodynamic farming. But we think that’s the reason Steve’s Purisima Mountain Vineyard is one of the most extraordinary Syrah sites in California—and why his 94-point Beckmen Vineyards Purisima Mountain Syrah boasts more depth, character, and complexity than just about any under-$30 red in America. 

Antonio Galloni of Vinous called the 2018 “a fabulous wine,” and with its glowing 94-point score, it’s one of Steve’s top-rated wines ever. Biodynamically raised in a place as perfectly suited to Syrah as Russian River is to Pinot or Napa is to Cabernet, this is one of California’s great steals. It’s a wine that belongs in the cellar of anyone who wants to taste a marquee red from one of the best—and most meticulously farmed—terroirs in the state. 

The 2018 Purisima boasts the best of California sunshine and Northern Rhône character. Deep ruby, it’s bursting with aromas of dark berries, chocolate, and smoked meat. Supple on the palate, it’s got boysenberry, mocha, pepper, and a savory bundle of herbs and smoked game riding on a frame that will allow it to thrive in the cellar for years. We’ve waited five years to bring this wine back to our members, and it’s well worth the wait. 

Steve Beckmen was one of the first people we ever heard use the word “biodynamic.” That style of farming has been an obsession of his for decades, as he long ago recognized that the likes of Château Pontet-Canet in Pauillac, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and Méo-Camuzet in Burgundy, and Zind-Humbrecht and Barmès Buecher in Alsace all credited biodynamic practices with transforming their estates. So Beckmen sought to do the same. 

At the time, Steve’s father Tom took one look at the cost of conversion and pushed back. But Steve held his ground, and in the end, he prevailed, and adopted the protocols that go back to the Old World—especially France. There, irrigation is illegal, and all of the truly great wines are drawn off vineyards with extremely deep roots, which come from searching out water reserves down below. In drought years, these roots allow the plants to shrug off the impact of hydric stress. 

Drought years are plentiful in California, which is why so many vineyards in the state irrigate—and why Beckmen’s limestone-strewn Purisima Mountain Vineyard is a most conspicuous outlier. “I was excited about never spraying a drop of chemical herbicide or pesticide on one of my Syrah vines,” Steve told us about his move to biodynamic. “But second, Santa Barbara is dry. Sometimes very dry. Everyone I spoke to in France told me that once the vines adapted to the new farming protocol, if there was too little water on the surface, the roots plunged, finding reserves underground.” 

That’s exactly what Steve’s vines did, and the deep roots that have resulted have served Beckmen well. They’ve continued to flourish through California’s many drought years, and even in the driest years, they slurp up water deep underground. The work they’re forced to do on the dramatic slopes of the Purisima Mountain Vineyard—which reaches up to 1,150 feet and features nearly 500 feet of elevation change—results in berries of supreme concentration. 

Steve’s are truly some of the finest Rhône grapes in California, and after picking up gorgeous toasted notes in 35% new and 65% twice-used French oak, they’re expressed in a bottle boasting a triple-digit-price level of character—a near-miracle at under $30, and a wine well worth the long read!