2022 Ojai Vineyard Roll Ranch Syrah Central Coast 750 ml

Adam Tolmach, founder of The Ojai Vineyard, is the Velvet Underground of California wine. He’s a living legend—your favorite winemaker’s favorite winemaker—who has built an immaculate reputation on his elegant yet uncompromisingly California interpretations of the great Central Coast sites.

That’s earned him placements on wine lists like Le Bernardin and Eleven Madison Park, and a legion of adoring fans within the wine industry—even if he’s generally avoided the spotlight on a wider stage. Adam’s Roll Ranch Syrah is one of his signature bottlings, from a warm site in Ventura County that produces powerful wines that he carefully polishes… but not too much. The combination of powerful fruit with deep, Rhône-like aromatics is intoxicating: It’s brawny and lush, but with a sophisticated edge.

After co-founding Au Bon Climat with Jim Clendenen in 1982—a partnership that became an overnight success—the two friends amicably parted ways in 1991 so each could follow his own vision. 

Adam turned his full attention to The Ojai Vineyard, which he'd been quietly building since 1983, and spent the next three decades in pursuit of what he calls "intention": transitioning vineyards to organic farming, slashing his use of new oak so it wouldn't mask terroir, and picking earlier to capture aromatic complexity rather than just sheer ripeness.

Roll Ranch has been a signature for Ojai since the early 90s. The site sits beneath the dramatic bluffs of Topa Topa mountain in Upper Ojai, where the vines' roots plunge into poor, rocky soil that once formed those very cliffs. When the Roll family approached Adam about planting their property in 1992, they wanted Chardonnay and Cabernet—the safe bets. Adam convinced them to try Syrah and Viognier.

Over thirty years, Adam has learned to temper Roll Ranch's natural exuberance. Those early vintages were "big bruisers"—classic California powerhouses that, as Adam put it, you'd only want on cold rainy nights (which Ojai doesn't have). Through decades of tinkering in the vineyard and cellar, he's coaxed out something more nuanced: wines that are still gutsy and powerful, but fresher and more intricate than ever.