LillianSyrah 2015

During the seventh of Maggie's eight years of training in the cellar at Sine Qua Non, the opportunity presented itself to make wine from a small portion of the top of the White Hawk Vineyard. She bottled 150 cases of 2004 Lillian Syrah, her inaugural vintage. Since that time, the project has grown in tiny increments, first by sourcing additional fruit from Stolpman and Bien Nacido Vineyards in 2007, offering her first roussanne and rosé wines in 2013 and then, in 2014, she introduced her first Cabernet Sauvignon from True Vineyard on Howell Mountain. This 2015 offering offers velvety tannins and red and black fruit that coats the palate. It is a full-bodied Syrah with rich focus. “The goal with the syrah, as with all Lillian wines, is to work with these historical, noble varieties in a sun-drenched place but work with the fruit in such a way to give the wines levity and lift. A certain transparency and fineness of detail. The syrah, as a result, is not particularly syrah-like. It doesn’t scream out the usual cocktail of blackberries, bacon fat, and lavender. It always feels a bit more about the people and the places than the variety. The wines are lavish, but there is refined rocky quality in them that defies description.”  -Maggie Harrison, vintner & winemaker.