Troon Vineyard Block 14 Syrah

High 102.6ºF
Low 43.9ºF
Diurnal Shift 58.7ºF

In the afternoon, you swelter in the dry heat. At dinnertime, you need a jacket. The temperatures above were recorded by our weather station in block 14 this summer. This range between the day’s high and the night’s low is called the diurnal shift. As you can see, we’ve got quite a shift at Troon Vineyard.

Our syrah grapes harvested from block 14 came in with nice numbers: TA 6, pH 3.5, malic 3.89. Another block of our syrah came in at TA 8, pH 3.27, malic 4.29. According to ETS Laboratories, recent averages for California syrah were TA 4 to 5, pH 3.7 to 3.8, malic 2 to 2.5. The difference is the Applegate Valley at work. Bright acidity is a defining characteristic of the wines grown here.

Having great chemistry in the fruit we harvest is essential as we don’t alter what nature gives us. As a biodynamic winery, we can’t — and don’t want to — “correct” our wines with tartaric acid and other additives. Corrections obliterate a sense of place.

It is important to understand that our syrah was fully ripe when we picked as the long, warm fall this year more than afforded us the luxury to let the fruit decide when it would be harvested. This fruit was harvested between 21 and 23 brix, which translates to approximately 12 to 13 per cent alcohol. We did not have to pick early to achieve this balance, which we believe is ideal.

Those high malic acids are a gift from our diurnal shift and the cool short days of our harvest season. Everything on the Kubli Bench in Oregon’s Applegate Valley cooperates to produce wines with brilliant acidity and moderate alcohol levels, which is why we make wine here.

Warm temperatures and the long summer days this far north enables ripening despite our growing season, which is compacted due to altitude and latitude, which then combines with the nearby Pacific Ocean to give us cold nights even on the hottest day of summer. This yin and yang of temperature ripens the grapes during the day and refreshes them at night. The Sun warms the vines and makes sugar, and the Moon presides over the cold air preserving acidity.

It is not a coincidence we are making wines here. When you aspire to make wine in a particular style, you don’t try to adapt to a climate, you seek out a climate that will naturally give you the wine you want to craft. Many producers are trying to fit square pegs in round holes. Just because you have foggy mornings followed by searing afternoons does not mean you are growing in a cool climate. It means you have a short window of photosynthesis each day, giving you fruit that does not ripen evenly or completely.

We aspire to make syrah that expresses the earthy, black pepper characteristics that are found in the best expressions from the Northern Rhȏne Valley. To get those spicy black pepper aromas and flavors, you need not only a diurnal shift but a long cool fall. The Applegate Valley is a black pepper grinder when it comes to grinding out expressive syrah.

Bacon fat, earthy smoky flavors join with black pepper aromatics and flavors to produce a Troon Vineyard Syrah with a very different personality than the riper, jammier and higher alcohol versions produced in California and Washington. Another variable happens in the cellar where many of these ultra-ripe versions of syrah get an extra note of sweetness from new oak barrels. As our goal is to express all of the savory notes that the Applegate Valley gives to syrah, we only use neutral barrels to age our wines.

I have no issues with someone who wants to produce a 15% syrah aged in new oak barrels, I just don’t want to drink it or make it. My concern is these extreme examples do not express the character of syrah that made its reputation. As the fat style is predominant in most New World wineries, consumers are confused when presented a syrah with crisp acidity and expressive savory characteristics instead of juicy red/black fruit oak vanilla simplicity.

We farm biodynamically because of our vision for the wines we want to make. We grow grapes for these wines in the Applegate Valley for the same reason. We were looking for a pepper grinder — we found one.