Gust Syrah 2017
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Gust Syrah is a distinct and exciting wine coming from two vineyard sites within the Petaluma Gap. Taking our inspiration from the Northern Rhone, the cool, long growing season of the Petaluma Gap lends itself to a wine that has power and depth while expressing a sense of place. The fruit was hand-harvested and brought into the winery where it was completely destemmed, we fermented the Syrah in closed-top fermentors, where the juice went through fermentation with native yeasts. The Syrah was then pressed off its skins after two weeks and barreled down to age. The Gust Syrah has intricate flavors of black pepper and savoriness intermingled with black and blue fruit. With ample tannin and texture, this wine has a beautiful concentration, tension, and age-ability.
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Dry, chalky tannins lead to dusty dark chocolate as well as meaty blackberry and licorice notes. The wine’s exceptional depth is marked by brownsugared plum preserves and enhanced by crushed violets, slate, black pepper, and tar.
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Gust is the second-generation offshoot of Sonoma’s Cline Family Cellars. The project of Megan Cline and Hilary Cline, these wines were launched to tap the potential of California’s most exciting new wine appellation: the Petaluma Gap, recently recognized as superb for Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Syrah.
Owing to a mixture of foresight and luck, the Cline’s father, Fred, planted vineyards in the Petaluma Gap in the late 1990s, before the area gained grape growing renown. Cline has historically been associated with Zinfandel and Rhone varieties, but as the second generation came of age, they gravitated toward cooler-climate wines, and wanted to lavish the sites in the region with the attention they deserve, farming them at the highest level and making the most special wines possible.
Thus: Gust. The name is meant to convey the atmosphere of the Petaluma Gap, where, like clockwork, morning fog gives way to blustery winds. But is also a representation of the energy of the new generation. A breath of fresh air.
Marked by an unmistakable deep purple hue and savory aromatics, Syrah makes an intense, powerful and often age-worthy red. Native to the Northern Rhône, Syrah achieves its maximum potential in the steep village of Hermitage and plays an important component in the Red Rhône Blends of the south, adding color and structure to Grenache and Mourvèdre. Syrah is the most widely planted grape of Australia and is important in California and Washington. Sommelier Secret—Such a synergy these three create together, the Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre trio often takes on the shorthand term, “GSM.”
A vast appellation covering Sonoma County’s Pacific coastline, the Sonoma Coast AVA runs all the way from the Mendocino County border, south to the San Pablo Bay. The region can actually be divided into two sections—the actual coastal vineyards, marked by marine soils, cool temperatures and saline ocean breezes—and the warmer, drier vineyards further inland, which are still heavily influenced by the Pacific but not quite with same intensity.
Contained within the appellation are the much smaller Fort Ross-Seaview and Petaluma Gap AVAs.
The Sonoma Coast is highly regarded for elegant Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and, increasingly, cool-climate Syrah. The wines have high acidity, moderate alcohol, firm tannin, and balanced ripeness.