Bill Easton at his Terre Rouge wine room and production facility, at 10801 Dickson Road, just off the Shenandoah Road in Plymouth, California, held a short seminar on his personal journey to the Ascent Syrah. Undoubtedly the most highly rewarded Syrah wine in the Sierra Foothills, this wine is an amazing portrait of complex Syrah from our region.
Bill spoke briefly of the 10 sites that give him a lot of cultivation diversity to work with Syrah, in the highly varied elevations of the Sierra Foothills. His epiphany for Ascent came when he tasted some of these fruits out of the fermentation tank in the late 1990’s. He then realized elevating some of this wine was a long term goal to work up to. It took years is the takeaway, and I am sure he still tries different design tweaks to this day. His only request of his clients was, don’t drink an Ascent young. Let the fruit integrate to 10 years and beyond, and this was going to become evident as we went through the tastings. 
Bill relaxed and sharing his journey.
He answered several questions from the audience including what makes a grape noble. Ultimately, in Bill’s words a noble grape needs to have the small berries to start, and the characteristics towards making very diverse and palate pleasing wines. In California, these would be Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, and Syrah. The long road is often the work to attaining many unique flavors on the palate from one sip, and then the long finish is what all expert wine tasters are especially attuned to. The long pleasing integrating finish is the differentiating factor in most cases, to what elevates a wine above 94 points.
How did we like the wines? They were amazing. We started with a youngest 2018 Ascent, that still had lots of acidic structure clearly in the back of the mouth, and wild, diverse flavor notes all across the palate. A truly amazing mouth feel. The acids were both large and pleasing at the same time, tannins there, but not at all gripping, and definitely not in the front row. That wild fruit flavor that comes with Syrah was still rather fresh and the mouth felt creamy but cut with pepper and more so a diverse Mediterranean spice box. Wow it is just getting started was my thought. To be honest the nose, was subdued, there like a light spice coming off a French food dish, nothing overpowering, or any single dominating note, more spices than any dark cherry or single fruit. An enticing mystery was the first thought. Always breath in the wine before doing a swirl. I notice many wine lovers make this mistake, immediately gyrating the glass with their hand. You must breath the wine in deeply, before swirling to see what is dominant in the air of the glass. Take time to calculate, then swirl and take more notes as the flavors have now integrated and surfaced more fully. This change will go a long way to understanding the wine. No wine is easy to evaluate in just a few minutes either. No expert taster evaluates with only one sip, a tasting always includes two or three sips.
From the 2018, we moved to the 2013’s. We did two tastings, the Ascent, compared to the Terre Rouge DTR Ranch, which was the most wild of the tastings. These 2013’s were tremendous, and many of us thought the 2013 at 10 years was best of show, but in the end we purchased the 2008 Ascent. In a simple sentence, the 2008 was the best for its tremendously long finish and a further smoothness of that spice that is the pinnacle of what California Syrah can achieve. No single unpleasant phenol note whatsoever, simply joy of a finish that you question yourself. “How long did that really last”. Is it still going on? The 2008 wasn’t the most powerful, but it was certainly the most elegant. Some people I know loved the DTR Ranch, for its strong flavors. You hear a real mix of ideas across the audience. That is wine, everyone has their ideas of what flavors makes for them a perfect wine.
And as an important note, all wine ferments rather quickly and then is simply wine, known as free run wine. The elevation happens in pressing and the barrels. Syrah and all wine grapes are susceptible to oak and its strong tannins, especially new oak, which can impart a lot of change in a wine. This is where wine makers often forget to go easy. Grenache especially does not like too much new oak, Pinot Noir can be over-oaked. Part of it is a style thing. Of course Syrah can handle oak, but the oak here may sometimes be a blend of new and neutral oak. The quality of that oak, and the process used is what is key. I have seen a number of long-time winemakers speak and show me that great oak, such as the Francois Freres barrels, which is one major component of the Ascent magic. The Freres barrel staves have been air dried for 3 years before they are coopered, softening them. Other quality barrels can cost just half as much, and the oak used in these barrels is very special within France. The wine is allowed to integrate in the barrels for 22-24 months . As the vines age, the wine becomes more capable of integrating with the oak. Anyone who loves Syrah needs to buy one of these wines, or simply come to one of Bill’s “sold out” seminars and see what a truly amazing wine tastes like. The more you learn the more you enjoy. 
Cheers Bill, and thank you, and your amazing team for sharing your life’s work with all of us!