Syrah is perhaps the most well known of the Rhône varietals as it is well suited to produce really big wines that offer aging potential and varied flavor profiles for the high end consumer. If it wasn’t for my love of Grenache I would say Syrah is a most favored varietal for me because of its many profiles and adaptations both within California and around the world. I love the flavors and variety that Syrah offers.

California Syrah always held the promise to challenge Cabernet Sauvignon for a truly noble California grape with blockbuster wines, but its popularity has never been able to nudge out either Cabernet, Pinot Noir or Zinfandel in total acreage or volume. Acreage of Syrah in California is actually down in 2020 over the boom time of 2000-2010. Still total tons crushed are about 75,000 per year as published by the Wine Institute, and many counties across California have significant plantings of Syrah, from Santa Barbara County up through Mendocino County and many counties in between and beyond, including the interior and Sierra foothill regions. The 2022 USDA California Census report for wine varietals grown shows Syrah solidly in the lead for Rhône varietals at just under 15,000 acres. That is more than 3 times what exists for Grenache, and puts Syrah almost in the league with the most popular varietals.

What makes Syrah special? Well the variety you will find in a number of different styles. Syrah is often a big and complex wine, but it doesn’t have to be. I know of a Syrah running at 12% alcohol and with no barrel aging, it is the true essence of the fruit. It can be medium bodied too, if aged with very neutral oak for not too long. Of course some Syrah is allowed to get really ripe and offers big flavor profiles with a significant amount of oak aging followed with plenty of bottle aging, and yes high alcohol content too. So you can choose between a large swath of flavors and styles in this varietal. Syrah is of course often blended with the other 2 classic Rhone red grapes Grenache and Mourvèdre to produce GSM, although most GSM’s are typically Grenache or Mourvèdre heavy, but not always. Syrah dominant wines are popular and often the flagship of some of the most revered wineries in California. As far as blending, it is worth mentioning that across much of France, some Viognier (maybe ~5%) is often co-fermented with the Syrah to bring out some more special florals and texture to the wine. I love Syrah-Viognier blends. And you should ask your Syrah wine maker if they do it this way. I know for a fact Cedarville Vineyard do, as I watched it get crushed in 2023 when I worked at Cedarville.

What area of the state produces the most expensive Syrah? Well it is not Napa, it is a cult winery sourcing from the Santa Barbara and Santa Rita Hills area named, Sine Qua Non. This winery produces bottles in the $500 range from several sources. But you don’t have spend $500 to have excellent Syrah from California, a whole eclectic range of product exists from $15-100 a bottle, but typically amazing Syrah starts around $30 retail if you want special California Estate grown and bottled Syrah. I notice that Paso Robles, Santa Rita, and Santa Barbara Syrah’s that are highly rated often stretch from $50-100 a bottle, in the north state the prices are less steep, especially in the Sierra foothills, Mendocino or Sonoma.

If you are new to the endevour of a particular high end Syrah region such as Paso Robles, which is big on high end vineyards and estates now, you might want to search out a few from the list of members at the Rhone Rangers and give that method a try. Rhone Ranger members tend to be the pick of the litter. The ratings and info at Wine Enthusiast are reliable. Some of the wineries in this area that have highly prized Syrah’s are Booker, Sextant and TH Estate. But that is just a start, if you are endeavoring into the high end Syrah of Paso Robles you will need to be selective and careful, the list of top end wineries is deep. And of course, Syrah stretches much further south from there as well.

Wait, what about the northern half of the State, where I live? Well these wines can be stunning as well. Let’s take a look at a few wineries to consider. Amador and El Dorado Counties can be good sources for excellent Syrah. Bill Easton and Terre Rouge is a highly awarded Syrah specialist, and their Ascent Syrah was awarded 100 points by Wine Enthusiast, at least in one year, and typically it is 95+ wine. Many renditions exist at Terre Rouge, and his estate DTR Syrah is less expensive and still a blockbuster in my mind. There are a good number of well crafted Syrahs across this region, and one of the best vineyards I enjoy is the Fenaughty vineyard which produces rich, velvety smooth, smoke and violet tinged Syrah especially when you age it for 5-10 years. The Fenaughty vineyard has done the best in my cellar over the last 20 years. You can do a search on Google for ‘Fenaughty Syrah’ and see who produced with it, however for consistency I buy this wine from Holly’s Hill in the Pleasant Valley AVA of El Dorado (Holly’s Hill can ship you this wine). In the San Francisco area, you might try Donkey and Goat, and there are more that source this fruit. I know this wine sells out pretty quickly at Holly’s Hill so if it is available, you better move on it. The Syrah vines at Fenaughty were grafted way back in the 1980’s so this may be some old vine expression that you will enjoy, if you enjoy big and bold wine.

One winery in Sonoma that does complex and big Syrah very well is Argot Wines. Justin Harmon started with Syrah and he’s still doing it almost 20 years later, and his Sonoma Mountain fruit is something special. This wine is very big, I would wait a bit on opening the bottles and let them integrate for a few years. But they are very complex from blueberry to deep purple flowers and cocoa. If you want an incredible expression of Sonoma County Syrah, this would be my recommendation. You can read up on Justin Harmon’s love of Sonoma Mountain Syrah in this post by Wine Spectator.

What Grenache is to red fruit roll ups and intense herbal notes, Syrah is to complexity, depth, darker fruit, cherry, violets/flowers, cocoa, tobacco, leather, spices and more. If you are into big wines, maybe from Bordeaux, then you should give Syrah a try as well. California Syrah can be especially complex and delicious. I drink it often, both locally and from places like Argot Wines.

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This blog is about very select GSM makers across California who I am familiar with. GSM is perhaps most prevalent in Paso Robles where all 3 varietals have taken significant hold and Paso Robles is probably now the Rhone capital of California as the wine industry there is quite big, especially high premium wines. The Paso area has done extremely well for the Rhonists. I live in El Dorado County, and therefore try to visit all the wineries I can, of the Sierra Foothills, but we are 200 strong, and hitting 20-40 is more realistic. For coastal inhabitants, the Sonoma to Santa Barbara coastline is also very strong in producing these three varietals, so you can find GSM’s probably in all the major California regions I just mentioned. For the Foothills wineries these are my favorites that perennially focused on producing a top quality GSM blend.

El Dorado County – Pleasant Valley wineries

Holly’s Hill – this is a purest Rhone vintner that focuses only on Rhone varietal on their large 40 acre estate. Their Patriarche and Lover’s Leap are both excellent blends of M-G-S. Josh and Carrie Bendick, the winemakers here, love Mourvedre and often blend in more Mourvedre into their blended wines than you will find at other wineries. Their wines and their Syrah’s as well are just delicious. Patriarche is their flagship product.

Sierra Vista – this is the grandfather estate that dates all the way back to the 1970’s when Barbara and John MacCready started wine making up on this hill, pretty far from downtown Placerville (30 minute drive). It is now run by a new owner, Jim Czachorowski, and things have been changing here since Jim took over. There are two GSM offerings here, namely a more classic GSM called Fleur-de-Montagne, and the robust and age worthy Outlaw which is Syrah forward and much darker, heavier and richer.

El Dorado County – Fair Play wineries

Bumgarner Winery – The Fiona wine from Bryan is a very nice expression of complex, and textured GSM, and he’s been making it for years. In Fair Play this is one of the two you should try. The Fiona is not a big (dark, robust) GSM, but rather a finesse GSM that shows of the herbal notes that are so common with mountain Rhone grapes. This is a tremendous accomplishment for our area, and simply one reason to visit this beautiful family run winery that has two tasting rooms. One in Camino and another in the high hills of Fair Play!

Gwinllan Estate – Directly in the very heart of Fair Play on Fair Play Road is this family run winery with innovative winemaker Jonathan Pack. Jonathan has a GSM that he considers his most complex and textured wine. Give it a try and enjoy the tasting in his tasting room cave, where you might find Jonathan’s mom Chris pouring with their dog by her side. Jonathan calls his GSM the Winemaker’s Selection. Make sure you taste this wine carefully and slowly.

Amador County – Shenandoah Road

Terre Rouge/Easton wines – If you know anything about Rhone and the Rhone Ranger clan that helped bring these varietals to the forefront in California. Then you have heard of Bill Easton. He’s a founding member of the Rhone Rangers, and his wines are varied, robust and excellent. My favorite GSM blend from Terre Rouge is the L’Autre, which means the “other” in French and probably his most popular in terms of volume and exposure is called the TÊTE-À-TÊTE, or face to face. His focus on all the varietals that make California great is amazing, but his work with Syrah has earned him 100 points from Wine Enthusiast and Bill Easton’s work is simply too good to pass up. Look here

Paso Robles – Adelaida District

Tablas Creek – founded in 1989 this is definitely a winery of master distinction since it has a deep and family-based connection to Chateau Beaucastel. There are many wines here of Grenache or Syrah mixture so study carefully. From the Patelin to the Gobelin, the choices are rich, varied and generally off the charts good. I discovered this winery about 20 years ago on a trip my wife and I took to the area to discover some great wine and I am still as big a fan as I was that day tasting that amazing wine. Their GSM mixtures are very varied and beautiful. As long as Neil Collins is leading the cultivation and wine making team at Tablas Creek, you should expect nothing but excellence out of this exceptional property and management. This is one of the few wineries that has a full lab and works on the wine chemistry with a complete focus. Tablas Creek tries to do everything to perfection. What a delight of a soup to nuts direct to consumer winery.

Other notable GSMs from Paso Robles (this is not comprehensive at all):
Booker Wines (Oublie)

Derby Wine Estates

Peachy Canyon

Coastal California

I am no expert or even deep taster of this area, but it should not be overlooked as Syrah has branched into the Santa Lucia Range and many of the appellations outside of Paso Robles. So look into the wineries of Sonoma, Santa Maria, Monterey and Santa Barbara Counties to find Syrah and perhaps a great G-S-M blender. I know from my studies of the Rhone Rangers that Bob Lindquist is a master of the Rhones.

You can find his work here:
Lindquist Family wines

Another Rhone wine master is Randall Grahm , he works with a Santa Maria vineyard to produce his Language of Yes experiments, which is not G-S-M but does involve Syrah and Grenache just to his liking. His latest renditions are pretty deep on the complexity scale, as I bought his first vintage of this new experiment, and was delighted with the outcome.

To finish off, here is a picture of the soulful heart of the G-S-M wine region in France. I took this shot in November 2022. The town of Chateauneuf-du-Pape, on the hill where the castle ruins barely stand. You are looking at the very nice homes of the tiny town of Chateauneuf-du-Pape. The chateau for the church elite is no longer there… The GSM components, they are thriving, and ready for a good long rest as well.

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Getting even more specific than just Syrah doing well in the wine cellar, is to look specifically at high tannin, ripe Syrah from Southern Rhone. The most popular region is Chateauneuf-du-Pape (CdP). These wines are almost always made in a “big wine” style, because they command high prices. And with high prices come age worthy wines. If you buy an expensive CdP wine, you should look into how long you should save this wine for. Many of these wines will drink best in the 7-15 year range, and not 2-4 years when you might buy them. So you may need to save them for easily 5 more years, from when you bought them. Don’t just consider CdP, any of the AOC’s in the Rhone Valley could deliver a blockbuster Syrah so look into Cornas, Vacqueryas, St. Joseph, Crozes-Hermitage and so on.

Most Rhone styled wines, especially Grenache varietals, or Mourvedre varietals, you should drink these close to when you bought them. Within the first few years. They simply will not improve much with age. Not all Mourvedre varietals will have enough tannins or acids to age well. Certainly not California style Grenache, which is very fruit forward.

Remember most wine does not improve with age. That’s the overriding takeaway, and why the Wine Master answered the question this way.

So consider aging your expensive Syrah’s, and CdP’s and see where that takes you. I have a number of CdP’s and won’t open them until about years 4 to 8 comes to be. It has been a formula that has worked for me.

Also age wine in a wine cellar (refrigerator). Wine needs to be kept cool (55 degrees Fahrenheit) , away from light, and on its side at all times.

Here is the latest addition to my cellar.

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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!

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