2009 The Courier Shake Ridge Ranch
This is a very special wine; really not a Scholium wine at all. Jason Berthold is a dear friend who helped me make my 2005 and 2006 wines; in 2006 he began making wines on his own and then continued until 2010. We always worked together and I learned much from him. He has decided to go no further in making and selling wine, and instead to concentrate on his young family and his already established career as a chef. Now that he has pulled back, he has asked me to shepherd his existing wines.
This is the first of two that I will release; both are blends of Syrah and Grenache from Ann Kraemer’s Shake Ridge Ranch. This is a vineyard blend, harvested at once and co-fermented, using the same floating cap technique that I later used for my 2011 Gardens of Babylon. The wine has aged in neutral oak for 3 years with a minimum of topping and SO2. The wine is delicate and sophisticated; much more like Pignan than like any of the Scholium red monsters.