Cruse Wine Co. Charles Heintz Vineyard Syrah Sonoma County, USA 2019

Cruse Wine Company was founded in 2013 by former biochemist Michael Cruse. With his eponymous wine company, Michael has set out to craft uniquely California wines with a focus on experimenting with sparkling wine production. He garnered his first experience with sparklers when he co-founded Ultramarine in 2008 where he used sparkling wine to examine the impact of the soils and site of the Sonoma Coast. Michael was named the San Francisco Chronicle’s Winemaker of the Year in 2016. At Cruse, he continues to produce wines with minimal technique and intervention using his resultant wines as a window to examine terroir.

This Syrah is from Charles Heintz vineyard in Occidental, a cool site at the extremes of ripening Syrah in western Sonoma county. The fruit was fermented whole cluster in a concrete tank for 16 days with very light and gentle foot treading. The resultant wine is dark and very floral and rustic. There are notes of wet pine needles and oil-cured olives. The texture is steamy and tannic. They just rereleased this wine as the extra time in bottle has calmed its rustic nature and increased the drinkability. This interpretation of Syrah acknowledges the Northern Rhone while still being purely Californian.