Vintage
2013
Vineyard Designation
Paolo’s Vineyard
Syrah
2013 was an outstanding vintage for Montemaggiore! A picture-perfect, long growing season resulted in grapes with balanced acidity, ripe tannins, and reasonable sugar levels.
- Vineyard
- Tasting Notes
- Recipes
- Accolades
- Vintages
Vineyard Profile: Estate Vineyard
Located on a mountainside high above Dry Creek Valley in Sonoma County, the rocky soils of Montemaggiore's estate vineyards produce intensely flavored grapes at naturally low yields. Using biodynamic practices and organic materials, we farm Paolo's Vineyard without chemical fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides.
2013 Vintage
An outstanding vintage for Montemaggiore wines! The vines broke their winter dormancy early with a dry spring, which was followed by moderate summer temperatures, and a relatively dry harvest. The long growing season resulted in grapes with balanced acidity, ripe tannins, and reasonable sugar levels—all leading to a classic vintage. 2013 was so high quality that Montemaggiore produced a Reserve wine, which had only happened twice in the prior ten years.
Winemaker's Goal
The Paolo's Vineyard Syrah is Montemaggiore's flagship wine, thus the ultimate expression of our estate mountainside vineyards. Typically 100% Syrah, this wine has rich and intense flavors balancing black fruit with spicy, earthy, savory notes.
Food Pairings
Being medium to full-bodied, Montemaggiore Syrah goes well with foods that are likewise. The earthy flavors in mushrooms, the smokey flavors in grilled meats, the slightly gamey flavors in lamb echo the aromas in the Paolo's Vineyard Syrah.
This wine pairs well with marinated tri-tip, lamb kebabs, pasta bolognese, grilled portobellos, pork tenderloin, bacon rösti, and sheep's milk cheeses.
Consider our recipes for wild mushroom and brie crostini, salsa di parmigiano, chipotle sweet potato gratin, salmon grilled on a cedar plank, bucatini amatriciana, and lamb burgers.
Accolades
San Francisco Chronicle Competition
January 2016
America's largest wine competition bestowed our 2013 Paolo's Vineyard Syrah with it's top award, Best in Class, for $37-$41 Syrahs. More than 7,100 wines were entered.
Wine Enthusiast
December 2015
"A young, 100% varietal and estate-farmed wine, this is a soft, thick and dusty gathering of chocolate and blackberry jam, filled in with wild game and leather. Robust and still tightly wound, it needs to open in the glass to unveil further complexities of texture and black pepper." —V.B.