Lolita Ranch Syrah 2019

The Lolita Ranch is located on Martinelli Road in Forestville. The property was part of the original Martinelli Homestead Ranch, belonging to Giuseppe and Luisa Martinelli who purchased the steep, forested land in the late 1800’s.  Later, their eldest son Fred sold the parcel to his neighbor, Lolita Young’s mother. Eventually Bob and Lolita Young inherited it, and ran a herd of cattle on the land for many years. Lee Martinelli Jr. and his wife Pamela acquired the property in 1999 from Bob Young after Lolita’s passing, returning it back to the Martinelli estate and to the family’s continuing century-long legacy of viticulture. Lee Jr. decided to name the ranch after Lolita and planted the steep hillside in 2001 with four different grape varietals: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Syrah and Zinfandel.

The 2019 season was overall very cool with record rainfall for Sonoma County in February. The vines however were not affected by this because they were still dormant at the time. Similar to the 2018 season, spring and summer were moderate in temperature and ripening developed gradually and under minimal stress. This year was in fact so similar to 2018 that we began harvest the same day, on September 10^th. Unfortunately, another wildfire hit the region at the end of October, but luckily none of our vineyards were affected. The winery and many employees were evacuated, but we were able to keep an eye on the new vintage with a skeleton crew. The quality was not impacted, and we are very excited at the concentration of flavors in this vintage.

APPELLATION

Russian River Valley

VARIETALS PLANTED

Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, Syrah

SOIL INFORMATION

Josephine’s with lots of Franciscan shale

SOIL CHARACTERISTICS

Well drained, thin soils that are non-vigorous

ROOTSTOCK

101-14, 3309, 420A

CLONAL SELECTION

(CH =17,76) (PN = 777,667) (Zin = JAV, JAH) (Syrah = 877)

YEAR ACQUIRED

2000

YEAR PLANTED

2001

Very fragrant nose with aromas of violets, milk chocolate, and blackberry compote.  Balanced tannins and enticing acid on the mouth with flavors of wild berries and coffee. Long structured finish ends with Montmorency cherry.