2022 Sawyer Lindquist Tempranillo/Syrah Blend

This wine is 69% Tempranillo and 31% Syrah from the Ibarra-Young Vineyard in the Los Olivos District of the Santa Ynez Valley.  We have a long history with this vineyard, as we farmed it from 1986 through the 2018 vintage…by my count, that is 33 Harvests!  Since 2020, the winemaker Alice Anderson and her partner Christopher De Felice of Amevive Wines have been farming it and doing a wonderful job.  The vineyard has been organic since 1999.

2022 was a warmer than normal year, and was also the end of an extended drought period.  The Ibarra-Young struggled a bit from the lack of rain, and there were some strong winds during flowering and set, so the crop level was smaller than normal.  We were supposed to get 1.5 tons each of the Syrah and Tempranillo, and instead got 1.56 tons total between the two.  The grapes were harvested on the same day, so Louisa and I decided to co-ferment them.

Traditional winemaking was employed, a small open top fermenter with manual punch downs, and minimal handling.  Aging was 16 months in neutral French oak barrels.  We had 4 barrels, 2 of them went into the Lindquist Central Coast Syrah blend, the other 2 were bottled here for our Sawyer Lindquist label.

This is a deep, rich wine with balanced acidity and medium tannins.  The aromas show earthiness and red fruits from the Tempranillo, with spice and black fruits from the Syrah.  It’s a young wine, recently bottled, so ideally should be allowed to rest for a few months before pulling the cork.  If you cellar wines, this wine will continue to age nicely for another 8-10 years.

Louisa Sawyer and Bob Lindquist

February 2024