Posted on Wed, Mar. 23, 2005

A hillside vineyard's elevated syrahs

By Laurie Daniel
Special to the San Jose Mercury News

LOS OLIVOS - Winemaker Steve Beckmen likes to say he's in the ``sweet spot'' of Santa Barbara County for syrah.

His family's Purisima Mountain Vineyard, at the eastern end of the Purisima Hills, is in the heart of the Santa Ynez Valley. It's warm enough to get syrah ripe every year, but it's cooled by sea breezes, preserving acidity. While syrah from some places in California can get downright jammy, ``that's not what we really grow out there,'' Beckmen says.

Beckmen's father, Tom, bought the 365-acre hillside property in 1996. The land, which had been a ranch, is steep in places, with elevations ranging from about 750 to more than 1,200 feet. When you walk in the vineyard in winter, you notice the clay that sticks to your shoes. But underneath that clay is limestone, which is also found in the soils of Côte-Rotie and Hermitage, France's great syrah-growing areas in the Rhône Valley. Limestone limits vine vigor and results in more intensely flavored fruit.

Because the property had never been a vineyard, the Beckmens were able to start from scratch. They divided it into numerous small blocks, with row direction and vine spacing dictated by the contours of the landscape. ``I love the flow and the look of the land, so I didn't want to cut things up,'' Beckmen says. About a quarter of the vineyard is farmed biodynamically, a particularly intensive form of organic farming.

The vineyard is planted mostly to Rhône varieties -- in addition to syrah, there are grenache noir, grenache blanc, mourvèdre, marsanne, roussanne and counoise. There are also some sauvignon blanc, cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc. But syrah dominates, with seven clones and selections, planted on a variety of rootstocks.

Beckmen makes his own wines from the syrah -- some grapes go into an estate syrah, and he also makes a Purisima Mountain Vineyard syrah from one clone, called Clone 1 -- but he also sells grapes to several small producers. ``I wanted to pick these smaller guys who were really into it, with a passion for it,'' he says. Each gets something a little different -- a single block of the vineyard or perhaps a single clone.

Yet there's a common thread through all the wines -- subtlety, elegance, structure. There's good concentration, but the wines aren't over the top with too much alcohol or overripe fruit. Beckmen rounded up the syrahs from his vineyard for a recent tasting.

Beckmen's wine is a good example of the style. The 2002 Purisima Mountain Vineyard Clone 1 ($40) is big and concentrated, with notes of black raspberry, roasted meat and mineral, firm tannins and a long finish.

The 2002 Qupe Purisima Mountain Vineyard Syrah ($30) has a lot of savory notes, such as roasted meat and white pepper, accenting the ripe berry fruit. The 2002 Hitching Post bottling from the vineyard ($30) adds some earthy tones.

Made in a fruitier style is the 2002 Tensley ($32), which has lively blackberry and blueberry flavors, along with firm structure and some mineral. The 2002 Ethan ($28) is also quite fruity, with nice spice, hints of tobacco and chocolate and firm tannins.

The 2002 lineup is rounded out by a big, juicy, spicy syrah from Samsara ($30) and the still-very-tight syrah from Margerum ($30).

I also tasted a few 2003s, including a terrific wine from Kenneth-Crawford ($28), with concentrated blackberry fruit, notes of roasted coffee, chocolate and spice, lots of depth and firm but approachable tannins. The 2003 Samsara ($30) and Margerum ($30) were showing some obvious oak in their youth, but both wines were very promising, with supple tannins.

Beckmen produces other good wines from the vineyard, too. The 2002 Purisima Mountain Vineyard Grenache ($30) is delicious, big, ripe and concentrated, with flavors of roasted strawberry and blueberry. I'm also a fan of the marsanne ($16) and grenache blanc ($20), two Rhône whites that aren't very common in California.

Purisima Mountain Vineyard is a site with tremendous potential. Not surprisingly, Beckmen agrees: ``It seems like if you have a great site, and you put something great on it, something magical happens.''

Contact Laurie Daniel at ladaniel@earthlink.net.