2003 Syrah Eisele Vineyard Napa Valley

Winemaker Francoise Peschon informed me that the Araujo Estate flagship wine is now bottled later than previously (the 2003 was only bottled in November of 2005). "With biodynamic farming, the wines evolve at a slower pace," she explained. "We now rack less and let the wines develop at their own pace. "Production in 2003 and 2004 has been in the low 1,600-case range, as there has been a lot of recent replanting here of vines on AXR rootstock as well as those affected by leaf roll virus-not to mention a good bit of declassification. Peschon describes the 2002 Araujo Estate wine as "voluptuous and soft" but feels that the 2003 will be a longer ager.

The Araujo Estate 2002 flagship offering was bottled late, in November of 2004, as the team felt the wine was very backward during its first year in barrel, with big, chunky tannins early on.Nowadays, all the red wines here get 28 to 35 days of maceration and remain longer on their lees, which winemaker Francoise Peschon feels is the key to getting rounder wines with more refined tannins.Incidentally, this estate pulled out about 25% of its cabernet after the 2000 harvest, because these 38-year-old vines were suffering from leaf roll virus, produced tiny crop levels, and even then struggled to get ripe.The new plantings, which use the old Eisele clone, will produce their first commercial crop in 2006.