2018 Syrah (Sonoma County)

I was so impressed with these 2022s from Carlisle. Proprietor Mike Officer and longtime winemaker Jay Maddox handled the rigors of the vintage well, turning out wines that impress with their energy and vibrancy. Officer cited lessons learned in 2010 regarding keeping grapes well-shaded as pivotal to navigating the rigors of the growing season. A brief spell of rain on 9/17 was a help for later-ripening sites. When all was said and done, the harvest period was very condensed. About 65% of the total crop came in within a few days. I must admit, this tasting was a little bittersweet. Vinous readers may know that Officer has decided to retire and wind down Carlisle over the next few years. Throughout his career, Officer has played a pivotal role in efforts by a handful of producers to recognize, catalog and champion the great, historic sites throughout Sonoma County. I hope there is a way that important contribution can be memorialized for future generations.

There are plenty of highlights in these 2017s from Carlisle. Mike Officer comments that the experiences of 2010 were quite instrumental in shaping many of his choices in 2017, including dealing with the risks of potentially unripe phenolics, wines with both high acid and high alcohol, and severe dehydration of fruit on the vine. To be sure, Zinfandel is the variety that struggled most with the heat spikes of 2017. Losses of 40-50% were not uncommon, both because of dehydration and the severe selection that was required to ferment only clean fruit. In some cases, drastically lower Zinfandel yields also resulted in slightly different blends. In tasting, though, the wines are universally strong, which is a testament to the total commitment to quality here. I tasted all of the 2017s from barrel just prior to bottling.

I am not sure I have met a winery owner quite like Mike Officer before. Of course, Officer is well-known for his advocacy of California's heritage vineyards, but his dedication to delivering value to the end consumer is just as noteworthy. All of that is served up with a giddy, boyish enthusiasm that is reflected in rich, powerful wines that highlight the essence of a number of Sonoma's best vineyards. I tasted all of these wines with Officer and longtime winemaker Jay Maddox from barrel prior to bottling. Maddox describes 2013 as a year with no shock weather events such as frost or heat wave. Weather at set was good, and the main challenge was managing the crop load. Harvest was earlier than normal. In response to the fruit that came in, Maddox opted for lower temperatures in fermentation and fewer punch downs. Unfortunately I was not able to taste the Petite Sirah and James Berry Syrah, both of which were being fined in preparation for bottling.

Proprietor Mike Officer arrived with a bevy of wines for our tasting, all of which I was thrilled to sample. Readers who don't think terroir exists in California should check out the Carlisle Zinfandels and Syrahs, many of which emerge from old-vine, heritage sites that nearly disappeared until Officer and some of his peers rescued them from the brink of oblivion. In particular, the 2011 Zinfandels are fabulous. Officer describes 2011 as a very late harvest. The Syrahs were all picked after the rains, while the thinner-skinned Zinfandels naturally came in quite a bit earlier. Officer told me he performed a severe selection of fruit that took with it a full 50% of the production. For his efforts, Officer has been rewarded with a set of gorgeous wines, although I imagine his faithful clientele won't be too thrilled with the lower production levels of these wines, given their already minuscule production. Unfortunately, 2011 Compagni Portis and Gruner Veltliner were to be bottled right after this tasting, so I will have to wait until another opportunity to sample those wines. Carlisle is resolute in keeping his wines affordable, a commendable approach I wish were more common throughout California.

Carlisle focuses on wines from Sonoma, but this Central Coast offering is well worth taking a look at. I will review the rest of the current releases for the February 2012 issue.

Mike Officer's excitement about the 2009 vintage matched that of just about every other producer I visited in March. "It was kind of unbelievable, actually, especially with a painful year like '08 fresh in our minds," he told me. "The lack of heat spikes meant we were able to watch sugar levels rise without freaking out that they'd scream up or that acid levels would drop out." He said that while "perfection is probably not attainable, philosophically, I do have an idea what it might look like and '09, as a growing season, might have been it, save for a lot of rain in the middle of October." Almost of Officer's grapes had long been picked when the first major storm of the fall (Typhoon Melor, which dumped over 6 inches of rain on the region) hit on October 13th, though. Grapes that he hadn't picked were left hanging until the end of the month, "and we had to be really selective with those."

"What I especially like about 2008 is how floral the wines are," Mike Officer told me. "They've got really good concentration but they're much more approachable than the 2007s so they're going to win a lot of friends right off the bat." Carlisle sources a lot of fruit from the RussianRiverValley, which was hit severely by one of the latest periods of frost ever recorded here: on April 21, 23 and 24. "The crop was whacked hard," said Officer, noting that the yield off his own Carlisle vineyard was barely a half ton per acre. Officer told me that his latest obsession is with managing the oak regimen in his cellar "because while good new oak gives the young wine a sexy, sweet quality, I really don't want it to be there when the wine is at its peak, because then it's a distraction." Officer is also especially vigilant with brettanomyces because "brett is the great equalizer and can completely overwhelm any other element, to the point where you have no idea what you're drinking aside from something stinky."

While the collection of wines that Mike Officer showed me this year was making a delightful impression on my palate, his woeful account of ancient-vine zinfandel vineyards being torn out to make way for more pinot noir lent a bleak mood to the affair.Tasting the last vintage of zins from the Montafi Ranch (formerly known as the Tom Feeney Ranch) and Pietro's Ranch and eulogizing other sites with one foot in the grave reminded was like attending the wake of an old friend. It should be a crime, Officer told me, to rip up living history to make way for the flavor of the month, or even decade, but you can't fight huge investment funds, even if they are based in California and run by natives.

Mike Officer describes 2004 as "damn near a perfect vintage, except for a six-day heat wave in early September, which was not an issue for our late-picked varieties. "In fact, he went on, he had harvested barely one-third of his fruit by the end of September, with the rest coming in during the first half of October, just before several days of rain began on the 17th. "Across the board, 2004 is our best vintage yet," he summarized. Officer's strategy:"Make the best wines possible and charge a fair price for them. "By California standards, these wines are almost too cheap. The 2004s I tasted with Officer in March had been bottled just a couple of weeks earlier.