2015 Grenache The Third Man

Greg Harrington, who started his winery in 2006, now makes about 8,000 cases a year, or what he describes as “a classic European 100,000 bottles.” Harrington told me that he likes both the 2014 and 2015 vintages better than 2013, adding that ’13 was better for Cabernet than for Rhône varieties. “But 2014 was better all around, as we had phenolic ripeness earlier than in 2013,” he explained. “And the ‘15s have even more structure, with more tannins from smaller berries. They should be longer agers.” The wines also began with lower pHs in 2015 than in 2014.

Harrington purchases fruit from a number of the state’s top sites but has also been buying small parcels of vines in recent years, including a vineyard across from Pepper Bridge, plus Octave and Forgotten Hills. He began vinifying with wild yeasts for vintage 2014 and now gets five to seven more days of fermentation at more consistent temperature, which he is convinced is giving him wines with more texture and nuance. Alcohol levels were a bit higher in 2014, which he attributes in part to the cement fermentation tanks he began using that year.

Wine lovers who haven’t tasted the Gramercy Cellars wines in a while should know that they are riper and fuller today than they were in the early years—and considerably more satisfying in my view, without any sacrifice of structure or ageability. In fact, Harrington has actually been trying to eliminate what he calls “the sweet edge” to his wines. One of his chief tools for accomplishing this objective is better canopy management—specifically, more shading of the fruit. “Our Syrah vines now look like California sprawl,” he told me.