2022 Cattleya, Syrah “The Initiation” Soberanes Vineyard, Santa Lucia Highlands.
I was very excited to taste through the latest Cattleya wines and it’s not a surprise I was blown away by this producers set of outstanding offerings and especially this awesome “The Initiation” Syrah from the Pisoni’s exceptional Soberanes Vineyard, a wine that is regularly one of California’s best. After the almost perfect 2021, winemaker Bibiana González Rave-Pisoni had to deal with a bit more difficult conditions with heat spikes playing havoc with even ripening, making her efforts here even more remarkable and this 2022 is a gorgeous wine of depth, a full range of flavors and elegance. The full bodied Initiation Syrah has incredible fruit density and velvety tannin(s), like a Giugal La La, displaying boysenberry, damson plum, blueberry compote and black cherry fruits, along with crushed violets, creme de cassis and vanilla, as well as subtle savory meatiness, sweet cedar, black licorice, bitter espresso, smoky graphite and peppery spices. The SLH terroir coolness helps cut into the opulence and warm ripeness adding a fine sense of balance here, making it again a class act and a standout example of this varietal. The deep purple/black hued Alban Clone (Côte-Rotie) Soberanes Syrah, again saw, a 10 day cold soak and a slow maceration and primary fermentation lasting about three weeks with gentle punch downs and pump overs daily until it was dry, then it was pressed to French oak 228L barrels, with close to 70% new, where it matured for 16 months. The Initiation Syrah, Bibiana says, marks the true beginning of a quest, one she took, to Côte-Rôtie, home to some of the world’s most exquisite Syrahs, was where she worked her very first harvests and made her first wines. Now her goal with her Pisoni family vines is to create a Syrah of great beauty and finesse that shows this terroir, but honors where she’s been. The Soberanes Vineyard, owned and farmed by the Pisoni team, on decomposed granite and sandy loams, in the Santa Lucia Highlands captures the essence of the region with its cool Pacific Ocean breezes and chilly nights allowing for long hang time for the grapes, giving deep ripe flavors and a lift of natural acidity, and it’s one of the most important sites for Syrah in the state, as seen here and with the Pisoni family’s own Lucia version.
As I’ve mentioned before, Bibiana González Rave-Pisoni is an unlikely master of vine, coming from Colombia, a country almost without any grape vines, but, in her childhood she says, a few sips occasionally stolen from her father’s wine glass were enough to inspire an all-consuming dream—to become a winemaker and as soon as she could she packed her bags a went to France! While in France she quickly took to winemaking like a duck to water, ultimately earning a BTS degree in Viticulture and Enology from Cognac, which was followed by a degree in Enology from the University of Bordeaux, she adds, graduating with honors. After which she was well on her way to stardom, working the sheer granite slopes of Côte-Rôtie at Domaine Stéphane Ogier, then she helped at Domaine Clusel-Roch, before returning to Bordeaux and the famed estates of Château Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut-Brion. If this sounds amazing for a young Colombian winemaker, it was only the beginning of her incredible journey which has seen her excel in Burgundy, Alsace, Cognac and even in South Africa before turning her attention to California, where she is one of the state’s absolute best winemakers. While in California she met and married another rising star winemaker, Jeff Pisoni of the famous Pisoni Estate in the Santa Lucia Highlands and the two have become an awesome team, producing wines together under their Shared Notes label. In 2011 Bibiana’s Cattleya label was born and by 2014 she had become winemaker of the year, focused almost exclusively of Syrah vines at the Pisoni’s Soberanes Vineyard, though she had at that time helped Pahlmeyer’s Wayfarer become a world class producer of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The Soberanes Vineyard, planted last among the Pisoni crus, has proven to be one of the top sites in the highlands and while I love the Chardonnay and Pinot from here, I truly believe Syrah, which is mainly Alban (Cote-Rotie) clone, is the best grape here. The Orchid or Cattleya, as noted before, is Colombia’s national flower, hence the name for Bibiana’s solo project, which includes her heroic Syrahs, as well as her regional bottlings of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, which are also just amazing wines, they too continue to impress all that taste them, it’s needless to say I highly recommend them all!
($70 Est.) 96 Points, grapelive