Varietal Composition:

Varietal Composition:
100% Syrah
Appellation: Paso Robles
Vineyard:  O’Neill Vineyard
Bottling Date: September 2007
Release Date: May 1, 2008
Total Production: 140 750 ml cases
 Finished Alcohol: 15.6%
Residual Sugar: 0.10 g/100ml
Total Acid: .68 g/100ml
PH: 3.64
Suggested List Retail: $30

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THE VINTAGE

Sculpterra is proud to introduce Syrah to it’s list of big flavor-filled red wines. The Syrah fruit is from the O’Neill Vineyard, owned and operated by the O’Neill family in Paso Robles. Shannon O’Neill has earned a great reputation for his vineyards, his own Malloy O’Neill wines and now for the Sculpterra red wine portfolio. Although the 2006 vintage experienced variable weather, with very cold winter temperatures and some high temperature peaks in the summer, the wine quality was exceedingly excellent with a better than expected balance of fruit and acid. O’Neil Syrah vines are located in his Windy Hill vineyard located on the west side of his property. Shannon practices root deficit irrigation and keeps his vines in check for perfect vegetative and fruit responses. O’Neill Vineyards has certainly hit it’s stride producing quality Syrah fruit year after year. Once again, all of Shannon vines are an assurance of hand crafted quality. The Syrah vines are hand pruned, cluster thinned by hand, and hand harvested, all of which ensure optimal fruit for winemaking. 

THE WINEMAKING

The Syrah grapes were hand-picked and brought to the crush pad at the desired levels of sweetness and berry maturity. The Grapes were then crushed half a ton at a time then carefully transferred to ferment in small lot macro bins. Once again Shannon treats each one of his own lots as completely separate entities, using these half ton bins to ferment the grapes to utter dryness. Pressing is done with extreme care, then the wine is settled and is racked into a combination of brand new American oak, as well as one year old French and Eastern European oak. The wine was aged for a full year and was racked three times to ensure fineness and clarity in the final product. 

THE  WINE