Santa Barbara County
We began making a grenache blend at The Ojai Vineyard in 1998 when we introduced the Vin du Soleil wines. Nobody seemed to understand what we were doing with them, so in 2003 we changed the name to its majority constituent, grenache. It still is a blend of grenache, mourvedre and syrah; we simply keep the grenache component above the required 75% minimum to label it as such.
This 2005 is a blend of 40% grenache from Purisima Mountain Vineyard with 40% grenache, 15% syrah and 5% mourvedre from Thompson Vineyard. The two batches of grenache were quite different from each other and both lacked something, but together they made a delicious wine. Most of the Vin du Soleil wines took several years before they showed their best, but this 2005 grenache is easy to enjoy right now–even though it will evolve nicely over the next several years
Blend: 80% Grenache 15% Syrah 5% Mourvedre | Vineyards: Purisma Mountain, Thompson | Barrel Aging: 15 Months | Total Production: 346 cases