2021 Minus Tide Valenti Vineyard Syrah
Tasting Notes: Marked by complex savory notes of black and white pepper, dried herbs, olive tapenade, and salami, this layered, mouthwatering Syrah also has hints of cassis, dark plum, and wild blackberry. Refined tannins add to the wine’s notable structure. With beautiful minerality, intense concentration, and length, this is an elegant yet powerful expression of coastal, high-elevation Syrah.
Vineyard: Valenti Vineyard - Mendocino Ridge AVA, Mendocino
The south-facing Valenti Vineyard lies at elevations of 1,300-1,600 ft., six miles from the Pacific Ocean. Planted in 1998, this vineyard made us fall in love with cool-climate California Syrah. The perfect site for Syrah, Valenti’s cooling coastal winds enable the grapes to ripen slowly and at lower Brix, producing wines of complexity, vibrancy, and balance. The classic pepperiness that is such a signature of this site’s Syrah can sometimes even be tasted in the grapes themselves.
Winemaking: Native yeast. 50% whole-cluster fermentation in small, open-top fermenters. Aged in neutral French oak barrels for 11 months. Unfined and unfiltered.
Vintage: 2021 was an excellent growing year with a mild spring and warm summer. The vintage overall showed lovely concentration and pronounced depth of flavor.
Technical Details:
Composition: 100% Syrah
Vineyard: Valenti
Appellation: Mendocino Ridge
Clones: Durell, Chave
pH: 3.76
TA: 6.7 g/L
Brix at harvest: 21.5
Alcohol: 13.4%
87 cases produced
93 Points - Decanter
"Compelling and highly perfumed aromas of black olives, violets, liquorice, and supple blackberry fruits nuanced by charcuterie notes lead with lifted mineral overtones. Offering classic Syrah notes leading with a serious meatiness that builds in intensity, matched by sweet cassis, brandied cherries, olive tapenade, and smoky minerals. Firm, fine-grained tannins underscore a long finish of black pepper, cardamom, earth, and crushed dried violets. Co-owners and co-winemakers Kyle Jeffrey and Brad Jonas source grapes from Valenti Vineyard, a south-facing site at elevations of 296 to 487 metres in the Mendocino Ridge AVA."
92 Points - The Tasting Panel
"Vineyard elevations reaching 1,600 provide the fruit for this powerful red. Pepper stands out alongside black plum and dried violets. A base of roasted coffee bean and charcuterie add to its French accent."
The New Wine Review
"Valenti is dry farmed and quintessentially cool climate, and this 50 percent whole-cluster Syrah captures everything you want in such a wine—it’s aromatic, spicy, fresh, and structured, melds together flavors of cassis, herbes de Provence, and black olive with ease, and is remarkably delicious."
Dame Wine
"100% Syrah from Valenti Vineyard which is located between 1,300 to 1,600 ft., six miles from the Pacific Ocean. Cooling coastal influences allow the grapes to slowly ripen, bringing more complexity, elegance and retaining bright acidity. The fantastic mingling of red strawberries with a touch of black pepper and just a hint of basil on the nose lets one know that they are about to taste a very special wine that becomes extremely delectable with a mid-palate plushiness with cassis and black raspberry liqueur flavors that are lifted by elegantly sculpted tannins and invigorated by marked acidity."
Wine Enthusiast
"This wine offers deeply concentrated blackberry and blue fruits, along with lots of texture from earth, clay and mineral. There is so much going on and everything is still developing."
Vinography
"I’m happy to recommend to you the latest Syrah release from the tiny boutique producer Minus Tide, who has managed to get ahold of fruit from one of the best Syrah vineyards in California. The Valenti Vineyard is high on Greenwood Ridge, roughly 6 miles from the Pacific at the western edge of Anderson Valley in Mendocino. Planted in 1998 it has made some of my favorite California Syrahs for many years. This one, made by Brad Jonas and Kyle Jeffrey, has a feral intensity that will appeal to anyone who is looking for more than just polished fruit in their glass."