Last Saturday I was invited to attend a lunch with winemaker Shane Finley in Sebastopol to taste his 2006 releases as well as some of the white Rhones that influenced his winemaking. I met Shane last year when I was visiting Kosta Browne where he is Assistant Winemaker. We were the first account to offer a small amount of his first release of 2006 Shane The Unknown in January.
After whetting our palates with a couple flights of 2001 Yves Cuilleron and Pierre Gaillard white rhones from St. Joseph, we dove into the trio of Shane's 2006 Syrah; Jemrose, The Unknown and Valenti. Out of these three I heavily favored the silky violet, cassis quality of the Valenti which paired beuatifully with the lamb leg I ordered.
Following lunch, we departed for Kosta Browne where Shane makes his wines. The entire production is barely 20 barrels in 2007. He has added a fourth Syrah called The Villain coming from a pair of distinct vineyards; Alder Springs (Emerald Pond) and Broken Leg. My impression of the four Shane Syrah has the Valenti and Vallain showing the most concentration at the moment. The wines will be bottled in about a month.
Shane's new project with a partner is a micro production Pinot Noir called Spell. He has fewer than 180 cases of a pair of wines that will not likely see the light of day until 2010. The smallest lot is a mere 50 cases of Pinot Noir from Barton Vineyard in Russian River. It is accompanied by 120 cases of a multi-clone bottling from Weir Vineyard in Yorkville Highlands that uses about 25% whole cluster.
Vinfolio plans to grow our relationship with Shane Finley and his projects as they move forward. His ultimate goal is to get to about 1000 cases, even at that there will never be a lot to go around.
Shane was mentioned as one of my winemakers ON THE CUSP OF DISCOVERY in my June 9th blog post.
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