Happy Birthday Syrah!

Well my friends, a Syrah is born. Vital stats:

Name: Je Suis Syrah

Date of birth: 3/14/09

Time of birth: 14:00

Gestation: 16 months

Condition: red, perfect

Weight: heavy

I’m not sure I can adequately convey the excitement of finally holding  a finished bottle in my hands. For a year and a half, winemaking has been an adventure, a diversion, a hobby. But now—whoa—it’s a business. What a feeling to have created a real product, something that people can look at and hold and feel and taste! And let me tell you, I cannot wait for you to taste this wine.

But, a quick note before you start planning dinner parties. Just as I am a little bit in shock from this whole process, so is Syrah. Bottle shock, that is. Not only the name of a sweet, silly little film staring Alan Rickman, bottle shock is a very real side effect of the bottling process. Imagine for a second that you’re a barrel of wine and you’ve been chilling out in oak for a year or so, when all of a sudden you’re pumped through a hose, spat into bottles, vacuum sealed, and tossed into boxes. You’d be a little upset, right? Sure, but after a while you’d get used to that cozy little bottle. And that’s exactly what happens with the Syrah. For a month or so, it will need some extra TLC. Meaning, if you order wine now (and go for it, by all means) and simply can’t keep yourself from opening a bottle right away, you’ll want to decant it once or twice before drinking. Over the next few months, the wine will continue to relax and improve, and by May or June, it won’t need any decanting. It’s actually fun to set aside a few bottles and open one every couple weeks to follow the progress of the wine.

And for that matter, why not buy a case and open a bottle every year? Je Suis Syrah is already a gorgeous supermodel wine… just imagine what she’ll be like in ten years. Don’t wait to buy yours though, because I have a feeling it’s going to go fast.

P.S. (post script) Massachusetts residents, I’m still waiting for the shipping paperwork to go through. I’ll let you know as soon as it happens. In the meantime, don’t you owe your friends in New York a visit anyway?

P.S. (Petite Sirah) You’ll notice on the website that you can reserve bottles of Petite now. They’ll be shipped to you after we bottle, some time around June. What an amazing mid-summer treat that will be.