August James Syrah 2023

Stolpman’s Pre Clonal, Own Rooted Projects
In early 2013, after a seminal visit to Domaine Auguste Clape, we set out to model a vineyard after Clape’s Reynard parcel.  We propagated special pre-clonal Syrah cuttings from just 50 vines to 12,000, all head-pruned, own-rooted, and planted so densely that all work must be done by hand.  The steep, east-facing hillside produced its first crop, barely 400 pounds of fruit, in 2017, the same year our son August, was born.  
Great Places August James Stolpman includes grapes made from our ‘Mother Vine’.  Rather than cut the growth from the 50th cutting to replant on adjacent posts, in the winter of 2014, we layered its first growth under-ground and back up, creating 3 daughter vines still connected to mother.   Each year we repeat the process on the periphery and as of 2025 writing, the Mother Vine now stands at 1,350 connected heads.  The oldest generations within the interior bear grapes and these are included in the cuvee.   In 2027 we forecast the Mother Vine will yield 1,000 pounds of grapes, enough to make a barrel of wine from one vine. In 2027, we forecast the Mother Vine will yield 1,000 pounds of grapes, enough to make a barrel of wine from one vine. 
Syrah that makes the cut into our highest tier “The Great Places” brand, hail from just 8 acres of our steepest hillsides where we have taken an approach unprecedented in the New World.  First, the pre-clonal strains are wholly unique and selected from 100 year old vineyard sites.  Then, this Syrah material is planted own-rooted and head pruned at just 2.5 x 3 feet spacing.  Each vine puts all of its energy into ripening 2-3 clusters of concentrated, complex fruit each year.  All work is done by hand. Vine yields are so low, it takes 6 vines to make one bottle of wine.
The brand is named after one of our most inspirational Serine parcels in Côte-Rôtie “Les Grandes Places”. 
Healthy late winter and early spring rainfall delayed bud break by a few weeks. Summer weather remained moderate and luckily, we experienced a warmer than usual October that pushed the vines through the finish line of peak ripeness.   Because August James faces the early, still morning, it is always one of the first blocks of Syrah harvested.  But in 2023, the fruit hung all the way to October 17th.   
Pure decadence and luxury.  Big, plump, and inviting. Coating and rich. A lively brightness hits on the mid palate elevating the wine through the finish with zero tannin interrupting the floaty, smooth wash.   
The energy of grilling with crackling, fast-burning grapevine wood, lamb sizzling above.  Just a touch of wild bramble and dry brush that hint at a raw, carnal, sangre spirit haunting below the fleshy yumminess.