Emme Wines, Syrah 'La Luz de Mis Ojos' Falcon Lane 2024

100% Syrah

Russian River Valley, California, USA

Falcon Lane is a small backyard Syrah vineyard in Graton, CA, that Rosalind of Emme Wines has been farming for 5 years.  It had previously been abandoned, and farming it has been a long and slow labor of cleaning up and retraining the vines. The 2023 harvest was the first in which the vines gave enough fruit to allow the fermentation and bottling of the Syrah on its own. The 2024 harvest provided even a bit more fruit, as well as higher consistency and quality overall from the vineyard.

The fruit was picked across two evenings in mid September.  These picks were combined into one tank at the winery, and fully foot crushed.  Fermentation kicked off after a few days, and continued for 10 days.  Once dry, the Syrah was pressed to tank for a few days, then transferred to two neutral oak barriques to undergo malolactic and age on lees over the winter. In March, the two barrels of Syrah were racked to tank for bottling. Indigenous yeast fermentation. 20 ppm SO2 added at bottling, no other additions, unfined and unfiltered. 60 Cases produced.

Rosalind Reynolds didn’t set out to become a winemaker; in fact, her studies of biochemistry as a precursor to attending medical school was the original plan. However, after taking a year off to work before applying to med school, Rosalind landed a job with Gallo at their research winery. There, she wasn’t doing ‘bench’ lab work as expected, but rather, received something of a crash course in winemaking and fell in love with it. For five years afterward, she spent her time working, traveling the globe to do harvests in New Zealand, France, Argentina, and so on.

As of 2018, Rosalind found her way back to California for her permanent work; she’s a full-time employee at Pax Mahle’s cooperative winemaking facility. There, the community of winemakers has helped her develop as a producer, in addition to connecting her with various farmers of vines that have become friends and partners. The winemaking is straightforward and unfussy; the style is transparent, low-alcohol, but elegant, with clear expressions of each variety or in each cuvée, despite what can often be the bruising California climate. Rosalind’s intelligence and clear hand with lots of practice are gifting us with some clear, precise, and deeply delicious renditions of lesser-known pockets and varieties across California viticulture. Emme Wines is named after Rosalind’s grandmother.