Joseph Phelps Vineyards Releases First Vineyard Designate Syrah

California Syrah Pioneer Launches Single Vineyard Bottling

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Oct 23, 2012, 01:53 ET

St. HELENA, NAPA VALLEY, Calif., Oct, 23, 2012 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Joseph Phelps Vineyards is pleased to announce the release of its first-ever vineyard designated Syrah, sourced from the Larry Hyde & Sons Vineyard located in the Carneros sub-appellation of Napa Valley.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121023/CG98373)

Phelps began working with this vineyard in 2009 and starting with the 2011 vintage, is under a long-term estate vineyard contract.

This new wine continues the Phelps Syrah legacy that began nearly forty years ago with the first varietal Syrah bottling in California since the pre-prohibition era. Produced from the 1974 vintage, Joseph Phelps's first Syrah was sourced from a Christian Brothers vineyard on Zinfandel Lane. This vineyard was the one remaining French Syrah planting left in California from the 1935 experimental propagation by Professor Harold Olmo of the University of California at Davis. Christian Brothers had traditionally blended the Syrah with other red varieties, never bottling Syrah separately. Phelps has produced Syrah in every vintage since 1974, sourcing from both estate and grower fruit in Napa Valley, Los Carneros or Monterey County.

The Larry Hyde & Sons Vineyard is comprised of clay loam soil from the Haire series and situated on a hilly vein of old terraces with close proximity to the marine influence of the San Pablo Bay. It receives morning fog and mild afternoon temperatures for a long, even growing season. The vineyard was planted in 2001 and 2006 and field budded with a variety of Syrah and Viognier selections. The five acres of Syrah will be used exclusively for the Phelps Larry Hyde & Sons Vineyard Syrah bottling while the two acres of Viognier will be blended with Viognier planted at the Phelps Spring Valley St. Helena estate to produce their Napa Valley Viognier.

The 2009 Joseph Phelps Syrah, Larry Hyde & Sons Vineyard is available exclusively to Phelps Preferred members and visitors to the Joseph Phelps guest centers in St. Helena and Freestone, CA. The suggested retail price is $60 per bottle.

About Joseph Phelps Vineyards

Joseph Phelps Vineyards is a family-owned winery committed to crafting world class, estate-grown wines. Founded in 1973 when Joe Phelps purchased a former cattle ranch near St. Helena in the Napa Valley, the winery now controls and farms nearly 375 acres of vines on eight estate vineyards in St. Helena, the Stags Leap District, Oakville, Rutherford, Oak Knoll District, Carneros and South Napa Valley. In 1999, the Phelps family added 100 acres of vineyard property near the town of Freestone on the Sonoma Coast, where Phelps now grows Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Phelps is best known for its flagship Napa Valley blend of red Bordeaux varietals, Insignia, first produced in 1974. Awarded Wine Spectator's "Wine of the Year" in 2005, Insignia is widely regarded as a qualitative benchmark for California winemaking. www.josephphelps.com