92% Syrah, 8% Viognier
25 years ago, when I began the AMV journey, Viognier was my muse. It was a vineyard nursery’s mistake that sent me down the Syrah path. That original vineyard block that we established, simply known as block 17, was planted as Viognier and cared for as Viognier for the first 3 years of its life. It was not until its first fall with grapes hanging heavy on the vine did we notice a few clusters turning red. At first I was in denial, thinking that we had planted a few Syrah vines among the Viognier. I was soon to find out, that we actually had clearly planted mostly Syrah with just a few Viognier vines. Rather than pout about it, we decided to begin to co-ferment the two grapes together, just like they do in the famed Northern Rhç̂ne appellation of Cç̂te Rç̂tie. I decided to name this new wine Roasted Slope (a direct and literal translation of Cç̂te Rç̂tie). Our fans and critics alike fell in love with this wine, and it was always our most sought after wine each vintage. We have not produced this wine since 2005, the year that we sold our old vineyard. I have been attempting to recreate those flavors ever since, but have always come up short...until now. I am crazy proud to release the new and improved Roasted Slope, a blend of co-fermented Syrah and Viognier, all from three vineyard blocks along Alisos Canyon Road. This proprietary red wine picks up right where we left off and even leap frogs the qualities of the original wines. We sincerely hope that you love this new wine as much as we do!