2019 Alban Patrina Syrah

Edna Valley, California

John Alban has become famous for the small amounts (only about 5000 cases annually) of high quality wines, especially of Syrah and Viognier, that he produces from a variety of vineyard blocks on their Edna Valley estate, just north of Arroyo Grande.

The Patrina, their "entry level" red, is a blend of vineyard sites raised with the same detail and attentiveness as the sites that make vineyard-designate wines, and then fermented open top with indigenous yeast, gentle pump overs and a few punch downs once soft, it is bottled unfined and unfiltered after ‘just’ 22 months in barrel to preserve its youthful exuberance.  This has all the density and concentration folks have come to expect from Alban's reds with black and blue fruits, mineral notes, and flowers.