2022 Singer Estate Viognier Sonoma Coast - Baker Lane Vineyard

Stephen Singer has been a central character and prime mover of the Bay Area wine and food scene for the past 40+ years. In 2003 he founded Baker Lane Estate, his wine and olive oil project two and a half miles south of Sebastopol. In 2022 he relaunched his wine label as Singer Wine, with a focus on smaller production of wines from the heart of his vineyard. This wine is the first syrah vintage under that new label and focus.

Stephen’s cool-climate estate vineyard is tucked away in the rolling hills of Sebastopol, near the West Sonoma Coast. It was planted in 2003 with six different clones of syrah, plus a little viognier and some olive trees. Farming is sustainable, regenerative, and uncertified organic. The Baker Lane Estate Vineyard Syrah includes a couple percent of viognier (a common practice in the Northern Rhône) and fermented with 15% whole clusters. Aging was for 26 months in 450-liter puncheons, a combination of new, once-used and neutral barrels. The wine was bottled unfined and unfiltered.

The nose has deep and dark earth-inflected fruit with an atypical and enchanting cedary note. The palate is all grace and groove, with beautiful texture and a scintillating acidity that keeps the wine bright and singing through its notable length. The wine gains complexity and dimension with air, so let it relax in a decanter and/or in the glass. There is enough acidity to pair with tomato sauces, or go full syrah with grilled meats.