2006 Blair Fox Cellars Syrah "Paradise Road Vineyard"

Blair Fox graduated from UC Davis in 1999 with a combined degree in Viticulture and Enology. After spending some time at Sunstone Winery in the Santa Ynez Valley and at Haselgrove Winery, a custom crush facility in McLaren Vale, Australia, Blair Fox traveled through France’s Rhône Valley before returning to his hometown of Santa Barbara. He then joined Fess Parker Winery & Vineyard as Associate Winemaker, overseeing the Rhône varietal wines. For the 2005 vintage Blair Fox was promoted to Head Winemaker, a position he holds today. With his experience working with Rhone varieties, Blair Fox makes very small quantities of some of California's top Syrahs and was awarded the Andre Tchelistcheff Winemaker of the Year Award at the 2008 San Francisco International Wine Competition in recognition of his work.

The Paradise Road Vineyard is the source for this 2006 Syrah from Blair Fox Cellars. Paradise Road is the eastern most vineyard in Santa Barbara County. It experiences a much warmer climate than most Santa Barbara County vineyards and is similar to Australia in its iron rich, nutrient deprived soils. The results are tiny berries, small clusters and very concentrated flavors for both the Syrah and the Viognier varietals grown on this wonderful vineyard.

"Insiders know Blair Fox as one of the main winemaking gurus at Fess Parker’s winery, but he also has his own operation where he fashions small lots of exceptionally high quality wines. I’ll keep my tasting notes brief as most of these are very limited production cuvees, but they are unquestionably worthy of consumer interest." - Robert Parker