2021 Stolpman Vineyards Angeli Syrah Ballard Canyon 750 ml

It’s always a pleasure to catch up with Pete Stolpman—especially when the subject is the top-rated wine in their history.

"The first vintage in 2001 was a Super Tuscan blend, but since '02 it's been all Syrah,” he said about Angeli, which his father Tom named in tribute to Pete’s mother’s maiden name. “We started making it as a barrel selection, but by 2008 we had evolved to sourcing exclusively from an own-rooted hilltop vineyard.”

In 2002, the year after Stolpman winery’s first commercial vintage, winemaker Sashi Moorman went hunting through the limestone-packed hillsides of Ballard Canyon. He was searching for the vineyard’s exceptional micro section—he found it at the highest elevation of their dry-farmed Block 5 ridgeline, where exposure to sun and maritime breezes makes for tiny, intensely flavored berries. 

The fruit that goes into Angeli maximizes richness, a bit of a contrast with Stolpman’s savory, Old World-style Syrahs. “The berries just burst with flavor,” Pete says. “You get more viscosity, concentration, and richness—it’s really a hedonistic style."

From 2002 forward, the best barrels from that low-yielding block go into Angeli. While other wines in their lineup are meant to show restraint, Angeli was conceived from the start as an exercise in no-holds-barred hedonism: a huge, massively concentrated, voluptuous Syrah, bursting at the seams with red and black fruit.

Vinified with 33% whole clusters, fermented in concrete for 11 days before aging in neutral French puncheons, this is the pinnacle of California Syrah. We’re thrilled to have gotten it, and thrilled to share it with you.