2022 Samuel Louis Smith Syrah Sandstone Terrace Santa Cruz Mountains 750 ml

Samuel Louis Smith’s wines are incredibly scarce: They’re made in tiny quantities—and the bottles that are available are gobbled up by somms at California’s greatest restaurants.

We can’t think of a young winery whose wines have been more eagerly embraced by the very top dining destinations in California. Thomas Keller’s Bouchon stocks them. Michelin three-star Manresa (RIP) in Los Gatos listed three different bottlings. Plumed Horse—one of only 96 Wine Spectator Grand Award winners in the world—features even more, including two vintages of the Sandstone Terrace Syrah.

A semester abroad in Bordeaux is what turned Samuel Smith into an aspiring winemaker, and after stints in Santa Barbara, Australia, Oregon, and the Northern Rhône, he ended up working at Morgan in Monterey County. He had never envisioned ourselves in that part of the California coast, but the kind of complex, organically farmed cool-climate wines he was making really aligned with his vision.

For Sandstone Terrace, Samuel taps three vineyards that give Syrah of different personalities. Nelson Vineyard makes up the majority of this wine, sitting at over 1,700’ of elevation, and has huge diurnal swings—providing the wine’s fruit and texture. That’s rounded out with two sites that provide structure and verve: The Gali Vineyard, which practically kisses the Pacific, sitting at just 400 feet of elevation just six miles from the coast in the Corralitos sub-district of the southern Santa Cruz Mountains. The third site, the Coastview Vineyard, sits at 2,300’ above sea level in the decomposing granite of the Gabilan Mountains.

Bursting with California ripeness tempered by an Old World touch, this Syrah is winning fans up and down the coast. We’re thrilled to share it with you.