Cep 'Estate' Syrah, Sonoma Coast, California 2020

Cep is the second label from Sonoma’s Peay Vineyards. Cep means vine stock in French. Cep Syrah is made from barrels of wine that do not make it into one of the Peay Vineyards wines. All the blending for the Peay cuvées is done blind– without knowing the amount each potential wine will make– so they choose the wine that best expresses the cuvée and the vintage. After all the wines for the vintage are put together, winemaker Vanessa Wong will use extra barrels to be released as Cep. They are delicious and at half the price of Peay!

• Winemaker: Vanessa Wong
• Farming: Organic
• Variety: Syrah 100%
• Terroir: Sonoma Coast (Annapolis)- Cool climate, high elevation, above the fog line, four miles ‘as the crow flies’ to the Pacific Ocean. A maritime vineyard site is sitting on well-draining, sandy loam soils.
• Vinification: All clones from single vineyards are tasted blindly out of the barrel to create the best possible blend from the vineyard that expresses its terroir. Any wine that does not make it into the single-site bottlings goes into this Sonoma Coast blend.
• Tasting Notes: Smoky, brooding, and complex, this wine is everything Syrah should be! Black plum skin, dried blueberry, black pepper, smoked ham hock. Somewhat different from Peay's estate wines, Cep wine is made for young approachability and serves a strong introduction to the potential of cool-climate Syrah in California.