Edwards Vineyard & Winery 2026

​Once again, we took the long drive out to near the end of the earth – about halfway between Ramona a Julien along highway 78 – to visit our friends at Edwards Vineyard & Cellars.  I am happy to report that the next generation has pretty much taken over, meaning that they are going to be around for many, many years.  On the wine side, they expanded their vineyard, planting some new grapes – Mourvèdre, Grenache, and Viognier.  Fortunately, they have more of their outstanding Clone 383 Syrah, a much-improved Cabernet Sauvignon, and a great new blend.  Oh, and a new sign:

​As shown standing next to Giacomo, Pinocchio’s cousin, is the latest Clone 383 Syrah.  I discussed clones some time ago, but it is worth going over the basics again.  Virtually no one grows grape vines from grapes.  In fact, vineyards usually buy their vines from nurseries in the form of potted plants.  The vineyard owners provide the nursery with a sample of the soil where the vines will be planted, growing conditions in their vineyard, and the grape variety they wish to grow.  The nursery makes recommendations as to root variety.  Note that because of the root louse phylloxera most of the roots are from North American grape species, i.e., not the same species as the vines.  The nursery grows the vines and roots, then splices the vines to the roots.  I believe that this takes about a year.

​Now clones are two vines with exactly the same DNA.  As the nursery is growing the vines by planting cuttings of existing vines, then taking cuttings from the new vines and splicing them on roots, all of the vines produced from the initial vine are clones.  Nurseries often have more than one clone for the vineyard owners to choose from.  Edwards has vines from four Syrah clones.  Their standard Syrah is a blend of these four.  But they also make a Syrah from the 383 clone only.  This single-clone wine is as pure as it gets, as all of the grapes have identical taste profiles.  The bad news is the 383 clone is very susceptible to a nasty condition known as Syrah Decline, so much so that many nurseries no longer grow it.  We bought a half case….
As I mentioned above, I believe that their latest Cabernet Sauvignon is the best they’ve produced.  Their Cabernet Sauvignon grapes are planted in a relatively flat area on the lower part of their property.  It is a very windy area.  I suspect the wind plays an important role in keeping the vines cool enough to give them the hang time necessary to produce quality grapes.

​Blends are not the norm for Edwards, so it was a bit of a surprise that we found their new one, Chosen Suns, to be a very nice wine.  The three components are Syrah, Petite Sirah and Cabernet Sauvignon.  Given the quality of the varietals that make from those three grapes, the quality of this blend is not surprising at all.

I hate to end on a downer, but they have no more Ramona Rotie, the Syrah-Viognier blend that I have highlighted in the past.  Not to worry, they will be releasing a new one soon.  Ground squirrels have eaten all of their 2026 Viognier grapes, but they have enough Viognier left over from last year for this year’s Ramona Rotie.  Can't wait until their next release....