Roark - 'Alondra de los Prados Vineyard' - Syrah - Santa Barbara County, CA - 2020

Every year at Alondra de los Prados is different and 2020 was surely no exception. The vineyard is nestled in a little nook down near the Santa Ynez River which usually buffers it from heat spikes. However, in September of 2020 about ten days before an ideal harvest day a heat spike hit and cooked a lot of the fruit that was exposed to the sun. Not only did the fruit get compromised but the canopy was fried. So even though it wasn’t as ripe as we would have liked we had to harvest the grapes ASAP because they were not getting any better. What resulted was a lighter style of wine with a bit more acid than most years. We are really happy with how it turned out and this wine will age a bit longer than some of the other vintages. Find a fatty cut of meat, wagyu anything, throw it on the grill and wash it down with this.

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Making wine is the last step in the growing of grapes, the preservation of the crop, the enological encapsulation of the vintage. Sometimes inspired by the classics and other times the avant garde we strive to make elegantly energetic wines that reflect the vintage, variety, and vineyard.

Growing grapes and making wine is quite the process and we are guided by the following question; is it necessary? Each additional step in the process takes you one step further away from the grapes, further away from the vines, further away from the simplest expression.

Who?
Ryan, Jenn, and Ellis Roark
In 2009 two monumental things occurred, Ryan made his first batch of Roark Wine Co. wine and he met Jenn. In 2016 they had Ellis and if he wants he can be a winemaker.

Our process is guided by nature with the goal being wine made from responsibly farmed vineyards with as little added or taken away as possible.
Many of the grapes used in our fermentations come from vineyards we farm ourselves or in partnership with other growers. These wines are often our proudest work. When we purchase grapes we seek out growers with similar values.
In the cellar our mantra is “naturally made, classically styled.” Only minimal effective amounts of sulfur are used and the wines are neither fined nor filtered. For me this approach is timeless but ever evolving as I continue to explore the world of wine.