Reva
In the earliest years of Alban Vineyards, I lived in a rented green house propagating cuttings. When I wasn’t making vines, I was busy looking for the future home for all the vines in my nursery. I spent 7 years looking at possible vineyard sites all over the Central Coast of California. Whenever I found a promising site, I negotiated a due diligence period during which I could do soil and site analysis. While mapping out the last piece I’d ever evaluate (because it was the one that turned into Alban Vineyards) I happened to name a little ridge on one part of the ranch ‘Reva’s Ridge’. It was a play on words incorporating the name of a Kentucky Derby winner: Riva’s Ridge, and my mother’s name which is Reva. Clearly I’d been in the sun too long and I will admit that I am a total ‘mama’s boy’. Years later, after calling the vineyard Reva and tagging the first barrel as Reva, I embraced the obvious: I named the wine Reva.
The grapes that go into Reva (97-100% Syrah with the balance Viognier) are from neutral sandy soils and portions of ranch that are chalky and quite alkaline. This combination makes for a wine with dark color, concentrated flavors of black fruits, fennel, and graphite. Perhaps the most distinguishing note of Reva is a unique iodine and oyster shell aromatic that is unlike anything in our other Syrahs. The wine is aged 3.5 years in barrels before bottling unfined and unfiltered.