Region: Los Olivos District, Santa Barbara County, California

Varietals: 81% Cinsault, 19% Syrah

Tasting Notes:  The 2019 Margerum Cinsault is an absolutely delicious wine. A variety you don't see often on its own (although it's becoming more common), this offers a Grenache-like bouquet of raspberries, black cherries, peppery herbs, and sappy flowers. Medium-bodied, elegant, and seamless on the palate, it shines for its balance, purity of fruit, and sheer drinkability. Inviting and refreshing from the very first taste.

Producer:  Doug Margerum found his passion for wine as a teenager in the caves of Clos de Papes on a family vacation. Twenty years later, a 13-course dinner in New Orleans with Chris Robles gave Doug the opportunity he had been dreaming about: he turned over the day-to-day running of the Wine Cask to Chris to follow his passion to make wine and established Margerum Wine Company in 2001.

Vineyard and Winemaking:  Cinsault (pronounced SAN-so) is common in France's southern vineyards. If you drink any French Côtes du Rhône red blend or rosé from Provence, there's a very good chance that cinsaut is one of the grapes. Cinsaut is widely grown in South Africa too, where it was crossed with pinot noir to make pinotage. The Cinsault in this Margerum bottling is estate grown on Margerum's organically farmed home base within the Los Olivos District of Santa Barbara County. The Cinsault is co-fermented and blended with small amounts of the estate grown Syrah, just under 20%. The grapes are pressed after fermentation and mature for 10 months in used French oak before a final racking and bottling.