2020 Thunderstone
$55
Collector's & Founder's Club: $41.25
Case Club: $44
Connoisseur's Club: $46.75
Blackberry purée, bacon fat, clove, and black licorice. The 2020 Thunderstone starts bold and savory on the nose. The wine opens to black currant, cherry jam, dark chocolate, tobacco, and hints of black pepper and vanilla. The mouthfeel is broad and full bodied, with black fruit, leather, sage, and oak spice flavors. The tannins here are fine, almost powdery, and the oak presentation is very well integrated. There’s a unique savoriness typical of this wine, but also a sweetness and juiciness from the mid palate, and throughout its finish. The more you swirl, the more the fruit comes up, and the savory notes tone down. A beautiful Syrah that you can drink now or in the next 12 years.
A reference to the shape of this vineyard site, thunderstones are ancient artifacts, oftentimes arrowheads, turned up in the soil from farmers' plows and regarded in folklore as having been cast to the earth from thunderbolts. In Scandinavia thunderstones were frequently worshiped as family gods who kept off spells and witchcraft.
| Vintage | 2020 |
| Varietal Composition | 100% Syrah |
| Appellation | Royal Slope |
| Vineyard | Thunderstone, Scarline & Stoneridge Vineyards |
| Designation | Lawrence Vineyards |
| Alcohol | 15.40% |
| Volume | 750 ml |
| Cases Produced | 158 |
Gård Vintners is 100% estate grown sustainably at Lawrence Vineyards in the Royal Slope AVA. Lawrence Vineyards features seven distinct vineyard sites with elevations ranging 930 feet to 1,675 feet. The combination of elevation and south-facing slope provides a great framework for grape production, while the diversity of the seven locations delivers a high level of complexity to Gård wines. Lawrence Vineyards is certified sustainable by Vinewise.org.
MATÍAS KÚSULAS
Winemaker & Viticulturist
A Chilean with Greek roots, Matías was a Marine officer and Naval Engineer in Chile for more than seven years when he realized that it was time to change the course of his career: In 2005, he started studying Agricultural Engineering at the University of Chile, where he graduated with distinction and a major in Viticulture and Enology. He worked in Chile for a few years and in 2011 he decided to start traveling the world on a quest to learn new wine-making techniques. After several harvests in Oceania, Europe and Africa, he settled down in France, to do his post degrees at the Universities of Bordeaux and Montpellier. He also performed for two years as a Maître de Chai for one of the oldest and most reputable wineries in Condrieu and Côte-Rôtie.
After years of traveling and over 15 harvests, he came to the United States and joined Gård Vintners/Lawrence Vineyards as a Production Winemaker and Viticulturist, and is currently head winemaker for Gård Vintners, Desert Wind Winery, Valo Cellars, and his own label, Massalto. In his spare time he likes to jump out of planes and is a Judo Black Belt.
