Chateau Maris Natural Selection Syrah

It was a simple thought: If we spend all this time, funds and energy to be truly green and Biodynamic, then why be subtle about it? Let’s offer consumers that are liked minded a clearly labeled Biodynamic wine at a price that anyone can afford and lets tell our story on the back label. Hence the Natural Selection Syrah. A lush, plush blend of Syrah, Grenache and Carignan that does not contain a single chemical. The label itself took six month to design with the help of John Daponte of BRDG in Brooklyn. After going through many, many ideas, John finally copied a Charles Darwin’s "On the Origin of Species” printed tree diagram from 1859 and applied it to the front label. That was it. The dark green color is an unknown pantone. In effect, the ink that we use to print our labels was absorbed by the recycled paper in a way that we did not anticipate. This is the reason why the label above is a sleek gray and the real label is instead forest green (it was meant to be?). I did not really want to have a "green” wine with a green colored label, but since it would have taken more than a month to fix, I decided to go with it . Proving once again that successful marketing are often happy accidents. The bottle is a St Gobain ECOVA ultra-light bottle weighing in at 0.85 pounds (regular Burgundies are 1.32 pounds!). Quick math will show that if you multiply the weight saved in glass only, you end up with a Mitsubishi Fuso... They are made out of 80% recycled glass. The boxes and dividers (we ship in flat 12 packs only) are also made with recycled cardboard. But we can be as "green" as we'd like, if the wine is terrible, nothing else really matters. Our Syrah is grown on hard and soft limestone and alluvial soils. It is a blend of 85% Syrah and 15% Grenache. vinification happens in a mix of concrete and conical foudre and it is aged for 12 months in 30% new oak and the rest in two and three years barrels. Like all our wines, it is bottled unfined and unfiltered and is thus suitable for vegetarians and vegans. The nose is ripe black fruits (blackcurrants, elderberries) notes alongside more spicy characteristics (pepper, herbs). The palate is very attractive with firm yet silky tannins. Aromatic, spicy with a generous weight.