Vasco Urbano Norm Grenache 2013

In 2009 when Nottingham Cellars came to be, we scheduled a meeting at Casa de Vinas with grower Julio Covarrubias. We were considering producing Cabernet Sauvignon from the vineyard. After a long walk through the Cabernet Sauvignon block, and two bottles of wine, we took a walk over into the Petite Sirah. We were about 3 weeks from harvest and Julio was pushing us to try a couple tons of the Petite. We walked the vineyard, tasting fruit, talking about the Valley. While we were hesitant to not lose track of our Cabernet Sauvignon vision, we agreed that it would be a great wine for our wine club. After all, this Valley has a huge history of growing and producing some of the world’s finest Petite Sirahs. We agreed to take 2 tons, and would use the wine for the wine club, or it would go into a blend. We were absolutely taken back by the Petite Sirah. The next vintage we upped our tonnage to 10 tons. The year after we secured the majority of the vineyard, leaving only a handful of tons to a few small producers. In 2010, inspired by our friend Julio, we secured tonnage of Syrah from the famed Hayes Ranch, Grenache from Marina Ranch, and Mourvedre from Raboli Vineyard in the efforts to make a GSM for our wine club. The wines quickly sold out and grew rapidly in popularity. As we have evolved, we decided the Rhone style wines were worthy of having their own presence and we wanted to make more of the wines available to our customers. With the 2012 vintage, we are pleased to announce the launch of Vasco Urbano Wine Company.