STiRM Siletto Vineyard Cabernet Pfeffer

Cabernet Pfeffer

San Benito County, California

Not far from Saucelito Canyon, Ryan Stirm met his mentor, Justin Willett of Tyler Winery, while rock climbing in remote Santa Barbara County. This chance meeting led to a four year endeavor as the assistant winemaker at both Tyler and Lieu Dit Winery. In between harvests at Tyler, he traveled to work abroad in Margaret River, Western Australia and in Austria (Wachau, Weingut Tegernseerhof) before moving up north to work for the classic Santa Cruz Mountain winery Thomas Fogarty. Stirm Wine Co. is now located in southern Santa Cruz County near Watsonville; central between the key appellations we work with. He has two simple goals: to present the narrative of the growing season in a delicious and transparent format, and to craft a wine with a strong foundation intended to age for decades.

Ron Siletto, a longtime icon of San Benito Viticulture, is the primary source of Cabernet Pfeffer in San Benito County, where the variety is grown, and nowhere else in the world. In France it’s known as Mourtaou/Mancin, an old variety from Bordeaux. There are less than 20 acres of it in the world. This block of Cabernet Pfeffer at Siletto was planted in 1992 and the cuttings came from the old El Gabilan vineyard in the Cienega Valley.