“The Scarecrow” is what I call my 2010 Steruds Vineyard, Oakley CA, SF Bay AVA, Century old vines Carignane.
Old Man Sterud claims that this vineyard of Care-i-ghin (as he pronounced it) was planted by a ’49er ancestor of his who gave up on the gold. If you’ve seen the massive trunks on these head-pruned old vines amid the sand dunes of Oakley you wouldn’t doubt his word.
The Steruds vineyard is unusual in that it’s almost exclusively Carignane (There are a few Zin, Petite, and Alicante vines here and there throughout the vineyard). Most of the Oakley vineyards were planted by old Italian guys who over the course of the last century have interplanted a field blend of complimentary varietals – Zin, Petite, Carignane, Alicante, and Mataro; placing each vine so that all would ripen at the same time to save on harvest efforts.
I originally sourced these grapes to add some tannins to my GSM – but quickly fell in love with the Jet black colour of the juice. Each grape is a miniature black hole leading to an alternate universe of eneological perfectness. While I did use some Carignane in my Red Roan, and each of the Roan varietals, It’s best use was to round out my Zin. The Carignane carries everything that is missing from Zin – particularly in a year where the Zin got over-ripe like it did in 2010. Tannin, colour, structure, and it’s low brix.

While Pep, Laurette, and I picked about a 1/2 ton of these beauties, I only ended up bottling a little over 2 cases. The rest went into the blends, or to Pep and Laurette. If you want more, you’ll have to ask Pep – he bottled most of his straight up.

The name “Scarecrow” is no accident. This is a big, tannic, wine. I blended in 8% Mataro and 7% Grenache to take some of the edge off. Aged for 6 months in a mixture of Mexican and Hungarian Oak.

Label art by Michelangelo.

I buy Viogner grapes so I can make a better Syrah by doing a co-ferment with the skins. Rather than just throw the juice away; I make a crisp clean whit wine. The 2010 won a Bronze at the CA state faire, so I guess I’m doing it right.
2 Cases produced