With over 18 acres, our Syrah block on our vineyard is often used in our Rhone-style blends, but is delicious as a single varietal. On our vineyard, we practice sustainable farming and believe that attention to the soil’s health is critical to growing great wines.
The fruit was machine harvested, destemmed, and crushed to fermenters. Untoasted French oak fermentation ‘rice’ was added to assist color and flavor extraction. The wine was fermented for 11 days on skins to ensure complete extraction of sugars and anthocyanins. When pressed off the skins, the wine was stored to ferment in tank with French oak adjuncts for over 6 months, added to enhance flavor and complexity.
As a full-bodied red, the palate is greeted by a punch of dark berry flavors with hints of pepper and oak notes. Pair with foods like blue cheese burgers all things BBQ.
GOLD - San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition 90pts - Wine Enthusiast
Tasting Notes
Held up to the light, this wine illuminates an opaque and yet semi-translucent ruby color. Scents of chocolate, cherries, and baked berry pie waft from the glass. It’s impossible not to want to get more up close and personal with this wine.
A slight leather flavor mixed within tobacco and earth notes makes itself known up front and in the cheeks. In the middle of the palate, there is distinct cacao power and a sultry dark chocolate nib taste mixed with delicate floral notes that envelops the senses.
This Grenache pairs best with a juicy prime rib, a side of steamed artichoke with warm butter, some boneless spare ribs, or pasta with a rich white sauce. This wine matures beautifully with age, so store some bottles for your cellar and a few for enjoying for now.
We are a customer-focused team proudly representing Paso Robles & committed to continuing to bolster the high-quality reputation of Paso Robles wines. Broken Earth Winery produces unique wines that are estate grown, harvested & bottled in Paso Robles.
Rancho Tierra Rejada, Spanish for “land of worked earth,” is the original name of the 2,500-acre Paso Robles ranch that is now home to the vineyards of Broken Earth Winery. Our unique wines reflect winemaker Chris Cameron’s committed & passionate approach to all aspects of winemaking. Structure & balance are most critical, each varietal released is an accurate reflection of the style & the region. Broken Earth Winery remains committed to sustainable ideals, and to continuing to bolster the high-quality reputation of Paso Robles wines.
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, DC, FL, GA, ID, IN, LA, MD, MA, MN, MO, MT, NV, NH, NM, NY, NC, ND, OR, PA, SC, TN, TX, WA, WY
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: Tax & Shipping not included in savings calculations).
2016 Broken Earth Grenache & Syrah - $39 = 24.52%
Hello Casematers, Lab Rat reporting for duty! Last week I received an email from Alice for incoming wine, which was painlessly redirected to a UPS store for collection the following evening. Upon opening the package, I found a 2016 Broken Earth Grenache and a CM stemless glass! The double box gave the impression of two bottles at first, but I am happy with the surprise!
This is a long review (as my reviews typically are), so TLDR to the bottom for the assessment if you want to pass on the detailed notes!
My SO and I tasted the wine this evening next to a 2016 Warp + Weft Red Blend, which is a GSM style wine from South Africa consisting of 33% Grenache, 30% Syrah, 22% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Mourvedre, 5% Malbec and previously offered on Casemates on September 20th, 2021. Here is the link for anyone interested:
A little background: My wife and I both enjoy dry red wines and have experience with GSMs, but not as much with Grenache by itself. We gravitate towards ‘old world’ style wines with a more restrained style, and generally like mature bottles. We tasted both wines from universal glasses which we use for most reds and are familiar with their influence on wine (most reds show better from these stems over dedicated varietal glassware for us).
We would rather have tasted next to a pure Grenache and something from California at least, but the only candidates matching those descriptions are single bottles of Wellington and Wine Smith which are marked for consumption with specific company… We also debated on a 2019 CdP but thought it would be too closed… so the SA wine it is! Also, we planned to drink this wine over the weekend with a few other people, but life became quite hectic, and we did not open it until this evening. We did save ¾ of both bottles to compare tomorrow, so stay tuned!
First impressions, the bottle and label look good.
The natural cork was surprisingly not stained at all, which seems very strange for a red wine with some age.
An initial pour shows the wine is clear ruby in color to the rim with no signs of bricking, but again very light. Compared to the GSM, it looks exceptionally light indeed.
PnP at around 70F, and the wine is off dry, light bodied, medium plus acidity, and low tannins. Initial nose has a fair amount of astringency and smells of being high in alcohol. There are some faint notes of orange peel and blueberry, a little bit of earth and minerality, but it smells like it needs some time to open up. The initial taste does not match the nose as it is not giving much away. A swirl does not do much to offer any additional information. My wife commented this would be an easy wine to drink too quickly.
The Warp + Weft was very closed (matches previous experience where it needed 90 minutes of decanting to open up), but smelled much bigger and well-integrated. It was medium purple in color, dry, and full bodied with medium acidity and medium tannins. The nose was strawberry, sugar (like a jolly rancher), some melon, and earthy. The taste was earthy, slightly vegetal, and a bit of cherry.
After 30 minutes, wow, what a change in both wines. The Broken Earth is completely falling apart. At this point it has turned into a cherry bomb. My wife is the much more astute wine taster, and here are her notes at this point, “This wine dies after being in the glass for 30 minutes. I am almost getting an effervescence on my tongue at this point even though there are no sign of gas in the wine, it is possible it was bottled too cool, and the CO2 did not have a chance to escape during fermentation. Mostly cherry at this point, and the RS really shows itself. The wine is almost a sickly-sweet flavor. I am not looking forward to trying this wine tomorrow.”
The Warp + Weft, on the other hand, is starting to hit it’s stride. The wine is still closed but the nose is starting to open up with cocoa and strawberry and is very enjoyable. The palate has some tobacco, but the fruit is still muted. The wine is definitely dry when drank next to the Broken Earth.
TLDR We really wanted to like this wine! Although the Broken Earth Grenache had some initial promise, it fell on its face after 30 minutes in the glass. It could be possible this wine would have drank better at a younger age, at least for my SO and myself. It could be a decent party wine as the RS and low tannins could appeal to certain people, I hate giving a negative review, but this is a pass for us. We would expect this wine to be sub $10 at a grocery store.
I hope that helps, and we will report additional notes when we try it tomorrow. Please feel free to ask any questions! Thank you again to Alice and the entire Casemates team for the bottle and glass!
@highonpez@kaolis
This could be. The wine warmed up from cellar temp for about 90 minutes before we opened it, maybe we should have tried it at 55F. It could also make a difference on why the wine seemed to fall apart after 30 minutes? Our room temp is mid 70s but we ususally drink red wines around there, for better or worse.
Day two notes! The bottle was recorked under air and left overnight in the pantry. We chilled the wine down in the refridgerator to give it a taste over a wider temperature range. It was showing best a little below room temp. The nose is alcohol and cherry, and the palate is dusty cherry but pretty muted, and some alcohol. Honestly I like it more on day two, and I think it is drinkable and probably worth the cost of admission if it is your style, but it is still a pass for my SO.
Let me know if there are any additional questions!
Thanks for the opportunity to be a lab rat! I got the 2016 Syrah and a nice casemates stemless glass and got down to tasting. The wine is a lighter hue than I expected but very pretty. Aromas of berries, slightly floral, a little oak as well. The taste is very good. Red berries and currant with a long smooth finish and not really any oak despite the nose.
Taster two thought it was nice and very drinkable. A good representation of Syrah.
Taster three is very inexperienced and had never had a straight Syrah before. She thought it was very good.
That WE Grenache review:
Ripe aromas of caramel-soaked cherry, vanilla candy and toasty oak show on the nose of this bottling. Those vanilla and caramel elements pop on the palate, which then leads into rounded red-fruit flavors on the midpalate, with hints of wild thyme and pepper on the finish. — Matt Kettmann 4/1/19
Side note… not sure who is in charge of the Price Comparison notes. But the wines are available on producer website and not sure where the $216 comes from.
Greetings from the Broken Earth Team!
We are excited to share both these wines with the casemates community. We feel, that Grenache is really what we have become known for, as well as the other Rhone varieties that grow so well in our vineyard.
We will have multiple team members on the feed today, so please reach out with any questions or comments.
The photo for this offer shows a screw top, but the labrat report from @knlprez shows a cork.
Can you confirm what closure these have?
Also… the cork had zero staining. I’m a little surprised by that considering the specs state this wine was bottled in August of 2018. Any insight into that? Thanks in advance!
For our limited release Grenache wine only, we offer this in both screw cap and cork. The reason is for ‘on-premise’ channels such as restaurants, the screw cap provides better functionality. For retail, we use cork. The grenache is our only limited release we do this for, due to its popularity. Our winemaking team also runs comparison tests that are focused on aging and closure application (not the primary reason for the dual closure though).
Regarding the cork stain, we presume this is due to the use of Nomacorc, a synthetic closure (made from sugar cane material) that has zero TCA defect (cork taint) and is better for the environment.
While the oxygen transfer rate is similar to normal corks, the material stain is not as significant. However, we do expect to see ‘some’ wine stain on the cork, so this is a bit odd.
We will do some research and have more details throughout the day, but a great question.
Bumped into the Casemates crew today here in Sonoma and walked away with a couple bottles in exchange for some tasting notes - why doesn’t this happen more often? Paso Robles is a wine region that I’m looking forward to exploring more, and so this was a choice opportunity to get started.
2016 Special Selection Syrah
After a few hours in the cellar I opened this wine (screw top) and did the initial tasting at 68 degrees. The wine was a dark ruby with no signs of garnet or oxidation in the color. The aroma was medium intensity at this temperature and offered a pronounced leathery character which gave way - albeit reluctantly - to dark blackberry and some sweet tobacco aromas. At 7 years the wine is leaning strongly into tertiary aromas that speak to it’s time in bottle. If you like that aspect of leather or tobacco in aromas, this is a strong example.
The entry was nicely balanced with medium acidity. On the palate fruit came out with blackberry and blueberry flavors that persisted on the mid-palate. One could sense that the fruit might have been a bit more forward earlier in the life of this wine, but overall it was really nicely balanced with fine tannins that provided just enough structure. My thought was that this wine was just at the cross over point where fruit and time in bottle made for an interesting glass.
It’s hot here in Sonoma so this evening’s pairing is a light veggie chili and salad. That’s as big as I could go. No problems for the Syrah, but also it did not overwhelm either. It retained it’s balance with the meal. It’s a nicely layered Syrah with prominent tertiary aromas and it is good to go now for my tastes. I prefer that the fruit retains a little freshness and that is still there in this wine now.
2016 Special Selection Grenache
The Grenache was less intense in color, although it too was a bright ruby shade with no evidence of age. Aromas at the initial temperature were light to medium in intensity, strongly featuring cherry with sweet undertones of candy and vanilla, along with a little tart strawberry. With patience bottle age came through faintly like bacon or leather.
![2016 Grenache][4]
Fruit forward in aroma, the entry was less influenced by that candy fruit and more influenced by acidity and alcohol. It’s 15% plus which aligns with the pie filling, jammy ripeness of the fruit flavor. Considering the SF Chronicle rating, I looked for the old reviews of the wine and found one in Wine Enthusiast. At seven years the cherry caramel candy, baked aspects of the fruit from the reviews are there, but are diminished in freshness.
What does come out more in this wine now is some minerality which along with the acidity is highlighted in the finish. The wine paired successfully with the light dinner being very light in style itself.
Out of curiosity, I did compare this to a 2017 Grenache from the Grenachista. In both cases I found the fruit freshness had subsided, but honestly, the differences I tasted were better explained by the locations with the Broken Earth having riper more baked fruit character.
I didn’t find any difference in the wine as I went through dinner and saved some for afterward to check. Overall, I would have loved to have tasted this wine 2 years ago. One can sense this light style wine was all about the fruit, and at 7 years it’s lost a bit of its “special”. I can taste the echos of the ratings in the bottle today, but the Syrah is, in my opinion, the new star of this offer. And it is drinking really, really nicely.
2016 Broken Earth Limited Release Syrah, Paso Robles
Tasting Notes
Specs
2016 Broken Earth Limited Release Grenache, Paso Robles
GOLD - San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition
90pts - Wine Enthusiast
Tasting Notes
Specs
What’s Included
4-bottles:
Case:
Price Comparison
$336.00/Case for 6x 2016 Broken Earth Limited Release Syrah, Paso Robles + 6x 2016 Broken Earth Limited Release Grenache, Paso Robles at Broken Earth Winery
About The Winery
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, DC, FL, GA, ID, IN, LA, MD, MA, MN, MO, MT, NV, NH, NM, NY, NC, ND, OR, PA, SC, TN, TX, WA, WY
Estimated Delivery
Friday, Sep 15 - Monday, Sep 18
Broken Earth Grenache & Syrah
4 bottles for $52.99 $13.25/bottle + $2/bottle shipping
Case of 12 for $119.99 $10/bottle + $1/bottle shipping
2016 Broken Earth Limited Release Syrah
2016 Broken Earth Limited Release Grenache
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: Tax & Shipping not included in savings calculations).
2016 Broken Earth Grenache & Syrah - $39 = 24.52%
2016 Broken Earth Grenache
Hello Casematers, Lab Rat reporting for duty! Last week I received an email from Alice for incoming wine, which was painlessly redirected to a UPS store for collection the following evening. Upon opening the package, I found a 2016 Broken Earth Grenache and a CM stemless glass! The double box gave the impression of two bottles at first, but I am happy with the surprise!
This is a long review (as my reviews typically are), so TLDR to the bottom for the assessment if you want to pass on the detailed notes!
My SO and I tasted the wine this evening next to a 2016 Warp + Weft Red Blend, which is a GSM style wine from South Africa consisting of 33% Grenache, 30% Syrah, 22% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Mourvedre, 5% Malbec and previously offered on Casemates on September 20th, 2021. Here is the link for anyone interested:
https://casemates.com/forum/topics/warp-weft-south-african-red-blend
A little background: My wife and I both enjoy dry red wines and have experience with GSMs, but not as much with Grenache by itself. We gravitate towards ‘old world’ style wines with a more restrained style, and generally like mature bottles. We tasted both wines from universal glasses which we use for most reds and are familiar with their influence on wine (most reds show better from these stems over dedicated varietal glassware for us).
We would rather have tasted next to a pure Grenache and something from California at least, but the only candidates matching those descriptions are single bottles of Wellington and Wine Smith which are marked for consumption with specific company… We also debated on a 2019 CdP but thought it would be too closed… so the SA wine it is! Also, we planned to drink this wine over the weekend with a few other people, but life became quite hectic, and we did not open it until this evening. We did save ¾ of both bottles to compare tomorrow, so stay tuned!
First impressions, the bottle and label look good.
The natural cork was surprisingly not stained at all, which seems very strange for a red wine with some age.
An initial pour shows the wine is clear ruby in color to the rim with no signs of bricking, but again very light. Compared to the GSM, it looks exceptionally light indeed.
PnP at around 70F, and the wine is off dry, light bodied, medium plus acidity, and low tannins. Initial nose has a fair amount of astringency and smells of being high in alcohol. There are some faint notes of orange peel and blueberry, a little bit of earth and minerality, but it smells like it needs some time to open up. The initial taste does not match the nose as it is not giving much away. A swirl does not do much to offer any additional information. My wife commented this would be an easy wine to drink too quickly.
The Warp + Weft was very closed (matches previous experience where it needed 90 minutes of decanting to open up), but smelled much bigger and well-integrated. It was medium purple in color, dry, and full bodied with medium acidity and medium tannins. The nose was strawberry, sugar (like a jolly rancher), some melon, and earthy. The taste was earthy, slightly vegetal, and a bit of cherry.
After 30 minutes, wow, what a change in both wines. The Broken Earth is completely falling apart. At this point it has turned into a cherry bomb. My wife is the much more astute wine taster, and here are her notes at this point, “This wine dies after being in the glass for 30 minutes. I am almost getting an effervescence on my tongue at this point even though there are no sign of gas in the wine, it is possible it was bottled too cool, and the CO2 did not have a chance to escape during fermentation. Mostly cherry at this point, and the RS really shows itself. The wine is almost a sickly-sweet flavor. I am not looking forward to trying this wine tomorrow.”
The Warp + Weft, on the other hand, is starting to hit it’s stride. The wine is still closed but the nose is starting to open up with cocoa and strawberry and is very enjoyable. The palate has some tobacco, but the fruit is still muted. The wine is definitely dry when drank next to the Broken Earth.
TLDR We really wanted to like this wine! Although the Broken Earth Grenache had some initial promise, it fell on its face after 30 minutes in the glass. It could be possible this wine would have drank better at a younger age, at least for my SO and myself. It could be a decent party wine as the RS and low tannins could appeal to certain people, I hate giving a negative review, but this is a pass for us. We would expect this wine to be sub $10 at a grocery store.
I hope that helps, and we will report additional notes when we try it tomorrow. Please feel free to ask any questions! Thank you again to Alice and the entire Casemates team for the bottle and glass!
@knlprez Images of the SA GSM for those interested:
@knlprez Also, I just realized the pictures on the main page show a screw top, but our bottle was under cork.
@knlprez This makes me wonder about the rest, because it might fare better on the aging front if we’re getting screw tops.
@highonpez @knlprez 70 °F is a tad warm for a serving temp…think that had any influence on your impression?
@highonpez Maybe someone from the Casemates team can chime in, but I would assume all of this vintage was bottled with the same closure.
@highonpez @kaolis
This could be. The wine warmed up from cellar temp for about 90 minutes before we opened it, maybe we should have tried it at 55F. It could also make a difference on why the wine seemed to fall apart after 30 minutes? Our room temp is mid 70s but we ususally drink red wines around there, for better or worse.
Day two notes! The bottle was recorked under air and left overnight in the pantry. We chilled the wine down in the refridgerator to give it a taste over a wider temperature range. It was showing best a little below room temp. The nose is alcohol and cherry, and the palate is dusty cherry but pretty muted, and some alcohol. Honestly I like it more on day two, and I think it is drinkable and probably worth the cost of admission if it is your style, but it is still a pass for my SO.
Let me know if there are any additional questions!
Thanks for the opportunity to be a lab rat! I got the 2016 Syrah and a nice casemates stemless glass and got down to tasting. The wine is a lighter hue than I expected but very pretty. Aromas of berries, slightly floral, a little oak as well. The taste is very good. Red berries and currant with a long smooth finish and not really any oak despite the nose.
Taster two thought it was nice and very drinkable. A good representation of Syrah.
Taster three is very inexperienced and had never had a straight Syrah before. She thought it was very good.
That WE Grenache review:
Ripe aromas of caramel-soaked cherry, vanilla candy and toasty oak show on the nose of this bottling. Those vanilla and caramel elements pop on the palate, which then leads into rounded red-fruit flavors on the midpalate, with hints of wild thyme and pepper on the finish. — Matt Kettmann 4/1/19
Side note… not sure who is in charge of the Price Comparison notes. But the wines are available on producer website and not sure where the $216 comes from.
fwiw
@kaolis We definitely got the candy and cherry on the grenache!
Greetings from the Broken Earth Team!
We are excited to share both these wines with the casemates community. We feel, that Grenache is really what we have become known for, as well as the other Rhone varieties that grow so well in our vineyard.
We will have multiple team members on the feed today, so please reach out with any questions or comments.
Cheers!
@BEW_Wines
The photo for this offer shows a screw top, but the labrat report from @knlprez shows a cork.
Can you confirm what closure these have?
Also… the cork had zero staining. I’m a little surprised by that considering the specs state this wine was bottled in August of 2018. Any insight into that? Thanks in advance!
Great questions…
For our limited release Grenache wine only, we offer this in both screw cap and cork. The reason is for ‘on-premise’ channels such as restaurants, the screw cap provides better functionality. For retail, we use cork. The grenache is our only limited release we do this for, due to its popularity. Our winemaking team also runs comparison tests that are focused on aging and closure application (not the primary reason for the dual closure though).
@BEW_Wines
Thanks for the responses. So just to verify, which closure will the bottles have that are used to fulfill the Casemates orders?
Regarding the cork stain, we presume this is due to the use of Nomacorc, a synthetic closure (made from sugar cane material) that has zero TCA defect (cork taint) and is better for the environment.
While the oxygen transfer rate is similar to normal corks, the material stain is not as significant. However, we do expect to see ‘some’ wine stain on the cork, so this is a bit odd.
We will do some research and have more details throughout the day, but a great question.
@BEW_Wines Thanks for the clarification! It’s always nice to have winery participation!
@BEW_Wines
Any follow-up on the cork/closure question?
Just noticed the specs for the Grenache say it’s “Varietal: Syrah”
Details are seriously getting sloppy lately…my humble
Bumped into the Casemates crew today here in Sonoma and walked away with a couple bottles in exchange for some tasting notes - why doesn’t this happen more often? Paso Robles is a wine region that I’m looking forward to exploring more, and so this was a choice opportunity to get started.
2016 Special Selection Syrah
After a few hours in the cellar I opened this wine (screw top) and did the initial tasting at 68 degrees. The wine was a dark ruby with no signs of garnet or oxidation in the color. The aroma was medium intensity at this temperature and offered a pronounced leathery character which gave way - albeit reluctantly - to dark blackberry and some sweet tobacco aromas. At 7 years the wine is leaning strongly into tertiary aromas that speak to it’s time in bottle. If you like that aspect of leather or tobacco in aromas, this is a strong example.
The entry was nicely balanced with medium acidity. On the palate fruit came out with blackberry and blueberry flavors that persisted on the mid-palate. One could sense that the fruit might have been a bit more forward earlier in the life of this wine, but overall it was really nicely balanced with fine tannins that provided just enough structure. My thought was that this wine was just at the cross over point where fruit and time in bottle made for an interesting glass.
It’s hot here in Sonoma so this evening’s pairing is a light veggie chili and salad. That’s as big as I could go. No problems for the Syrah, but also it did not overwhelm either. It retained it’s balance with the meal. It’s a nicely layered Syrah with prominent tertiary aromas and it is good to go now for my tastes. I prefer that the fruit retains a little freshness and that is still there in this wine now.
2016 Special Selection Grenache
The Grenache was less intense in color, although it too was a bright ruby shade with no evidence of age. Aromas at the initial temperature were light to medium in intensity, strongly featuring cherry with sweet undertones of candy and vanilla, along with a little tart strawberry. With patience bottle age came through faintly like bacon or leather.
![2016 Grenache][4]
Fruit forward in aroma, the entry was less influenced by that candy fruit and more influenced by acidity and alcohol. It’s 15% plus which aligns with the pie filling, jammy ripeness of the fruit flavor. Considering the SF Chronicle rating, I looked for the old reviews of the wine and found one in Wine Enthusiast. At seven years the cherry caramel candy, baked aspects of the fruit from the reviews are there, but are diminished in freshness.
What does come out more in this wine now is some minerality which along with the acidity is highlighted in the finish. The wine paired successfully with the light dinner being very light in style itself.
Out of curiosity, I did compare this to a 2017 Grenache from the Grenachista. In both cases I found the fruit freshness had subsided, but honestly, the differences I tasted were better explained by the locations with the Broken Earth having riper more baked fruit character.
I didn’t find any difference in the wine as I went through dinner and saved some for afterward to check. Overall, I would have loved to have tasted this wine 2 years ago. One can sense this light style wine was all about the fruit, and at 7 years it’s lost a bit of its “special”. I can taste the echos of the ratings in the bottle today, but the Syrah is, in my opinion, the new star of this offer. And it is drinking really, really nicely.
[4]:
@cyclensip can I stay for dinner next time.
@WCCWineGirl any time!