This wine is about 95% Petite Sirah, grown from cuttings from Steve's Jones Ranch planting— the source of our remarkable Babylon wines. The remainder is Zinfandel from the same vineyard; both vineyards planted by Steve's daughter, Lisa.

We originally bottled and released the first version of this wine about a year ago, but kept 15 gallons in glass demi-john for a second bottling. At the time, we added a little more Zinfandel to top the demi-john for longer aging; and so this blend is not identical to the original release. We think that the additional aging in glass has made the wine even more seductive.

We have bottles 5 2.25 liter bottles of this wine, and 20 1.5 liter magnums.

The wine is deep and dark and severe, showing the true excellence of Petite Sirah. Just like a more recent version of Babylon: not a big or blocky wine, but complex and graceful even as it is powerful. It reminds me of Priorat. The soil in the vineyard is not particularly rocky, but the wine seems nonetheless very slate-driven.
The name of this wine comes from Jorge Luis Borges' story about the Minotaur— told from the Minotaur's perspective. I am not sure why, but as we were bringing both of these wines to completion, both seemed powerfully literary to me. Perhaps because they originated so far from Los Angeles and our desert vineyards here, they seemed profoundly exotic to me— even foreign. There is also something wonderful about walking away for 3 years, coming back, and finding something beautiful. All of this made me think of the tales of Borges; perhaps some time when we are together, I will tell you why the Minotaur.