RESILIENCY - Estate Syrah - Fat Man Terrace

These three labels are not artwork. They are witnesses. They are proof that time passed here—and that a man did too. One hillside. One tree. One wind that never learned how to quit. Larry Saarloos’ life is written into this ground the same way it’s written into our family—quietly, permanently, without asking permission or leaving instructions.
Larry planted these hills after failure, when starting over wasn’t romantic and the future didn’t owe him anything. Ballard Canyon didn’t have a reputation then. No brochures. No buzzwords. No one calling it “special.” These slopes didn’t have a voice yet. They were just steep, cold, windy, and honest. Most people would have walked away. Larry didn’t. He believed—maybe not in success, but in the work. In showing up. In doing the job right even if no one ever noticed. I watched him do it. I learned by following behind him, by carrying things, by listening to what he didn’t say. He never gave speeches. He gave mornings. He gave calloused hands. He gave decisions made when nobody was around to clap.
These wines come from the hardest hills to farm in the county. Steep enough to punish you if you get lazy. Windy enough to expose every lie you tell yourself. Thin soils that don’t care about your plans. But anything worth doing is hard. That’s where the best fruit comes from. The vine has to fight. Roots have to go deep or they don’t make it. Stress isn’t a flaw here—it’s the point. Nothing on these hills is given. Everything is earned. That’s not just farming. That’s a blueprint for a life.
In the first image, the tree stands. Alone. Exposed. Still upright. That’s Purpose. Purpose is the moment you decide to begin without knowing how expensive the decision will be. It’s choosing the hill before you know how steep it really is. Larry planted here not because it penciled out clean, but because something in him said this was the ground that mattered. Purpose doesn’t guarantee comfort. It doesn’t explain itself. It just stands there, takes the weather, and refuses to move.
Then comes the long middle.
In the second image, the tree is bent and scarred. Changed forever. That’s Resiliency. This is Fat Man Terrace—the most photographed vineyard in Santa Barbara County. The cover of books. The image on banners and emails. The symbol everyone points to when they want to show how beautiful this valley is. And that’s the irony. Because beneath the beauty is pressure. Relentless wind. Steep ground trying to pull everything downhill. A hillside that looks effortless from the road and punishes you the second you step onto it. That’s resiliency. The part people don’t post. The years where the work stops being poetic and starts being necessary. Where plans fall apart. Where you take the hit, lose something you don’t get back, adjust your footing, and keep moving—not because you’re brave, but because quitting would mean the beginning was a lie. That’s how my father lived. No complaints. No drama. Just forward motion.
And then, one day, the work is done.
In the final image, the tree is gone. Cleared. Finished. And in its place, a golden eagle moves through the exact space it once occupied. That’s Legacy. Legacy isn’t memory. It’s motion. It’s what keeps moving after you’re gone. When my father died, the work didn’t stop—it landed on my shoulders. And now I see him everywhere. In my kids. In my nieces and nephews. In the way they show up early. In the way they don’t cut corners. In the way they carry the family name like it means something. His lessons didn’t disappear with him. They hardened. They became expectation. They were cast into the foundation of who we are, whether we talk about it or not.
Purpose.
Resiliency.
Legacy.
That’s the arc of building something real. Purpose is choosing to begin. Resiliency is staying when it costs more than you thought it would. Legacy is the quiet reward that only comes after you’ve run the race all the way through—and run it clean.
These wines aren’t about nostalgia. They’re about responsibility. About choosing hard ground. About staying when it hurts. About leaving something solid enough that your children don’t have to start from scratch. A life like that doesn’t need monuments. It gets remembered in posture. In work ethic. In the way the next generation stands a little straighter because of it.
That’s Larry Saarloos.
That’s these hills.
That’s this wine.
No shortcuts.
No bullshit.
Just the work—
done right,
and carried forward.

RESILIENCY

2023 Fat Man Terrace Estate Syrah

Resiliency is not about staying intact.
It is about continuing after you’ve been changed.

This wine comes from Fat Man Terrace—the most photographed vineyard in Santa Barbara County and, at the same time, one of the most unforgiving pieces of ground we farm. It’s the image people recognize instantly: on the cover of books about the Santa Ynez Valley, on banners and emails, held up as a symbol of beauty and success. From a distance, it looks effortless. Almost serene. Up close, it tells a very different story.

The slope is steep enough to punish mistakes. The wind funnels through Ballard Canyon every afternoon without mercy. The soils are thin, draining, and demanding. Nothing here comes easily. Vines are forced to struggle, to adapt, to grow deep or not survive at all. This is a hillside that doesn’t reward comfort—it rewards commitment.

The tree on this label is not bent. It is broken. Permanently altered by years of wind, drought, and pressure. That image captures the truth of Resiliency better than any definition ever could. Resiliency is not bouncing back to who you were. It is moving forward after something in you has been lost. After plans have changed. After the work has cost more than you expected.

This Syrah is built in that spirit. It is dark, structured, and deeply savory. Aromatics lean toward smoked meat, cracked pepper, dried herbs, and earth. The fruit is present but disciplined, held tightly by tannins shaped through stress rather than polish. There is no excess here. No decoration. Just depth earned the hard way.

Resiliency lives in the long middle—the part of life no one applauds. The years when the romance fades and the work becomes necessary. When you show up not because you’re inspired, but because walking away would undo everything that came before. This vineyard lives in that space. This wine speaks from it.

Fat Man Terrace is celebrated for its beauty. Resiliency is the truth beneath that beauty. The pressure. The endurance. The refusal to quit.

This is not a wine about perfection.
It is a wine about continuing.

Tasting Notes

From a site that looks effortless in photos but demands everything from the vine, this Syrah opens with a deep garnet core and a savory, magnetic nose. Aromas of smoked meat, cracked black pepper, and dried herbs rise first—classic Ballard Canyon signatures—intertwined with dark blackberry, black raspberry bramble, and hints of wild fennel and garrigue that speak to wind-scoured hills and mineral soils. 

On the palate, the wine is medium-full to full-bodied, layered and intense, with black fruit depth framed by savory complexity. Think cured meats, leather, olive tapenade, and graphite, carried through by a spine of fine but persistent tannins and fresh acidity that keeps the wine lively rather than heavy. Notes of cocoa nib, dried herbs, and powdered rock mineral give the mid-palate a serious, textural grip, while subtle floral undertones—violets and wild herbs—add lift without softening the profile. 

The finish is long and resonant: peppercorn spice and iron-leaning minerality linger alongside dark fruit and savory reduction notes, inviting the next sip and promising graceful evolution with time in bottle. This is Syrah shaped by stress, exposure, and altitude, not manipulation—where the hillside’s wind and challenging soils become part of the wine’s identity.

In Resiliency you feel both the reward and the cost of this place: bold, structured fruit, balanced by savory earth and mineral character, and held in place by tension that only comes from hard-earned farming.

Flavor & Structure at a Glance

• Color: Deep garnet / purple

• Aromas: Smoked meat, cracked pepper, dried herbs, dark bramble, violet

• Palate: Black fruit core, cured meat, leather, olive tapenade, graphite, cocoa nib

• Structure: Medium-full body • firm but fine tannins • vibrant acidity

• Minerality: Powdered rock / cement dust notes add depth and drive

• Finish: Long, spicy, savory with persistent pepper and iron

• Aging Potential: Built to age — will gain nuance and integration over 5–10+ years

Why It Tastes This Way

Fat Man Terrace’s exposure, wind, and thin soils drive phenolic intensity and savory depth rather than flashy fruit. The result is a Syrah that is powerful but precise, expressive of place and challenge—made not for ease, but for reflection, food, and time.

 FOOD PAIRINGS

2023 Fat Man Terrace Estate Syrah

This is a savory, structured Syrah, shaped by wind and pressure. It shines when it meets food that has seen the same things—fire, smoke, patience, and restraint.

MEAT (WHERE THIS WINE FEELS AT HOME)

• Grilled or wood-fired ribeye
  Salt, pepper, fire. Let the meat do the talking. The wine’s black pepper and iron notes lock in immediately.

• Smoked lamb shoulder or leg of lamb
  Herbs, smoke, fat, time. This is a natural marriage—Syrah doing what Syrah was born to do.

• Short ribs (braised or smoked)
  Low and slow. Collagen meets tannin. The wine cuts through richness without bullying it.

• Duck breast with crispy skin
  Especially with something savory alongside—lentils, mushrooms, or bitter greens.

• Venison or wild game
  If it lived a hard life, this wine understands it.

EARTH & FIRE (NON-STEAK OPTIONS THAT STILL HIT)

• Mushroom risotto or wild mushroom pasta
  Porcini, chanterelle, morel—earth talking to earth.

• Roasted root vegetables
  Caramelized edges matter here. Let things get a little dark.

• Charred eggplant or grilled portobellos
  Smoke and texture are the key. Don’t play it soft.

CHEESE (KEEP IT SERIOUS)

• Aged Manchego

• Tomme de Savoie

• Gruyère or Comté

• Sharp aged cheddar

Skip the fresh stuff. This wine wants age and backbone.

WHAT TO AVOID

• Sweet sauces

• Heavy cream without structure

• Anything delicate that needs to be protected

This wine doesn’t whisper. Don’t ask it to.

THE RULE

If the dish took time, heat, or patience—
if someone stood over it and waited—
this wine will meet it there.

Resiliency pairs best with food that understands struggle,
and still shows up finished.

That’s where it shines.