SOULMATES - 50/50 - Syrah / Cabernet Bled - ALMOST SOLD OUT

THE STORY

The people came first. The stories came first. The love came first. The wine came later.

My Mom and Dad met in high school, just kids really, still becoming who they were going to be, and my Dad asked my Mom out and then had to wait six weeks because her dance card was already full. Six weeks. That tells you a lot about Linda Saarloos. She was the “It Girl” then, and she still is now. Four varsity sports all four years. Cheerleader. CIF Woman of the Year. Beautiful in the way people notice when she enters a room, but that’s not even the true measure of her. The true measure is that she is the kindest person I have ever known, the most naturally gifted, the easiest to love, the sort of person who makes people feel better just by being near her. And if I am being honest, I am probably still underselling her.

My Dad waited the six weeks. He didn’t blink. He didn’t drift. He waited. Then one day my Mom walked past him in the hallway and said, “We have a date this week.” And my Dad said, “Yes we do.” After that first date he came home and told his parents, “She’s it. I think Linda is the one.” One date, and he knew.

People call that soulmates. Like it was found. Like it was luck. Like it was written in the stars and all they had to do was bump into it. But if you watched their life the way my brother and I did, if you had front row seats not to a moment but to a marriage, you would say something else.

Soulmates are not found. They are forged.

They were a team. A real one. They picked each other up. They had each other’s backs. They did not argue to win. They argued for the best answer. They won together and they lost together. My Dad became the best version of himself because he had the love of a truly exceptional human being standing beside him, and he knew it. He was grateful for her. He loved her completely. And my Mom, who could have been anything she wanted, who could have gone anywhere and done anything and been extraordinary at all of it, chose him. Chose her teammate. Chose the life they would build together.

Then they forged their soulmate.

They were each remarkable on their own, but the combination of the two of them was something stronger than either could have been alone. A marriage where each tried to give sixty and only take forty. A life where they were put in the fire again and again and came out stronger because they never stopped fighting for the best in each other. They always said there are no failures, only new opportunities to succeed. They were both athletes at heart. They played the game to win, and they played it to the last out. My Mom always says she likes to watch games “to see them try their best.” It was never only about winning or losing. It was about effort. Heart. Character. The willingness to stay in it and keep going.

That is the example my brother and I grew up with. We watched it every day. And somehow both of us followed in our father’s footsteps and married way above ourselves. Both of us said the same thing after the first date: “She’s it.” That probably is not an accident. We knew what to look for because we had seen what it looked like when it was real.

People sometimes think we name our wines after people because it is clever marketing. It isn’t. We do it because it is true. The wine is not the point. The people are. The bottles are not trophies. They are reminders. They are stories you can hold in your hand. They are little time machines that take you back to a table, a porch, a kitchen, a summer night, a laugh, a hard conversation, a victory, a setback, a moment where someone you love looked at you and you remembered what matters.

That is why every spring we release what we call the Family Allocation. These wines usually never see the bar, because they were never made for the public. They were made for the family. For the people who have been with us, who understand what we are trying to build out here, and who open bottles the way we do: with intention, with gratitude, and with other human beings nearby.

This bottle belongs in that story.

THE WINE

SOULMATES is an estate-grown blend of Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon from the Santa Ynez Valley, built the same way the best things in life are built: slowly, deliberately, and with the faith that something greater can come from two strong things learning how to carry one another.

Syrah brings the depth, the generosity, the dark-fruited soul. Cabernet Sauvignon brings the structure, the backbone, the resolve. On their own, each varietal has something to say. Together, when handled with care, they say something larger. Not louder. Larger.

This is not a wine built on flash. It is built on balance. It is not trying to impress you for thirty seconds. It is trying to stay with you for the rest of the night.

Estate grown. Family farmed. Picked with purpose. Made to honor the kind of love that does not disappear when life gets hard, but deepens.

THE NOTES

This wine opens with dark fruit and settles into itself the way a good story does. Blackberry, cassis, black plum. Then the deeper tones begin to show themselves—cocoa, cedar, a little dust, a little earth, the kind of grounded note that reminds you this came from somewhere real.

There is weight here, but it is not heavy-handed. The Syrah gives it breadth and texture. The Cabernet gives it line and tension. Together they hold beautifully. Nothing is out in front trying to steal the show. Nothing is frantic. Nothing is forced.

It lingers. That is the thing. It stays with you. Not because it shouts, but because it means something.

THE WHY

We made this wine because some stories deserve to be told more than once.

Because Larry and Linda Saarloos built a life that taught the rest of us what love looks like when it gets its boots on and goes to work. Because they showed us that the strongest marriages are not built on fairy dust and luck, but on effort, loyalty, humor, grit, humility, forgiveness, and the daily decision to keep choosing one another.

This bottle is our way of honoring that.

Not with sentimentality. With truth.

Love is easy to talk about. Partnership is harder. Building a life with someone over decades, through wins and losses, through good years and brutal ones, through all the beautiful ordinary days in between—that is something else entirely.

That is forging.

And that is what this wine is about.

THE PAIRING

Pair this with something that matters.

A dinner that runs long. A steak with a good crust. Something braised low and slow. Food with smoke, depth, salt, and patience in it. But more than that, pair it with people who know your stories. People who have earned a seat at your table. People who have seen you at your best and at your worst and still reach for the corkscrew.

This is not a Tuesday errand wine. This is a stay-a-while wine. A pour-another-glass wine. A remember-this-night wine.

Open it with someone you have chosen. And someone who has chosen you back.

FINAL WORD

If you have lived long enough to know the difference, then you already understand the truth.

Soulmates are not found.

They are forged.I