Miller Wine Works is owned by Gary Miller who was a professional chef for a number of years. His is as passionate about wine as he is about food and now devotes his time to running all aspects of his own winery including the winemaking. His first introduction Click here to read more or post your comment...

Gary MIller's Works is a Rhone blend of 48% Syrah, 38% Grenache and 14% Mourvedre. . Dark ruby in color with a garnet edge, it boasts red cherry fruit with an earthy meaty smoky charred oak character on the nose and similar characteristics on the soft lush spicy palate. High in alcohol with gripping tannins on the finish, the Works needs time to integrate and develop all of its fine attributes.

Proprietor Gary Miller had formal culinary training and cooked professionally before swapping his toque for a winemaker's hat. This big wine has concentrated dark fruit, warm brown spice, fennel, with slight mint and gamy aromas. The palate - which is as big as the nose suggests - shows blueberry, roasted plum, pencil lead, leather and some cocoa. Dark ripe fruit hangs on to the end, which finishes with sweet wood and ripe tannins. Aged 20 months in French oak, 29 percent which was new; contains 5 percent Petite Sirah.

Gary Miller is among the top young Rhone Rangers in California today and everything he produces is of top quality. His Sage Canyon Syrah reveals a deep ruby almost opaque color and aromas of red fruit, toast, and mild vanilla notes. The palate exhibits a very soft, gentle attack with lush and silky smooth blueberry and blackberry fruit flavors, rounded tannins and a long firm finish.

Deep ruby color, deep, complex earthy forest floor aromas; rich, ripe dark cherry flavors, lots of earthy and forest floor notes, some tannin and toasty oak; good structure and balance, long finish. Deep complex pinot with layers of interesting flavor. Needs time to open and really show.

A beautiful proprietary red wine blend, the 2005 The Works Kimberly's Selection reveals an attractive dark ruby color in addition to sweet kirsch and black currant fruit. It does not display a great deal of complexity, but it is a supple, succulent red offering fine purity, ripeness, and balance. Enjoy it over the next 3-4 years.

The 2005 Syrah Sage Canyon Vineyard possesses a dense ruby/purple hue, along with notes of smoky black currants, spring flowers, incense, and background burning ember/wood characteristics. This full-bodied, plump, rich Syrah exhibits sweet tannin as well as decent acidity. It can be drunk over the next 5-6 years

Revealing a slightly deeper ruby/purple color, the medium to full-bodied 2004 Syrah Castle Rock Vineyard offers a floral component along with blacker fruits (blueberries and blackberries) in its cool-climate, more complex nature. This high-class Syrah needs 1-2 years of bottle age, and should evolve beautifully for 10-12 years.

Displaying the inkiest ruby/purple color, the 2004 Syrah Sage Canyon Vineyard exhibits sweet aromas of blueberries, blackberries, licorice, earth, and a notion of spring flowers. This is the most plush and opulent of these cuvees, no doubt because of its higher glycerin level. It should drink well for 7-8 years.

The dark ruby/purple-tinged 2004 Syrah Brookside Vineyard reveals a young, exuberant nose of blackberries, raspberries, and earth. Tightly-knit with good tannin, medium to full body, and crisp acidity, it requires another year or so of bottle age to unfurl, but it possesses impressive potential.

The 2004 Grenache Sage Canyon Vineyard exhibits a dark ruby color as well as classic aromas of strawberries, jammy cherries, earth, roasted herbs, and spice. Medium-bodied, juicy, and succulent, it is best consumed over the next 4-5 years.

A gorgeous effort, the 2003 Syrah Castle Rock Vineyard offers up a serious nose of camphor, graphite, creme de cassis, licorice, and smoke. With terrific structure, full body, and beautiful intensity, it is a serious, almost primordial Syrah that is perfectly balanced, pure, and rich. Give it 1-2 years of cellaring and drink it over the following 10-12.

The supple-textured, dark ruby/purple-colored, flowery, creme de cassis-scented and flavored 2003 Syrah Sage Canyon Vineyard possesses serious structure, concentration, and intensity. Relatively open and fleshy with a long, powerful finish, this impressive wine may be even better with a year or two of bottle age. It should last for a decade or more.

The 2003 Syrah Brookside Vineyard possesses loads of crème de cassis interwoven with smoky, earthy, plum liqueur, and fig aromas. It is a medium to full-bodied Syrah displaying lovely purity along with abundant amounts of fruit, sweet tannin, adequate acidity, and a long, layered finish. It should drink well for 5-6 years.

The dense ruby/purple-tinged 2002 Syrah Brookside Vineyard exhibits an earthy, blackberry and cassis-scented nose with hints of cherries and smoke in the background. Medium to full-bodied, it is no wimpish wine with 15.5% alcohol, but both the alcohol and the tannin are well-integrated. The finish is fresh, lively, and rich. Drink it over the next 4-5 years.

Miller Wine Works' unusually styled 2003 Grenache Sage Canyon Vineyard exhibits herbal/minty characteristics intermixed with notions of sweet black cherries. I enjoyed its distinctive, singular style. Medium-bodied, with pure fruit, and a Pinot Noir-like sensitivity, it should provide pleasure over the next 2-3 years.

Grenache is a tough animal to tame, but Miller Wine Works has done an admirable job with its 2002 Grenache Sage Canyon Vineyard. Made in a ripe style (15.6% alcohol), it possesses notes of plums, figs, and prunes as well as sexy, soft, lush flavors filled with glycerin. This voluminous, heady, seductive, hedonistic Grenache is ideal for drinking over the next several years.

Wine Recommendation: Miller Wine Works 2003 Syrah, Sage Canyon Vineyard (Napa Valley) - Gary Miller grew up in rural New York enjoying fresh, local farm produce and his mother’s home cooking. After studying engineering in college (and working in a wine shop) he went on to the CIA Hyde Park, became a professional chef, and worked at the Greenbriar, Spruce, and The Little Nell in Aspen. Continuing his journey westward he landed in Napa Valley, where he and his wife now own Miller Wine Works. They focus on small production Grenache, Syrah and Pinot Noir.

The Syrahs in particular are some of the best I’ve tasted from California or anywhere in the USA for that matter. The Brookside Vineyard bottling is notable, but the Sage Canyon Vineyard release, from a steep mountain ranch ranging from 900 to 1,400 feet above the valley floor with cooling morning fog, could be a ringer for a very good Côte-Rôtie.

Despite its astoundingly high alcohol (16.3%), I found it exquisitely balanced and a nice change from the trendy, super-ripe styles. With berry, earth, tar, pink and yellow rose petals, lilac, and pink peppercorn notes, this deep, rich and round wine has brilliant underlying natural acidity and ripe tannins for balance, and a long finish.

Intense and concentrated, with a mix of spice, beef, wild berry and pomegranate, the texture is smooth and the fi nish brings out the fruity attributes of the wine. Tannins are fi rm but in balance, making it approachable now. Drink now through 2009

The bouquet is an incredibly intense (and then expansive) melange of violets and rose petals, black cherry and red currants, spiced tea, rhubarb and cola. In the mouth, the wine is amazingly dense, chewy and satiny, like opulent drapery snatched from Tara's gloomy halls, yet leavened by spice and smoke and minerals. After a few minutes in the glass, it pulls up touches of fruit cake and plum pudding, all that baking spice and dried fruit thing.

Medium ruby color; elegant black cherry, spice and tea aromas; black cherry with well developed spice and tea notes as well as some forest floor notes; silky, good structure and balance, lingering finish. Gary Miller continues to make good use of his chef's palate to craft this elegant and delicious Pinot from the outstanding Hellenthal Vineyard in the true Sonoma Coast.

Gregory S. Walter ~ Pinot Report
Issue No. 29, June 15, 2005
91 Points
www.pinotreport.com

Medium ruby color; subtle aromas of cherry, spice, citrus rind and earth; elegant and medium bodied with a core of nicely developed red cherry fruit, some earthy and spice notes and a silky mouthfeel; good structure and balance, lingering finish. This is an elegant and expressive Sonoma Coast Pinot, and a terrific first effort from chef-turned-winemaker Gary Miller.

Ken Collura ~ Tampa Tribune
Going West to Test Changing Tastes of Wine
May 25, 2005

"The most impressive newcomer (new to me anyway) was Miller Wine Works of Napa. Three really striking syarhs were offered, including a Napa blend, one from Pope Valley and a third from Mount Veeder. Top-notch juice here. Look out for this winery."

Miller Wine Works is a new operation run by Gary Miller, a former chef. Last issue we reviewed his 2002 Pinot Noir, while this issue covers his bottled Grenache and Syrahs, and takes a look at the Syrahs and Pinot Noir he has in barrels. Miller's day job is with Biale Vineyards and the Biales are kind enough to let Miller use their facilities to make and age his wine. Prior to working at Biale, he spent time at La Jota and Martinelli. This is a micro winery - 600 cases in total were produced from the 2002 vintages and 750 cases was 2003's yield. Miller's goal is to top out at 3,200 cases. The timing of how soon he can ferret out enough quality vineyard sources rather than merely buying juice in the open market and slapping a label on it.

Miller's production regime is fairly typical. He uses a combination of new and neutral barrels (Rousseau and Francois Feres primarily). Wines receive 14 to 15 months in barrel and are aged in bottle for one year prior to release (the 2003s are scheduled to be releases in first quarter 2006). Exposure to new oak varies with the varietal. Pinot Noir receives 50 to 60% new oak while Syrah gets only 30 to 40% new oak. Racking also changes with the varietal. Pinot Noir is minimally handled and racked only at the time of bottling while Syrah receives a couple of rackings before being put into bottle. Wines are filtered when necessary.

From 15-year old vines (that were yanked after this vintage so this is a one off for Miller Wine Works), this Grenache has big but rather simple aromas of syrupy red fruits with a touch of spice. A fruity very enjoyable quaff with integrated acids and food length. It was raised primarily in neutral oak. Drink over the next few years.
87 points.

A focused nose of sweet plum, pepper, some rose, and traces of chalk and burnt rubber. Good depth of fruit with intriguing nuances of rose. Good length and fine acidity. Very North Rhone in orientation. Brookside Vineyard is three acres in size and is located next to Hendry. 95% Syrah, 4% Mourvedre, and 1% Viognier. Drink now (2008) to 2012.
90+ points.