The name is a joke that turned out to be true. E11even borrows its eleven from Spinal Tap, the amp that goes one louder, and dresses the label like a vintage concert ticket. Behind the wink is serious wine: estate-grown Rhone varieties from Curtis Vineyard, made by Andrew Murray, who has spent some thirty years farming and fermenting in the Santa Ynez Valley. This is not a second label or a bin of declassified juice. It is the real thing, poured in a relaxed tasting room on Grand Avenue in Los Olivos.

The man who put the Rhone up to eleven

Andrew Murray is one of the names that put Santa Barbara on the Rhone map. For about three decades he has farmed and made wine in the Santa Ynez Valley, long enough to watch the region grow up around him and to earn a reputation as a Rhone specialist who knows Syrah and Grenache the way few in California do.

E11even is his estate Rhone project, and he is direct that it is no afterthought. The wines are grown, not blended down from leftovers, and the playful label belies how seriously the fruit is treated. The eleven is a music reference, a nod to turning everything up one notch, which is a fair description of what cool climate Santa Barbara does to Rhone grapes.

Curtis Vineyard and the long, cool season

The heart of it is Curtis Vineyard, the home vineyard above the estate winery, planted as the Santa Ynez Valley was first finding its feet in the late 1970s. Its oldest block, nicknamed Jurassic Park, is burly own-rooted Chenin Blanc, while most of the rest sits at twenty five to thirty years old and squarely in its prime. Across three vineyard sites and three appellations the estate farms roughly 150 acres.

What makes it work is the same geography that makes all of Santa Barbara strange and great. The transverse mountain ranges run west to east, funneling cool Pacific wind and fog inland off the coast near Lompoc. Those daily breezes stretch the growing season from February to November, among the longest on earth, which lets Rhone grapes ripen slowly and hold their structure.

The wines: Rhone through and through

The lineup is Rhone from end to end. Syrah leads, dark and peppery with the savory lift a long cool season gives it, sometimes co-fermented with a little Viognier the old Cote-Rotie way to brighten the aromatics. Grenache brings red fruit and warmth, and Mourvedre adds backbone and a wild, gamey edge. On the white side, Roussanne and Grenache Blanc go into a textured blend called Enchante. These are wines built for the table rather than the trophy shelf, generous but balanced.

What to pour it with

Syrah co-fermented with Viognier is one of the great steak wines, so start there. A grilled ribeye or a peppercorn-crusted New York strip is the move: the firm tannins in the wine latch onto the protein and fat, softening the Syrah and scrubbing the richness off the meat, while its black pepper streak mirrors the crust. It is congruent and complementary at once.

Grenache wants something gentler, like herb-roasted chicken or pork with stone fruit, where its bright red fruit and softer tannins flatter without overwhelming. The Enchante white blend, all texture and stone fruit, loves richer fare than most whites can handle: roast chicken, creamy pasta, even a mild curry, because its body stands up to the dish while keeping things fresh. Skip big tannic reds with delicate fish, the match turns metallic.

E11even Wines: common questions