97-Points by Jeb Dunnuck.
The 2022 Syrah The Initiation is compelling on the nose, lifting with notes of dark wet stones as well as blackberries, pepper oils, lavender, and black olives, all so well intertwined. Medium to full-bodied on the palate, it has a silky texture, with sweet tannins (although it’s fully dry), and has a precise feel, with delicate, mouthwatering saline and fresh acidity. Drink it over the next 10 -12 years.
 
95-Points by Vinous.
The 2022 Syrah The Initiation, from Soberanes, pours an opaque ruby/purple in the glass. Dark and somber but undeniably expressive, it oozes sweet blackberry, lavender and loads of exotic spices. Elegant and more red-toned on the palate, the archetypal SLH Syrah tannins are incredibly well-managed. Aged in 75% new French oak for 18 months, The Initiation soaked it up like a champ. It’s open and approachable with some air but powerfully structured for a long evolution. - By Billy Norris on August 2024
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The Appellation
The Soberanes Vineyard is located in the Santa Lucia Highlands appellation of Monterey County amid the sandy loam soils boasting significant sub-soil boulders layered into the alluvial fan. Meticulously farmed by the Pisoni & Franscioni families, the vines thrive in this cool site among foggy mornings and Pacific winds. You can expect hints of minerality, beautiful acidity while the tannins wrap the mouth-feel with a unique velvet texture. This wine is composed of Alban Clone 1.
The meaning behind the name
Cattleya was born in 2011 with a single barrel of Syrah from the Soberanes Vineyard. It marked the beginning of my journey as the proprietor and winemaker of my own wine label. This site became my initiation -making wine from the variety I worked with so much in France, among the steep hillsides of the famed Cote-Rotie appellation in the Rhone Valley. 
 
In 2015, Bibiana was awarded “Winemaker of the Year” by the San Francisco Chronicle, just over a year after being named one of Wine Enthusiast’s “40 Under 40 America’s Tastemakers”.
 
THE STORY
“At the age of 14, Bibiana González Rave knew that she wanted to be a winemaker. Although she had little to no exposure to the wine world in her home country of Columbia, she knew that wine, considered by her family as a luxury, revealed an incredible amount of history and tradition. Bibiana was hooked. In Columbia, she studied chemical engineering and business after which she excelled in her studies of viticulture in Cognac, and oenology from the University of Bordeaux, graduating with honors. She worked with some of the most highly regarded wineries in France and learned that “what you give to the land and your day-to-day dedication will always be present in the wines you craft.” Driven by the tenacity which first took me to France, I pruned vines during ice-cold winters, trimmed shoots in sweltering summers, and tended to the vines that cling to the sheer slopes of Côte-Rôtie—first at Domaine Stéphane Ogier, then at Domaine Clusel-Roch. At the famed estates of Château Haut-Brion & La Mission Haut-Brion, I completed research for my thesis.
After an enlightening experience working at Château Haut-Brion, she moved to California in 2004, gaining winemaking expertise while working fourteen harvests at wineries that included La Crema, Peay Vineyards, Au Bon Climat and Qupé, before becoming the Director of Winegrowing and Winemaking at Lynmar Estate in 2009. Bibiana would leave Lynmar Estate in 2011 to become the winemaker for Pahlmeyer’s Sonoma Coast project, Wayfarer. At Wayfarer she crafted exceptional Pinot Noir and Chardonnays that won widespread praise from the wine press including All-American awards from the PinotFile. 
 In 2012, Bibiana started her own label, Cattleya Wines, as well as the Shared Notes joint venture with her husband Jeff Pisoni and became a Consulting Winemaker.
Alma de Cattleya, her latest endeavor, signifies the “soul of the land that gives life to her wines as well as her own soul put into each drop of wine that makes it to the bottle.” (Alma is the Spanish word for “soul.”)
Bibiana González Rave wants her wines to be accessible, affordable and, of utmost importance, to be shared and enjoyed with friends and family. With each sip, these wines embrace the soul of her California home with its vineyards, orchards and farms and the love for her homeland and those who are important to her there.