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| Community Tasting Notes (average 90.8 pts. and median of 91 pts. in 26 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by NickA on 3/14/2024 & rated 92 points: Young and pure, lithe (it's only 12.6%) and full of sappy, extremely primary berry fruit. Hints of liquorice, smoke, sage and incense come and go, and there's dark chocolate on the finish. Mmm! A fully mature bottle of this would be brilliant. (936 views) | | | Tasted by JimSlatin on 2/12/2024 & rated 88 points: needs at least an hour to open up; black plum, chocolate covered cherry, black pepper, baking spices, and a touch of smoke. Next bottle I will open up a couple hours ahead of time. (947 views) | | | Tasted by MattMauldin on 3/25/2023 & rated 93 points: Deep black-garnet with clear ruby edges. Classic aromas of black raspberry & smoked plum skin, with cracked peppercorn, fresh rosemary, pressed lavender, bergamot, mesquite char and juniper berry. Fresh and succulent, cool-toned red berry fruit on the palate with exotic secondary floral and herbal depth not unlike the nose along with a dense mineral core, very nice intensity. Medium-bodied, sinewy throughout, with firm fleshy dense tannins listed with taut acidity and finishing with zesty black fruit depth. (1663 views) | | | Tasted by VAGenius on 7/30/2022 & rated 91 points: Nose of cherries, cola, and complex earthy tones. Quick hit of strong dark cherry fruit on the palate with minerals, granite and some meaty notes adding themselves into the mix. Smooth, round tannins and earth on the finish. (1932 views) | | | Tasted by VinoCast on 11/28/2021 & rated 85 points: Somewhat muted and astringent. Wait another 1-2 years for the other bottles. (2378 views) | | | Tasted by Guillaume-en-égypte on 9/26/2021 & rated 92 points: Decanted for about 4 - 5 hours before drinking. I didn't pick up the astringency others have noted below, but agree with the general gist that this is a very enjoyable bottle of Syrah. Dark berry fruit, pepper, something floral, something meaty - Cote Rotie - plenty of intrigue & complexity even at this young age, and already the parts feel well integrated. Full bodied but with nice lift & freshness. Really amazing value at not much over £20 i/b in the UK. JG gives drinking dates from 2027 to 2060, but I don't see any crime in opening a bottle (or two or three) this year, although it will undoubtedly improve. (2658 views) | | | Tasted by EMark on 5/30/2021: Murky purple color. Sulfite funk nose blew off pretty quickly. Juicy ripe dark fruit--blackberry, prune--on the tip of the tongue. Fairly noticeable tannin. I see from previous notes, that I had made a similar observarion of this wine. Nice savoriness mid-palate. (2685 views) | | | Tasted by bvivio on 2/20/2021 & rated 91 points: Appearance: deep ruby, violet highlights, moderate staining, medium tearing, fine sediment.
Nose: clean, pronounced intensity, developing, blackberry, black olive, bilberry, violet, white pepper, crushed gravel, stemmy organic earth, bay leaf, new leather, smoke.
Palate: dry, medium+ acid, medium+ tannin, medium alcohol (12.7%), medium body, medium+ intensity, medium finish, blackberry, black olive, bilberry, violet, white pepper, crushed gravel, stemmy organic earth, bay leaf, new leather, smoke.
Overall: A very classic, aromatic cool-climate Syrah full of olive and pepper, with some violet and herbal notes as well as some savory whole cluster aromas. Elevated acidity and tannins provide solid structure, but for me the flavor intensity doesn't warrant long-term aging. Really well balanced and food friendly. Could use a tad more intensity and length to warrant a better score and more confidence for long-term aging, but this is certainly tasty, and a very good value! (2562 views) | | | Tasted by Stephen Rash on 1/31/2021: Purple in color and semi-opaque in the glass
Nose:
Day 1 - a little muted at first, but then blackberry, smoked meat, olive,
herbs, pepper
Day 2 - Blackberry, olive, iron/blood, pepper
Palate:
Day 1 - Tart fruit, herbs, pepper
Day 2 - Blackberry, black cherry, olive, and pepper
Medium(+) body with soft tannins
I really enjoyed this on Day 2. It definitely needs more time in the bottle (2313 views) | | | Tasted by WetRock on 1/1/2021: This showed some real development over a couple of days open. Initially it shows ripe blackberry fruits with greener stem, seeds or skin notes. The tannin is astringent that way. Almost vegetal but not quite with a green peppercorn aroma.. The fruit is remarkably ripe and forward given the 12.7% ABV. No way I would have guessed that low blind. It still shows a lot more CA than some other vintages. This all integrates quite a bit on night two and three. While the tannin still has an astringent edge it doesn't stand up so green. The fruit shows more classic adding a distinct olive note. Lovely depth and richness that again surprises. This still shows more CA than say the '16 that has a real N Rhone side. But it's the sort of CA Syrah that is classic in style. It definitely stands out as singular in CA even amongst the other producers I favor. And it trashes many that cost many multiples more. I hope some more bottle time will let that astringent edge soften off the tannin but that with the acidity and fruit depth gives this vintage time to burn. I'd leave this one be at least a couple more years. Very good. (2416 views) | | | Tasted by joraesque on 10/8/2020 & rated 89 points: Medium-bodied, with high acidity, and an overall understated flavor profile. An excellent food wine. 12.7% ABV.
88-89 (2041 views) | | | Tasted by CPSchoeff on 10/8/2020 & rated 91 points: Informal notes over two days. Very alive and feral, drinking a lot younger than 2016 or even 2018. The fruit has a hard time pushing through the iron, smoky meat, and pepper right now. The acid is up there and the tannins are still very chewy. Probably going to wait on the rest of the 2017 for a while! (2655 views) | | | Tasted by EMark on 7/22/2020: Forest floor or, maybe, a mushroom nose. Initital tongue sensation is shy red cherry. Then I get some herbalness--almost minty. Some salinity. A slight amount of tannic puckeriness. Medium body. Pleasant finish. (2086 views) | | | Tasted by daveyk39 on 5/1/2020 & rated 89 points: COVID-19 "Shelter-in-Place"; 3/17/2020-5/31/2020 (Redwood City, CA): From a vineyard at 2,500' altitude in Anderson Valley. Aged in mostly neutral oak, about 10% new oak.
Medium-dark ruby color. Plum, blackberry, violet, bacon, coffee thyme. Medium-full body, satin texture, chewy tannins. Red fruit and blueberry on the palate, with bacon in the mid-palate and a bit of stalkiness in the finish. Drinking reasonably right now, with room to evolve. (2287 views) | | | Tasted by arthrovine on 3/13/2020: Popped and poured into Zalto Bordeaux glasses. Blue fruit dominated aromas with hints of forest and olive tampanade. Painfully young. Needs time. Hopefully it settles down.
UPDATE: day 2 saw 1/2 bottle left uncorked on counter. Blueberry is now pie filling with vanillas. The exuberance has tamed, but persists. (1824 views) | | | Tasted by lessthanjoey on 1/29/2020: A beautiful cool climate Syrah. Some brine and bell pepper on the nose, great stay fruit on the palate initially, and then a bunch of more vegetal and olive like notes at the end along with a hefty dose of minerals. Restrained and medium light bodied. Medium high acidity and light soft tannin.
This is certainly still a ways from the peak but it's a beautiful drink right now if you're so inclined! (1612 views) | | | Tasted by z_willus_d on 12/31/2019 & rated 92 points: This 2017 Halcon Alturas Syrah is an excellent, young California Syrah made with restraint and with lovely mineral-infused stuffing. The nose is filled of black peppercorns and chewy blackberry pie. I don't think this comes across as particularly cool climate, but it was crafted to show a fine balance in the face of the sun-kissed, true-berry fruit-laden palate. There's an procession of minerals and pepper on the fourth quarter of the palate that lingers pleasantly. It's great to see a wine of this caliber coming out of Yorkville Highlands, an area I pass through frequently year to year. This may not have the transparency of a Drew Syrah from down the road, but it makes up for it in pure, delightful, delicious mountain berry fruit. This drinks like other favorite CA Syrah wines I've loved through the years, for example:
- "2006 Arcadian Syrah Sleepy Hollow Vineyard"
- Any John Cabot Syrah
- Some of the better Edmunds St. John offerings
- Havens of old time; and...
- the "2008 Man O' War Vineyards Syrah Dreadnough" from New Zealand (a dead ringer for this, if not from CA) (1708 views) | | | Only displaying the 25 most recent notes - click to see all notes for this wine... |
| Halcon Vineyards Producer website2017 Halcon Vineyards Syrah AlturasThe 2017 vintage at Halcón has a close analogy to 2014. Both had moderate yields, slightly low sugars and good acid spine. Compared to the last two vintages this version of Alturas is a slightly less savory but has very bright, forward red fruits. There is great complexity and lots of stony minerality. It is drinking well straight out of the gate. Jeb Dunnuck described a very early barrel sample as “deep ruby-colored and opaque, with notes of blackberries, green herbs, bay leaf, and pepper. It's exotic, sappy, and interesting.” This vintage of Alturasis a very worthy successor to the previous vintages. Bottled unfined and unfiltered. 270 cases.
Following a very typical mid-April budbreak and moderate temps during the spring and early summer, we experienced some very high temperatures over Labor Day weekend. The altitude of our vineyard tempered the highs (we never exceeded 100F) but the heat was enough to temporarily shut down the vines. Fortunately we had just completed veraison, giving the vines ample time to recover and continue fruit development. We picked very mature Syrah fruit on October 4th – the seeds very dark, the pulp had saturated color and there were highly lignified stems. All this at lower sugars, leading to a finish alcohol of 12.7% We again utilized 50% whole-cluster and aged in 90% neutral oak with just a single new French puncheon. 3% estate Viognier was co-fermented.
Producer's Note, January 2019Syrah Varietal article (Wikipedia) | (Wines Northwest)
Note that some producers in the Northern Rhone distinguish between simply Syrah and "Serine", the latter described as ‘an ancient clone of Syrah, the berries of which are more oval-shaped and less deeply pigmented than Syrah’ by producer Tardieu-Laurent. USAAmerican wine has been produced since the 1500s, with the first widespread production beginning in New Mexico in 1628. Today, wine production is undertaken in all fifty states, with California producing 84% of all U.S. wine. The continent of North America is home to several native species of grape, including Vitis labrusca, Vitis riparia, Vitis rotundifolia, and Vitis vulpina, but the wine-making industry is based almost entirely on the cultivation of the European Vitis vinifera, which was introduced by European settlers. With more than 1,100,000 acres (4,500 km2) under vine, the United States is the fourth-largest wine producing country in the world, after Italy, Spain, and France.California2021 vintage: "Unlike almost all other areas of the state, the Russian River Valley had higher than normal crops in 2021, which has made for a wine of greater generosity and fruit forwardness than some of its stablemates." - Morgan Twain-Peterson North CoastThe North Coast American Viticultural Area (AVA) in California, covering more than three million acres, includes Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino and Lake counties, and portions of Marin and Solano counties. (see The Wine Institute for more information) |
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