External search
Google (images)
Wine Advocate
Wine Spectator
Burghound
Wine-Searcher
Vintages
2012
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
From this producer
Show all wines
All tasting notes
|
| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Drinking window: Drink between 2011 and 2017 (based on 15 user opinions) |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 89.8 pts. and median of 91 pts. in 38 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by hesnctrl on 12/22/2017 & rated 93 points: 2007 Saxon Brown Syrah Horizontal (Woodbury, MN): Bottle opened 2 hrs before dinner. Horizontal tasting with the Parmelee-Hill Owl Box and Flora Ranch bottlings. Big, ripe cherry & plum nose. Very similar texture as the Owl Box, with ripe plums in the forefront and very rich extraction. Definitely the biggest of the three. Excellent.
Enjoyed in a Riedel Vinum Syrah glass at 65°F. (738 views) | | | Tasted by richshoes on 12/20/2017 & rated 91 points: good flavor, fruit, texture...missing some complexity. but still tasted young! (649 views) | | | Tasted by lockestep on 11/22/2014 flawed bottle: Corked, sadly. (1354 views) | | | Tasted by merryberry on 9/16/2014 & rated 91 points: Dark dark cloudy magenta. Blueberry, bacon, and baking spice nose. Medium bodied, black cherries, blackberries, white pepper, well integrated tannins, smoke, a touch of heat, and a medium to long finish. Saxon-Brown makes some damn fine wine. (1426 views) | | | Tasted by WineSnob7 on 8/1/2013 & rated 93 points: Just gets better (2001 views) | | | Tasted by JoachimS on 5/20/2013 & rated 88 points: Had a half-bottle. At first this had a very deep and complex nose, but there wasn't really a lot of anything on the palate. A bit of heat, some tannins, but generally just stringy and boring. It opened up nicely, and paired well with a rich and slightly spicy meal. (1831 views) | | | Tasted by WineSnob7 on 3/29/2013 & rated 92 points: Great nose and very nice wine (1863 views) | | | Tasted by J&S on 3/4/2013 & rated 92 points: Beast of a wine. Does take a while to open up, but why shouldn't it?
First sip flat, waited 30 minutes (cuz I thought it might be corked), was rewarded. Opened up nicely....deep ruby with rich, complex, concentrated dark fruit, balanced tannins, dirty. Great value, drink it now or be patient and wait a few/several years. Red meat or spiced pork would pair nicely. (1249 views) | | | Tasted by isaacjamesbaker on 1/18/2013 & rated 91 points: Blind Tasting - New World Syrah and Red Blends; 1/17/2013-1/23/2013 (Woodley Park - Washington, DC): SRP: $34. Tight aromas, but with time more and more brown sugar came out, also some brandied plums, chocolate, toast, hints of grilled meat. On the palate: fine-grained tannins and dense fruit come together in this inky wine, luckily there’s enough acid to keep it fresh. The cool blueberry and raspberry fruit combine with a hint of pepper, notes of toast and dark chocolate and charcoal. The finish is long and crisp, and I even get a hint of mineral, almost a limestone flavor. This is a really focused wine that seems like it would benefit from a few years in the cellar, but it’s putting on one hell of a fight tonight. (1749 views) | | | Tasted by Normones on 11/5/2012 & rated 91 points: fruit compote like all of the other S-B's that I have - and I love it (1121 views) | | | Tasted by jhellman on 11/2/2012 & rated 90 points: Very impressive. An unusual aroma at first, but straight out of the bottle it was very lush and fruit forward, fulled with dark cherry and tobacco, but full-mouthed and wonderfully meaty. As the wine opened, it only improved. Much bigger than I expected and excellent. (1047 views) | | | Tasted by Furry Goat on 6/25/2012: Smoke, sausage (seriously), and a hint of blueberries on the nose. More smoke on the front, spice and dust on the end. Also a slight black currant/blueberry on the finish. Slightly more tannic than I expected. This wine reminds me more of a smoky scotch than a jammy fruit bomb. As always with SB, great balance and mouth feel. Good, but Flora Ranch is better. (1043 views) | | | Tasted by joannevicious on 3/18/2012 & rated 79 points: Way too much jam. Dust and spice but overpowered by fruit. Did not go well with roasted goat, sauteed mushrooms, and roasted radicchio. (1355 views) | | | Tasted by pkbackman on 3/3/2012 & rated 88 points: thick, chewy, spicy Syrah. (1262 views) | | | Tasted by BklynNeophyte on 3/2/2012 & rated 75 points: One would think, given the struggling syrah market, that colleagues of Saxon-Brown should tell the winemaker not to bother with such sickly sweet, candy-like, syrupy wines. This wine ruined the meal. Comparable: Roger Repoz. (1040 views) | | | Tasted by Oakjeff on 2/6/2012 & rated 87 points: Dark and rich. Loaded with peppery flavors. But missing something. (1141 views) | | | Only displaying the 25 most recent notes - click to see all notes for this wine... |
| Saxon-Brown Producer website
Founded in 1997 by winemaker Jeff Gaffner, the winery's cornerstone is its 100-year-old Casa Santinamaria Vineyard in Sonoma, a "field blend" vineyard that, at a half ton an acre, defines "low-yielding". Old vine Zinfandel (with its field-mates Petite Sirah, Carignane, Alicante Bouschet and Mataro) and Semillon come from this historic parcel. Pinot Noir and Syrah are sourced from small vineyards throughout Sonoma County. Total production is fewer than 2,000 cases, allowing Jeff to fulfill his mantra: "Winemaking must consume you, or your wines may not be worth consuming." Syrah 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. Parmelee-HillPlanted in 1996 in south west Sonoma Valley, is owned and farmed by Steve Hill and his wife Gwen. This is the same Steve Hill who manages the famed Durell Vineyard, right next door. In some cases fruit is designated from Camp Block, a 1.5 acre parcel that sits on the edge of a hill near the family's camp site. Here, the Durell selection is planted on S04 Rootstock in clay loam (red/brown) soils.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 Sonoma CountyMendocino CountySonoma ValleySonoma County, California, is one of the most important winegrowing regions in the whole of the United States. Vines have been planted here since the 1850s and, apart from the inevitable hiatus brought about by Prohibition, the county's relationship with wine has been prolific and unbroken.
Viticulturally speaking, Sonoma County is divided into three distinct sections: Sonoma Valley, Northern Sonoma and Sonoma Coast. Each of these has its own AVA title and encompasses several sub-AVAs within its boundaries. |
|
