Community Tasting Note

RajivAyyangar wrote:

Friday, February 12, 2016 - Blinds at Californios - 4 (Californios SF): Solid example - absolutely classic with intriguing herbaceous secondaries.
Score: 8.5-9
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Full Notes (Blind)
Visual

- Moderate ruby

Nose

- Intense black pepper, rotundone
- Tart blackberry, slight olive
- Stemmy herbaceous nature
- driven by non-fruit aromas and pepper

Palate

- medium bodied
- elevated alcohol - 13.5% (actually 13%)
- elevated acid
- elevated tannins - papery
- no overt oak usage

Conclusions

- rotundone —> Syrah or GSM blend
- Not GSM/Southern Rhone: Structurally doesn’t have alcohol I’d expect from Southern rhone. Color is darker.
- Structure and aromatics are classic Northern Rhone Syrah.
- It seems a bit lighter, less ripe and more herbaceous, suggesting maybe not Cornas or Hermitage/Crozes.
- Syrah > N. Rhone > Saint Joseph, 2013
- Actually:
- Syrah > N. Rhone > Crozes-Hermitage, 2013

- 2013 Alain Graillot Crozes-Hermitage
- This seemed pretty obvious to me.
- Between SJ and Crozes - Crozes should probably be the default guess. Saint Josephs are a bit less common.

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