Community Tasting Note

sfwinelover1 Likes this wine:

Tuesday, August 29, 2023 - One off ($36.99) from the big box winestore about 5 years ago. On the nose and palate, PEPPER, PEPPER and more PEPPER—black, white and green—and sharp elbowed acidity, pulling back over a couple of hours to reveal earthy minerality, underbrush, sage, lavendar, bacon fat, blackberry paste, saline, blood, sherry and a light note of dark florals. Dark purple with a slight hint of brown, medium to full bodied, thick legs. Intense acidity, medium+ tannins, no heat, but that slight boozy note from the sherry note. Tremendous intensity, VG++ persistence, VG complexity. My first Melville purchase outside of a restaurant—and my first non-pinot—this came out of the bottle like a four alarm fire, profoundly but not unpleasingly angular, with the acidity pretty much leading everything else around by the nose. This probably hit a peak for me after a couple of hours, when most of the intensity remained, but more of the other elements peaked through, giving the wine a more or less balanced, if not necessarily completely integrated feeling. If you feel bitten by the snake venom from the likes of SQN, Saxum, et al, this cool climate syrah just might be your antidote, and while I can’t say whether this is more Cote Rotie, Crozes Hermitage (or Cornas or St. Joseph, for that matter), it’s more of any of those things than it is of its Paso neighbors. On night 2, this really did integrate, becoming more harmonious, but just a bit less interesting, then flattened out on night 3, indicating that while air benefits this, it can also be too much of a good thing. This was a really good food wine, especially on night #1, when it was definitely better with food—grilled pork tenderloin—than without, and also excellent on night #2 with stuffed pasillas. More fruit, even if below the firehose levels of SQN, would have elevated this for me, but this still punches at or above its weight, based on what I paid for it. Where it is in its drinking window is a function, IMO, of how you like your wines, but there’s certainly nothing wrong with opening now and aerating to your preferences. Among CA syrahs I drink, this seems closest, if a cut below in quality, to some of Keplinger’s cuvees, good solid company, even if I’m below CT, for a change, and the pro scores. 92+

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