An outstanding bottle. Opens with a terrific meaty note, along with a little heat, which disappears after this is chilled back down to cellar temperature. Black raspberry, blueberry, vanilla and perfume. Has some tannin still, with flavors of cassis and dark berry fruit. Pepper and spice notes highlight the lengthy finish.
4th Saturday Brown Bagger (Rich's & Dana's): Opaque inky crimson color with aromas of coffee and black fruit. Flavors of dark fruit and pepper but the alcohol almost overwhelms the senses. A hot disjointed mess of a wine. Awful.
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Opened with leftovers. This is a seriously stacked and concentrated bad girl, oozing with fruit and extraction, and it's working well on this syrah. Deep black fruits on the nose, very sweet and jammy, with blackberry, loganberry, lingonberry, black cherry, oak, and the beginnings of more mature plummy, anise, tarry notes. Long, long finish with some tannic bite still. This in some ways is still a baby, a jam bomb. This is by no means over Susan's Hill, and will continue to satisfy for several years. Highly enjoyable. 1 more left.
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Best bottle and in a good spot. Day 3 review. Dark purple. Blackberries, charcoal, spices, pepper and minerals. Dead ringer for an Aussie powerhouse Shiraz. Long finish and adds an earth element. Should still drink well for 5 years but I would recommend enjoying this over the 3 day period I did or do a heavy decant. Once again JL gets it wrong with a drink through 2012. Really?
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Deep rich ruby color. Lush, sweet gamey wine. Touch too much heat, but no surprise at 15.3 alcohol. Shouldn't like it, but really hard not to pour another glass. Unclear to me whether this evolves or loses its edge over time. My hunch is it doesn't change. Good wine for the price, but not really a food wine or one for contemplation.
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Roasted meats, spice, blackberries, floral and berries. Big wine and firm tannins. Needs some time to fully develop but will be a wonderful effort. 92-94.
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Very nice. Amazing qpr. I think I paid $25 for this. Easily compares to wines at twice the price. Has aged beautifully. I love the mild gamy notes and garrigue. Beautifully balanced.
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Well put together but seemed to have a hint of oak and heat on finish. Deep dark fruited profile as always. Seems very young to me. Bought and stored on release. Doesn't seem to have aged much since last bottle.
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Wow. I don't remember this wine being this concentrated last time. Impressive especially at this price point. Blackberries and dark fruit to the core. Gobs of fruit. Love the tar. Almost too rich to handle an entire bottle.
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This wine has really smoothed out a lot in the past year, my last bottle being October 2010. This is a wine with deep flavor, lots of fresh blackberry, tar and stone fruit notes. It's really in a good place right out of the bottle, paired with turkey breast, fresh sweet potatoe and roasted brussel sprouts. Lots of it left for tomorrow so we'll close a note then but this hit the spot on a Fall night....so to close out my note here, I have had the bottle open for three nights. This is squarely a full bodied syrah, with deep flavors, glycerine texture and very much similar flavors to the pop and pour narrative I offered earlier. And, this wine has ripe flavors but the tar and herbal note in the palate gives it a boost of complex flavors to keep it from becoming a fruit bomb. Big fruit, big texture, still some remaining acidity and savory within it to keep it lively. For a drink window, I would say now to 2012, as I offer that when the acidity and garrigue-like notes start to soften out, there will be mainly dark fruit remaining and it will lose the appeal I find attractive now. I continue to buy this wine every year from Adam as it works for me, keeping my desire for dark and big syrah fed when I want to enjoy that expression.
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PnP. Very dark. Nose of black fruits, iron, meat, tarry chocolate and hint of spice. Palate opens with rich blackberry fruit of fairly high intensity. Rises to peak at midpalate with even more fruit, but with plenty of tannic structure and some acidity - gives an almost gritty, hard texture beneath lush fruit. I was looking for a step in the other direction from the weekend's '99 VT which screamed finesse and complexity. This is a bruiser that doesn't display those elements. Fun to drink now. May soften up a bit with time, but I will continue to drink these over the next couple of years.
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I waited 18 months in between bottles. What I found last night was a wine that puts forth a nice mix of decadence, through some chocolate and steady and deep (not goopy) forward fruit, some whole cluster moving through the wine, along with graphite/metal shavings. I really enjoyed what this wine gave and I did not save a glass or I'd drink it with lunch today! Solid, put together well and flashy but drinking really well right now. Will save the next bottle for 2011.
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Dinner at Mulvaney's...Dark & inky in the glass. Pleasant berry fruit aromas on the nose. Nice black berry, currant and plum flavors. Drank over a couple hours and got better and better. Big bodied, but not too big. Medium finish. Will definitely try again.
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Popped and poured, enjoyed over 3 hours. Opaque. Blackberries, tar, graphite on the nose. Black fruits, peppery midpalate, espresso, smooth finish. With air, tremendous minerality appeared on the midpalate and finish as the pepper element subsided. The evolutionary roller coaster was quite interesting and made for a very enjoyable experience.
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Was pop and pour last night with a USDA Prime Top Sirloin and a stuffed baked potato with Rogue Creamery Sharp Cheddar and House Smoked Bacon.
Just a minute amount of funk when I pulled the cork, but it blew off right away. Still inky dark in the glass with a great aroma of bacon, game and dark fruit with a hint of vanilla. Palate is straight forward California Syrah with cracked black pepper, blueberry and roasted meat. Absolute perfect match for dinner with just enough tannin to fight the marbling of the steak. Finish lasted a good 45 seconds.
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Opened and served immediately. Followed over about two hours. Purple color in the glass, clear hue throughout. Big jammy nose of currants, plums and berries with a forward note of smoke. Flavors of currants, berries and plums on the medium to long finish. Medium acidity, medium to firm tannins, medium to full bodied. Drink over the medium term and be sure to give it some air if opening now.
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Some cola and brown sugar on the nose, maybe even a little briny. On the palate this wine packs quite a wallup. Tons of dark raspberry and cherry. A big and rich syrah with a nice grip on the finish. This wine is drinking great right now but should get even better in the next 3-4 years. Day 2---wait..there was no day 2. Bottle drained! Good stuff Adam. After a recent trip to Paso I swore I had enough of the big syrah's but this wine hit the sweet spot for me in the big-shouldered style. I noticed alcohol in a previous tasting note but none this time. Overall, the wine drank much better this go round.
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After all the buzz about this new SLH vineyard I decided to crack my first. Popped and poured. Very aromatic, dark wine. On the palate excellent cool climate flavors, meat, decomposed wood, some tar that added some complexity to the juicy blackberry. . Excellent acidity, some tannic grip at the end. As the wine came down from cellar temp it did begin to show some alcohol on the nose and in the finish. Overall a very enjoyable syrah from a vineyard with great potential. Look forward to trying the 07.
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This bottle took on an interesting pouring regimen. Splash decanted yesterday, returned to bottle, took to dinner. The dinner place would not allow it to be poured as I opened it at home--man, that sucked. OK, cork back into bottle, then drank about 1/2 of it when I got home. Balance left in bottle overnight, drinking now. In sum, this wine has been decanted and breathed so there's some context for you. Like with my TN last year, shows dark in color. Bit of sage and brush on the nose, a hint of the Rosella's poo or merde (and yes, I know, this is not Rosella's fruit), some mint, too. Missing though is the stemmy/heat note from last year, which is now folded in. Full bodied, with licorice, juicy blackberry and some tar. Finishes with a note of chocolate cherry. Has some tannin on the finish so there is time left on this but I would call it more approachable than young and would say the wine will be in prime window in one year, drink well for another 3. Delicious.
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Just what I was looking for. This was great. Big, jammy, but not tannic in the least. Sad that this was my last bottle, and will buy more in the future.
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This was a joy to drink immediately upon opening and got even better throughout the course of the meal. No heat and surprisingly balanced for its age with a nice symmetry between black & blue fruits and herbaceousness with some notes of licorice and meat.
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This was a solid Syrah. Great jammy blackberry with a nice meatiness to it. This wine just coated your mouth with a lingering finish. Not terribly complex, but a good performance.
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I've got a thing for Susan's Hill fruit. The color, the weight, the blackberry flavors--it's how I resonate with CA syrah. And for a vineyard this young to produce such marvelous things speaks to the Pisoni spirit and gift of the vineyard. I like this wine, even at this young stage. It's as I described above and my only negative comment is the pinch of heat that it shows at this stage. I would wish that to meld in and I hope it will but for now, the inky blackberry, the juicy components, even in this lighter vintage, is solid.
Night 2--the wine has tightened up some from last night. The nose aromatics still present but more structure, some jamminess and the same inky feel. As a final aside, I have learned that the wine is 25% w/cluster and the new oak is about 35%. It's worth clarifying that the nose does show the whole cluster so some of the bite/signature is stems but there is also a bit of alcohol still. With the lifting aromatics, I will be curious to see how the stems, youth and hint of booze settle into the wine but overall, solid, effusive and speaks the generous depth and flavors of Susan's.
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I don't hide my unbridled zeal for this label, as I think the Lucia syrahs rally with Saxum as the best made in CA. To back that up, I lobbed a pile of praise on the 2005 of this wine, so with great enthusiam, out with the cork on this 2006. From the perspective of 'pop and pour', lots of dark purple color and like the 2005, nearly opaque. The bouquet? I have to think some whole cluster here. How much? Maybe 15%??, which I will find out but appears to my nose a scent of some stems. Nose also shows some underbrush/sage and under those notes, some white flowers. Palate. Smooth, plush texture with lots of blackberry, some chocolate and deep tarry note on the finish. Given the age of this wine, some new wood also appears on the finish but the tannins here are pretty resolved IMO. I expect this wine to change as it's been open a scant 10 mins but pretty impressive start.
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9/8/2017 - AllRed wrote: 93 Points
An outstanding bottle. Opens with a terrific meaty note, along with a little heat, which disappears after this is chilled back down to cellar temperature. Black raspberry, blueberry, vanilla and perfume. Has some tannin still, with flavors of cassis and dark berry fruit. Pepper and spice notes highlight the lengthy finish.
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11/25/2015 - prufrocksabogado Likes this wine: 92 Points
Terrific wine, mellowed considerably, like a good aged shiraz. Lacks some complexity but a fun drink that has at least a few more good years ahead.
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9/26/2015 - AllRed wrote:
4th Saturday Brown Bagger (Rich's & Dana's): Opaque inky crimson color with aromas of coffee and black fruit. Flavors of dark fruit and pepper but the alcohol almost overwhelms the senses. A hot disjointed mess of a wine. Awful.
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6/10/2015 - Senso-beak wrote: 93 Points
Opened with leftovers. This is a seriously stacked and concentrated bad girl, oozing with fruit and extraction, and it's working well on this syrah. Deep black fruits on the nose, very sweet and jammy, with blackberry, loganberry, lingonberry, black cherry, oak, and the beginnings of more mature plummy, anise, tarry notes. Long, long finish with some tannic bite still. This in some ways is still a baby, a jam bomb. This is by no means over Susan's Hill, and will continue to satisfy for several years. Highly enjoyable. 1 more left.
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12/19/2014 - GlenviewGSW Likes this wine: 93 Points
Drinking really well at the moment . Good vibrant fruit with a nice aged mellow balance on the finish. Should drink well for a few more years
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10/25/2014 - texaswino wrote: 94 Points
Well aged and delicious. Drank after an Australian shiraz that kicked butt too. Somewhat similar in style.
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2/12/2014 - 3daywinereview.com wrote: 93 Points
Best bottle and in a good spot. Day 3 review. Dark purple. Blackberries, charcoal, spices, pepper and minerals. Dead ringer for an Aussie powerhouse Shiraz. Long finish and adds an earth element. Should still drink well for 5 years but I would recommend enjoying this over the 3 day period I did or do a heavy decant. Once again JL gets it wrong with a drink through 2012. Really?
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10/31/2013 - prufrocksabogado Likes this wine: 91 Points
Deep rich ruby color. Lush, sweet gamey wine. Touch too much heat, but no surprise at 15.3 alcohol. Shouldn't like it, but really hard not to pour another glass. Unclear to me whether this evolves or loses its edge over time. My hunch is it doesn't change. Good wine for the price, but not really a food wine or one for contemplation.
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3/6/2013 - 3daywinereview.com wrote: 92 Points
Dark purple. Spices, blackberries, coffee beans and minerals. Good acidity and nice medium finish. Drink now or hold.
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2/27/2013 - 3daywinereview.com wrote: 92 Points
Roasted meats, spice, blackberries, floral and berries. Big wine and firm tannins. Needs some time to fully develop but will be a wonderful effort. 92-94.
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1/6/2013 - texaswinelover wrote: 92 Points
Very nice. Amazing qpr. I think I paid $25 for this. Easily compares to wines at twice the price. Has aged beautifully. I love the mild gamy notes and garrigue. Beautifully balanced.
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10/5/2012 - texaswinelover wrote: 90 Points
Well put together but seemed to have a hint of oak and heat on finish. Deep dark fruited profile as always. Seems very young to me. Bought and stored on release. Doesn't seem to have aged much since last bottle.
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12/9/2011 - texaswinelover wrote: 91 Points
Wow. I don't remember this wine being this concentrated last time. Impressive especially at this price point. Blackberries and dark fruit to the core. Gobs of fruit. Love the tar. Almost too rich to handle an entire bottle.
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10/24/2011 - Frank Murray III wrote:
This wine has really smoothed out a lot in the past year, my last bottle being October 2010. This is a wine with deep flavor, lots of fresh blackberry, tar and stone fruit notes. It's really in a good place right out of the bottle, paired with turkey breast, fresh sweet potatoe and roasted brussel sprouts. Lots of it left for tomorrow so we'll close a note then but this hit the spot on a Fall night....so to close out my note here, I have had the bottle open for three nights. This is squarely a full bodied syrah, with deep flavors, glycerine texture and very much similar flavors to the pop and pour narrative I offered earlier. And, this wine has ripe flavors but the tar and herbal note in the palate gives it a boost of complex flavors to keep it from becoming a fruit bomb. Big fruit, big texture, still some remaining acidity and savory within it to keep it lively. For a drink window, I would say now to 2012, as I offer that when the acidity and garrigue-like notes start to soften out, there will be mainly dark fruit remaining and it will lose the appeal I find attractive now. I continue to buy this wine every year from Adam as it works for me, keeping my desire for dark and big syrah fed when I want to enjoy that expression.
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12/23/2010 - kanab ram wrote:
Dense, black, chewy, and spicy. Nicely balanced.
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12/14/2010 - thomaskeil wrote: 90 Points
PnP. Very dark. Nose of black fruits, iron, meat, tarry chocolate and hint of spice. Palate opens with rich blackberry fruit of fairly high intensity. Rises to peak at midpalate with even more fruit, but with plenty of tannic structure and some acidity - gives an almost gritty, hard texture beneath lush fruit. I was looking for a step in the other direction from the weekend's '99 VT which screamed finesse and complexity. This is a bruiser that doesn't display those elements. Fun to drink now. May soften up a bit with time, but I will continue to drink these over the next couple of years.
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10/9/2010 - Frank Murray III wrote:
I waited 18 months in between bottles. What I found last night was a wine that puts forth a nice mix of decadence, through some chocolate and steady and deep (not goopy) forward fruit, some whole cluster moving through the wine, along with graphite/metal shavings. I really enjoyed what this wine gave and I did not save a glass or I'd drink it with lunch today! Solid, put together well and flashy but drinking really well right now. Will save the next bottle for 2011.
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8/6/2010 - jonysan Likes this wine: 91 Points
Dinner at Mulvaney's...Dark & inky in the glass. Pleasant berry fruit aromas on the nose. Nice black berry, currant and plum flavors. Drank over a couple hours and got better and better. Big bodied, but not too big. Medium finish. Will definitely try again.
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6/26/2010 - blondon wrote:
Popped and poured, enjoyed over 3 hours. Opaque. Blackberries, tar, graphite on the nose. Black fruits, peppery midpalate, espresso, smooth finish. With air, tremendous minerality appeared on the midpalate and finish as the pepper element subsided. The evolutionary roller coaster was quite interesting and made for a very enjoyable experience.
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2/22/2010 - txcabfan wrote:
Was pop and pour last night with a USDA Prime Top Sirloin and a stuffed baked potato with Rogue Creamery Sharp Cheddar and House Smoked Bacon.
Just a minute amount of funk when I pulled the cork, but it blew off right away. Still inky dark in the glass with a great aroma of bacon, game and dark fruit with a hint of vanilla. Palate is straight forward California Syrah with cracked black pepper, blueberry and roasted meat. Absolute perfect match for dinner with just enough tannin to fight the marbling of the steak. Finish lasted a good 45 seconds.
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7/10/2009 - wineismylife wrote: 90 Points
Dallas Berserkers do Campania (Campania in Dallas, TX): WIML90-91
Tasted July 10, 2009 at an offline.
Opened and served immediately. Followed over about two hours. Purple color in the glass, clear hue throughout. Big jammy nose of currants, plums and berries with a forward note of smoke. Flavors of currants, berries and plums on the medium to long finish. Medium acidity, medium to firm tannins, medium to full bodied. Drink over the medium term and be sure to give it some air if opening now.
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6/1/2009 - dmatley wrote: 93 Points
Some cola and brown sugar on the nose, maybe even a little briny. On the palate this wine packs quite a wallup. Tons of dark raspberry and cherry. A big and rich syrah with a nice grip on the finish. This wine is drinking great right now but should get even better in the next 3-4 years. Day 2---wait..there was no day 2. Bottle drained! Good stuff Adam. After a recent trip to Paso I swore I had enough of the big syrah's but this wine hit the sweet spot for me in the big-shouldered style. I noticed alcohol in a previous tasting note but none this time. Overall, the wine drank much better this go round.
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4/23/2009 - dmatley wrote: 90 Points
After all the buzz about this new SLH vineyard I decided to crack my first. Popped and poured. Very aromatic, dark wine. On the palate excellent cool climate flavors, meat, decomposed wood, some tar that added some complexity to the juicy blackberry. . Excellent acidity, some tannic grip at the end. As the wine came down from cellar temp it did begin to show some alcohol on the nose and in the finish. Overall a very enjoyable syrah from a vineyard with great potential. Look forward to trying the 07.
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3/11/2009 - Frank Murray III wrote:
This bottle took on an interesting pouring regimen. Splash decanted yesterday, returned to bottle, took to dinner. The dinner place would not allow it to be poured as I opened it at home--man, that sucked. OK, cork back into bottle, then drank about 1/2 of it when I got home. Balance left in bottle overnight, drinking now. In sum, this wine has been decanted and breathed so there's some context for you. Like with my TN last year, shows dark in color. Bit of sage and brush on the nose, a hint of the Rosella's poo or merde (and yes, I know, this is not Rosella's fruit), some mint, too. Missing though is the stemmy/heat note from last year, which is now folded in. Full bodied, with licorice, juicy blackberry and some tar. Finishes with a note of chocolate cherry. Has some tannin on the finish so there is time left on this but I would call it more approachable than young and would say the wine will be in prime window in one year, drink well for another 3. Delicious.
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3/10/2009 - Hoya Vinophile wrote: 89 Points
Just what I was looking for. This was great. Big, jammy, but not tannic in the least. Sad that this was my last bottle, and will buy more in the future.
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2/19/2009 - kanab ram wrote:
This was a joy to drink immediately upon opening and got even better throughout the course of the meal. No heat and surprisingly balanced for its age with a nice symmetry between black & blue fruits and herbaceousness with some notes of licorice and meat.
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1/19/2009 - Hoya Vinophile wrote: 88 Points
This was a solid Syrah. Great jammy blackberry with a nice meatiness to it. This wine just coated your mouth with a lingering finish. Not terribly complex, but a good performance.
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10/19/2008 - hifiwine wrote: 96 Points
this cold be the best non napa syrah I've had. She is a tad better than her brother Gary. Just extraordinary
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4/21/2008 - Frank Murray III wrote:
I've got a thing for Susan's Hill fruit. The color, the weight, the blackberry flavors--it's how I resonate with CA syrah. And for a vineyard this young to produce such marvelous things speaks to the Pisoni spirit and gift of the vineyard. I like this wine, even at this young stage. It's as I described above and my only negative comment is the pinch of heat that it shows at this stage. I would wish that to meld in and I hope it will but for now, the inky blackberry, the juicy components, even in this lighter vintage, is solid.
Night 2--the wine has tightened up some from last night. The nose aromatics still present but more structure, some jamminess and the same inky feel. As a final aside, I have learned that the wine is 25% w/cluster and the new oak is about 35%. It's worth clarifying that the nose does show the whole cluster so some of the bite/signature is stems but there is also a bit of alcohol still. With the lifting aromatics, I will be curious to see how the stems, youth and hint of booze settle into the wine but overall, solid, effusive and speaks the generous depth and flavors of Susan's.
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3/7/2008 - Frank Murray III wrote:
I don't hide my unbridled zeal for this label, as I think the Lucia syrahs rally with Saxum as the best made in CA. To back that up, I lobbed a pile of praise on the 2005 of this wine, so with great enthusiam, out with the cork on this 2006. From the perspective of 'pop and pour', lots of dark purple color and like the 2005, nearly opaque. The bouquet? I have to think some whole cluster here. How much? Maybe 15%??, which I will find out but appears to my nose a scent of some stems. Nose also shows some underbrush/sage and under those notes, some white flowers. Palate. Smooth, plush texture with lots of blackberry, some chocolate and deep tarry note on the finish. Given the age of this wine, some new wood also appears on the finish but the tannins here are pretty resolved IMO. I expect this wine to change as it's been open a scant 10 mins but pretty impressive start.
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