2009 J. Bookwalter Syrah Antagonist Elephant Mountain Vineyard

Community Tasting Notes (8) Median Score: 92 points

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  10/26/2019 - SeattlitesCellar Does not like this wine: 80 Points

  Aggressively alcohol forward.

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  4/5/2015 - ibglowin Likes this wine: 92 Points

  Took 45 min to open up but expanded and just kept getting better and better. A massive wine that is just now hitting its stride and showing well. Too bad that was my last bottle....

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  9/3/2013 - f22nickell Does not like this wine: 84 Points

  Setting: This wine was pop ‘n poured.
  
  Sight: This wine is bright, clear, appears to be filtered, with no evidence of gas or particles. Color is deep purple at the core and consistent all the way to the edge. Deep concentration of color. Legs are thick and move very slowly down the glass.
  
  Nose: This wine does not smell flawed. Aromas are of thick, jammy black fruit, mainly blackberries, with no noticeable floral, spice, herb, or other notes. I do not pick up any hints of earthiness or minerality, nor do I pick up any use of oak. I do pickup heat on the nose. This wine smells strongly of dense, youthful fruit suggesting age is young.
  
  Palate: This wine is medium bodied. This wine has flavors of black fruit that fades fairly quickly. I do pick up some secondary flavors of smoked meat. This wine also has some bitter flavors, possibly oak based or under ripe grapes. This wine has some partial new oak, but it’s not helping here; it really only adds an unpleasant distraction.
  
  Structure: This wine is dry. Acid is medium. Alcohol is high. Tannins are medium, but appear higher at first due to the bitterness in the wine. Finish is medium minus, although the bitterness feels like it lasts way too long.. Complexity is low.
  
  Conclusion: This wine is definitely from the new world: clear, filtered, no earthiness or minerality to speak of. From the alcohol indicators, this appears to be from a warm vintage, but the bitterness could be from under ripe grapes. This suggests a wine from an under ripe vintage that had been mishandled/mauled by the wine maker.
  
  Final Conclusion: This is not a good bottle of wine. It feels like the winemaker used under ripe grapes and tried to extract as much flavor out of them as he could. Unfortunately, what he brought in to the wine was a jammy black fruit nose and a matching palate that fades very quickly into an unpleasant bitter finish.
  
  This glass is very hard to finish. Going to wait until tomorrow to see if that bitterness fades a bit.

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  7/16/2012 - Sebacca wrote: 89 Points

  Very good would improve with cellaring

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  7/3/2012 - ClubTerry wrote: 88 Points

  Nice fruit beginning with very little in the mid and finish.

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View all 8 Community Tasting Notes

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