2016 Melville Syrah Estate Donna's

Community Tasting Notes (14) Avg Score: 93.6 points

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  3/31/2024 - Cabfrancophile Likes this wine: 97 Points

  Decanted for about 30 minutes, consumed over several hours. Drinking great, wide open aromas with a refined, mostly resolved palate impression.
  
  Blueberry, olive tapenade, roasted poblanos, basil oil, floral incense, and pepper. Complete, complex aromas, amplified. Mid-weight, fresh, with sculpted mid-palate, concentrated blue fruit and garrigue flavors, silky with fine sandy tannins. Medium acidity. Long finish with a subtle amaro-like bitterness complementing the blue fruit and savory inner aromas.
  
  Will continue to age on balance, hold if you prefer more tertiary, savory character, though I love how the fruit is playing off the other elements at this stage. This was my only bottle, sadly, though timed it well for my taste. A consummate cool climate Syrah of terroir, an honest expression of place and variety that really only can come from this producer and vineyard.

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  8/29/2023 - sfwinelover1 Likes this wine: 92 Points

  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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  3/9/2023 - JohnSh wrote: flawed

  Brought this to a tasting, and most agreed it was off in some way. Quite nasty flavours - mercaptans?

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  9/2/2021 - brian_r93 Likes this wine: 95 Points

  When a wine takes you to a place and time that you have previously drank it with only one sip. If one like Melville’s Syrah this is one of the jewels. Putting the price aside this wine speaks to place and time more than any other wine I regularly drink. Factor in that this wine is about $65 landed cost in IL. Hands down one of my favorites and best price per pour…

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  12/12/2020 - Matt Scott Likes this wine: 95 Points

  Decanted for an hour. Glorious fruit and suave, almost starchy tannins, with this back grip that remains enthralling. Blueberry, baked earth, olive tapenade, freesia and Oolong tea. The finish carries on without effort, with a sensual quality. The body is full. Drink now - 2032.

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