2016 K Vintners Syrah Royal City

Community Tasting Notes (18) Avg Score: 93.2 points

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  12/29/2023 - SirJ Likes this wine: 91 Points

  A nice evening yesterday with cheese & wine, pitted two Syrah / Shiraz wines against each other. And a third wine from my personal favorite Utopos Winery.
  
  K Vintner's Royal City Syrah 2016
  Standish Wine Co The Standish 2017
  
  A duel that Standish won quite easily on the first night. Clearer structure, more homogeneous and a fantastic finish. Royal has more animalic and paprika notes which created a bit of disharmony, still a good wine but could do better. Set it aside and opened another favorite.
  
  Utopos Cabernet Sauvignon 2019
  
  Drank this vintage June-22, but what a development 😳. Have said it before, hard to buy a better Cab for about €50. Fantastic fruit, cassis, black cherries, cedar and a little sweeter tobacco.
  
  Day two Royal City showed itself from a better side, better harmony, toned down paprika notes. But Standish just gasses on, complex, dark fruit that's sublime nonetheless. Utopos shows that this vintage will grow and become even better with a few more years in the cellar.

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  12/29/2023 - Brent25 Likes this wine: 90 Points

  Clear pale garnet; clean medium plus nose of dill, musty leather, dirty soil and red currant; dry; high acidity; medium plus tannins; high alcohol; medium body; medium plus flavour intensity; palate is tarter with addition of tomato leaf, cocoa and soil; medium plus finish; very disappointing compared to our previous bottle - dominated by vegetal notes; hopefully an off bottle as we have 3 left!

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  2/5/2023 - FruitFly wrote: 93 Points

  Rich, layered flavor profile and structured tannins. Notes of dark fruit like blackberry, plum, and black cherry, along with hints of spice, leather, and smoke. Suggest holding this one for another 5 yr min to fully develop its flavors and complexity.

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  1/7/2023 - gmbdds wrote: 94 Points

  Iron, gravel and smoke notes complicate raspberry, blackberry and orange peel fruits. Challenging, complex, but still fresh and friendly. Not decanted. Waited an hour to drink after open and drank over a couple hours.

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  10/30/2022 - DDw2 wrote: 89 Points

  Maybe just a neutral phase but this bottle lacked. Just not well integrated - woody off notes, some syrah funk ( despite royal city vinyard location) and simple. One bottle left - hoping it gets anywhere near what other comments and ratings experienced - we would def not waste our time if this is it - ROI points quickly elsewhere at this point.

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