External search
Google (images)
Wine Advocate
Wine Spectator
Burghound
Wine-Searcher
Vintages
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2001
1999
From this producer
Show all wines
All tasting notes
|
| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Drinking window: Drink between 2017 and 2024 (based on 7 user opinions) |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 89.2 pts. and median of 90 pts. in 29 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by SawgrassSteve on 9/12/2023 & rated 92 points: September 12, 2023 - This has withstood the test of time.I posted the pic with the inky stained cork. Dark fruit, stewed prunes and pepper with nice acidity and a long finish.The fruit has held up well. It's my only bottle(sadness). I'm going to suggest there's still life in this vintage, so don't fear giving it another year or two, if you can stand it!? 😉
A Woot wine purchase from a Dec 2016 Wellington "mystery case" of 6; the average cost was $25/750ml. What a bargain 11 years later! I enjoy a syrah as a departure from my day to day CDP, Cabs, Brunello, Amarone... (174 views) | | | Tasted by klezman on 4/25/2023: Excellent. Initially a bit closed but within 10 minutes it opened up with a savoury and flowery nose along with pepper and dark fruit. Nice balance and density, of course. It also evolved substantially over the evening, both opening and closing at various times. Some bitterness on the finish at times but toward the end of the bottle it returned to a long and harmonious finish. Great now and no rush. (720 views) | | | Tasted by merryberry on 3/14/2023 & rated 92 points: Bright highlights in the dark red. Pure, fully integrated fruit, spices, and tannins, with a long, luscious finish. Best on night 3, if you can hold out that long. (279 views) | | | Tasted by kmccarty006 on 12/28/2021 & rated 91 points: Just finished my last bottle out of 16 total. Amazed how well this was going down and really sad I have no more left. (591 views) | | | Tasted by InFrom/HF on 11/24/2021 & rated 92 points: My last bottle of this, it just got better each time. Restrained but still fresh fruit, dry with balanced tannins and acidity. I can't stop sipping. (537 views) | | | Tasted by InFrom/HF on 12/25/2020 & rated 88 points: Something meaty-like with the fruit, noticeable but not unpleasant tannins. Another wreck of a cork, but the wine itself was fine. (583 views) | | | Tasted by klezman on 12/9/2020: Yum all around. It's definitely calming down and integrating more compared to its youth. Rich dark fruit, nice earthy and meaty aspects, and perfect Wellington balance. (1688 views) | | | Tasted by merryberry on 11/17/2019 & rated 91 points: Bright cranberry red. Cedar, cinnamon, and blueberry nose. Medium bodied, pure cherries, white pepper, well integrated tannins, a dusting of herbs, and a long subtle finish. Really started singing after being open a few hours. (970 views) | | | Tasted by TottenCellars on 8/30/2019 flawed bottle: Bad cork on this one. :( (849 views) | | | Tasted by qwerty2 on 4/9/2019 & rated 90 points: It's always mixed feelings when I open a Wellington bottle of wine, knowing that there won't be more. I love Syrah in any case, and this is such an excellent example. Delicious. (859 views) | | | Tasted by hcnate on 2/12/2019 & rated 90 points: Fruit bomb drinking in prime! Full body, rich and delicious. (814 views) | | | Tasted by klezman on 1/24/2019: Yummy out of the gate. Dark berries, leather, a meaty/bloody quality. Smoothed out with air, bringing the fruit more to the front. (1918 views) | | | Tasted by nathanbsmith on 1/11/2019: Enjoyable on initial PNP and the next night too. Thanks PW. (687 views) | | | Tasted by qwerty2 on 10/14/2018 & rated 90 points: Delicious and fragrant, to no one's surprise. I'm happy for PW that he's in retirement, but regretful for the rest of us. This Syrah is certainly one of his successes, and I'm glad there's one left. (696 views) | | | Tasted by manny651 on 6/30/2018 & rated 89 points: surprisingly fresh and delicious (735 views) | | | Tasted by DKHaus on 5/26/2018 flawed bottle: Corked. (938 views) | | | Tasted by klezman on 1/3/2018: A bit closed most of the first night. Dark fruits, some black pepper, and clearly a deep and dark wine. Night two wasn't that much different, surprisingly. (2012 views) | | | Tasted by pickhardt on 9/6/2017 & rated 87 points: Pleasant, dark fruit with some tannin, but pretty thin and not a long finish. Pretty good value for what I paid (via Woot). (1372 views) | | | Tasted by Cabfrancophile on 7/15/2017 & rated 87 points: Nice easy drinking, varietally correct Syrah. Light oak, mild tannin, medium plus body, white pepper, blackberry, and Mediterranean herbs. A bit of warmth on the finish. Certainly a big step up from basic, entry level Syrahs, but doesn't quite have the feral edginess that really catches my attention. (1412 views) | | | Tasted by RPerro on 5/29/2017 & rated 90 points: Nice Cali syrah, with plum fruit, white pepper, and notes of milk chocolate. No oak to speak of, and very light tannin. Drink now - 2020. (1248 views) | | | Tasted by Parnelli on 4/10/2017 & rated 84 points: This is a compromise score ... she thought that it was a skunky bottle ... something wrong and I tolerated it. Dark fruit (plums, etc.) on the nose and palate ... nothing distinguishable. I didn't detect any earthy/leather/smoke of many syrahs. Not in balance with fruit, tannins and acidity. Disappointing. (1360 views) | | | Tasted by klezman on 1/30/2017: Nice big burly Syrah in a nice part of its young phase. Anise and dark fruit on the nose with additional complexities that come and go. Flavours are dark cherry, plum, baking spices, and hints of smoke. Palate is rich but balanced with acidity. Tannins are medium. Finish is long.
This is good now and will be good for years in all likelihood. Need to get more. (2287 views) | | | Only displaying the 25 most recent notes - click to see all notes for this wine... |
| Syrah Varietal article (Wikipedia) | (Wines Northwest)
Note that some producers in the Northern Rhone distinguish between simply Syrah and "Serine", the latter described as ‘an ancient clone of Syrah, the berries of which are more oval-shaped and less deeply pigmented than Syrah’ by producer Tardieu-Laurent. Estate VineyardFrom the Producer:
Coury Clone Block: In the spring of 2000 we took over the farming of what is now our Estate Vineyard from Autumn Wind Winery and Vineyard. Even though the purchase of the property and business would not occur until later that year we were entrusted with running the operation as if it were our own already. The vineyard was only around 22 acres at the time with a good deal of plantable land available. There were also areas that needed to be addressed. This block was one of those. This was originally planted in 1985. It is on a very steep facing at the apex of the vineyard’s hillside. The terraces that had been built to account for the hill’s grade were collapsing making tractor work hazardous. On top of that years of soil neglect had created an extremely untenable growing environment for the plants. We decided to tear this section out and start again. At this juncture Dijon clones were quite fashionable (not they are not now, just more so in an outsized sort of way back then) and since the vineyard was solely Pommard and Wadensvil we decided to plant Dijon 777. The decision never panned out. Despite having the Etzel Block to its west, the Wadensvil Block to the north and the Hallelujah Block (the largest portion of the Estate Old Vine) this block never produced wine anywhere near the quality of its neighbors. For 15+ years we saw harvests produce wines that usually were scheduled for our Willamette Valley bottling rather than something more unique and individual. While clonal makeup is not the defining character of terroir it is an aspect and in this case, we felt that aspect was holding things back. In the spring of 2019, we traded some vineyard management expertise for cuttings off our block of Coury Clone at Freedom Hill Vineyard. Given our success there and at Hyland Vineyard with this unique, Oregon-based clone we felt like we could maximize the setting. In one vintage, not counting the smoke taint-befouled 2020 vintage, we found that we were proven correct. More good things to come from this interesting part of our Estate!
Farming Practices: We have done the management of this property internally since we purchased it in 2000 with the exception of 2014 and 2015 when Sterling Fox’s management service did the work. Also, at that time, the vineyard was switched entirely to organic farming practices and remains so to this day. The vineyard has always been dry farmed.USAAmerican wine has been produced since the 1500s, with the first widespread production beginning in New Mexico in 1628. Today, wine production is undertaken in all fifty states, with California producing 84% of all U.S. wine. The continent of North America is home to several native species of grape, including Vitis labrusca, Vitis riparia, Vitis rotundifolia, and Vitis vulpina, but the wine-making industry is based almost entirely on the cultivation of the European Vitis vinifera, which was introduced by European settlers. With more than 1,100,000 acres (4,500 km2) under vine, the United States is the fourth-largest wine producing country in the world, after Italy, Spain, and France.California2021 vintage: "Unlike almost all other areas of the state, the Russian River Valley had higher than normal crops in 2021, which has made for a wine of greater generosity and fruit forwardness than some of its stablemates." - Morgan Twain-Peterson Sonoma CountyMendocino CountySonoma ValleySonoma County, California, is one of the most important winegrowing regions in the whole of the United States. Vines have been planted here since the 1850s and, apart from the inevitable hiatus brought about by Prohibition, the county's relationship with wine has been prolific and unbroken.
Viticulturally speaking, Sonoma County is divided into three distinct sections: Sonoma Valley, Northern Sonoma and Sonoma Coast. Each of these has its own AVA title and encompasses several sub-AVAs within its boundaries. |
|
