Community Tasting Note
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Buyer and cellar wrote: 93 points
December 1, 2007 - My box of Lillian Syrah arrived this week and I had to pry it open and pop one just to see whether Manfred's magic rubbed off on his protege, Ms. Maggie. Well, I am happy to report that this juice is superb and she clearly learned her lessons at SQN well. The bottle itself is simple and has a beautiful, classy grey and black tone label with what resembles the tip of a peacock feather as the art. As you pour, you find a wine that is thick and majestic and so deeply purple, its opaque. Once in the glass, as you swirl it, the wine kind of hangs on the rim and then ever so slowly the legs form. The nose is filled with sweet black fruit, lots of toasty smoke and burnt sugar and vanilla. I have not given the wine much time to settle, so this is pretty much a pop and pour impression, but I get lots and lots of super ripe, sweet black fruit, black licorice, smoke and rich dark plums. There is a bit of a medicinal end to the finish, but the fruit is nicely fused together with smooth tannins and a bit of acid and just the right amount of alcohol at 15.4%. Really a great first effort from this new winery and a very, very promising debut. It'll be interesting to see what happens as the fruit source changes and Maggie starts using Oregon fruit for her wine.
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