10/31/2023 - Clark W Griswold Likes this wine:

Double Decant. Syrah with a Viognier/Marsanne co-ferment. Lovely balance between the dark fruits and the funkiness. Long finish. Damn these 2021 ROAC wines are all frigging delish. Shh Don't tell anyone.

9/27/2023 - Neecies Likes this wine:

What a difference time makes. Has definitely put on weight since we opened a bottle in early 2022, but it's not heavy and funky like most Rocks syrahs. It's feminine and sultry with understated power. They're Batman, this is Catwoman. Absolutely stunning.

2/14/2022 - Clark W Griswold Does not like this wine:

Nice nose. Tart red fruits. No meaty notes. Very minimal rocks funk. Tart finish. Not what I wanted it to be. Dumped my second bottle and I really don’t do that.

4/7/2023 - Clark W Griswold Likes this wine:

Double decant. Sweetish and decadent red and blue fruits. A hint a minerality. A hint of meatiness. A hint of pepper. The incredible freshness and purity of fruit is the star of the show here. These piolet syrahs are doing their own thing. Really quite remarkable! Amazing texture. Very long finish. Sexy wine!

4/23/2023 - Eric wrote:

Today was pickup day for some new Kobayashi releases, so I just had to open a slightly older one from the cellar (my first time opening a Cab Franc from Travis).

I am starting to find a signature in all of his wines which I would label as PURITY. This is saturated purple, spicy cedar, floral, moving to a palate that is at once loaded with crunchy fruit and yet also showing crisp and lively acidity. There is nothing shy about this wine, but there is also nothing remotely heavy. With time the more herbal Cab Franc elements come to the fore, but this is also very much a wine of pure, fresh fruit, lovely texture.

Big and fairly furry tannins on the finish show that this wants plenty of cellar time.

4/4/2023 - Sagan99 Likes this wine:

Well...
I had this last night without more than 20 minutes of air.
Tonight, after 24 hours of exposure in a decanter, this was a totally different wine! It was so great! And will get better, without question.

The moral of the story... Decant early and often! It's been a theme I've mentioned about 30 times over the last 12 months... And it seems I can't freaking get it, myself!!!

Anyway, I thought no way above 90 because of my own self induced errors.
I was wrong. 91 now. In a decade, could get mid 90's??

****

Yet again, I didn't decant this early enough.
I can't believe it!!
Popped the cork, slid into a large decanter, ran it through the spin-cycle for a minute, poured.

Presto... Not even close to enough!!!
It definitely needs air, though there was zero sediment.

Without the air, this was closed and rigid and less elegant, than it could be, I suspect.

Decant several hours ahead!

The usual varietal characteristics...
Deep Purplish
Dark cherries, Dark plum, blueberries
Black Green Peppercorn
Earthiness
Licorice. Chocolate. Tobacco?

Tannins resolving, but present
Structured
Going to be a decade to resolve completely?
Check in 5 years

Medium Full
High alcohol
High acid
Long 60 second finish

Syrah Shiraz
14.5% abv

PS- Drink The Rainbow!

1/19/2023 - Clark W Griswold Likes this wine:

Double decant. Black and blue fruits. Nicely textured. A big wine. Needs time. A bit harsh at the moment. Will try again after being open overnight.

Second night smoothed out and was better. It’s big and concentrated. Fruit is jam packed in there. Boozy. Long finish. Still dont absolutely love it at the moment.

12/21/2022 - Clark W Griswold wrote:

Tuesday night pizza wine and nothing more. Screw top is handy. I think the whole Champoux thing is oversold.

10/7/2022 - Clark W Griswold Likes this wine:

Pours cloudy. Tropical fruits and lemon. Almonds. Flowers. Fresh and vibrant with just a hint of butter. long finish. Creamy mouthfeel is the star of the show. This is my favorite white wine. Love the box so much. Its so perfect for me to grab one glass of delicious wine and enjoy it on the deck after work and not commit to a $60 bottle. Travis promised me that this would keep for a couple of months in the fridge and I believed him. It was gone in just over 3 weeks. :)

5/26/2022 - Clark W Griswold Likes this wine:

Double decant. Red and black fruits. Vanilla. Floral. Meaty. Incredibly Rich and concentrated. Drying finish. Better on day two. Might this be the best MCK yet? Not sure, it’s always good. Please find me a wine under $30 as complex and delicious.

4/21/2022 - Clark W Griswold wrote:

Pnp. Consumed over 5 hours. Great nose. Blue and black fruits. Meaty and peppery. Harshish tannins. Long finish. Much preferred this to the Grenache.

2/13/2022 - Clark W Griswold Likes this wine:

Pnp. Beautiful seductive candy like nose. Rich and delicious cassis and black cherry fruit. Baking spice galore. Silky smooth. Finish goes on for close to a minute. A gorgeous and mysterious wine! Would love to know vineyard and winemaker…

6/5/2021 - Clark W Griswold Likes this wine:

Double decant. Consumed over 4 hours. Sweet blueberry fruit. Nice minerality. Amazing texture. Long finish. Truly impressive tannin management. Elegant and text book Bordeaux style. Well done!

12/25/2021 - Clark W Griswold Likes this wine:

Double decant. Complex red and blue berries. Spice and leather. Long bitter dark chocolate finish. Good stuff.

On day two this really doesn’t impress me. A $150+ bottle of wine, in a vintage that is considered the best that WA wine has to offer, a wine that I have cellared for 8 years. It leaves me scratching my head. It’s very good but for what I have into it, I want to be wowed and I’m not wowed.

12/28/2021 - Gabasaur wrote:

Smooth but a little sweet at the end. Tastes very light and is almost missing a zing like other cab sauvs I’m used to.

11/10/2021 - sid_loves_wine Likes this wine:

Very similar to the last note I wrote on this, which was for the 2015. This vintage had slightly friendlier tanninc structure, but it was even less balanced in terms of how the fruit and unusual complexities meshed, or rather didn't really mesh. I like this wine a lot, it's fun and unique, but to me it shows a weird type of complexity that doesn't feel fully convincing, as though it's only the weirdest savory parts and leaving very limited room for the actual fruit/balance/energy?

I love very savory and meaty syrah, but here it just feels so strange. The nose is unbelievably smokey, briny, and vegetal, so much that it genuinely evokes a peaty whiskey. Cigar, even something like cigarette smoke, which is a bit less pleasant. There is a tiny little pinch of warm black cherry fruit lurking somewhere on the nose, but it feels 98% buried by these weirdly vegetal tones. Again, I like very earthy wine, it just feels a little off here.

Also similarly to the 2015, the palate felt more complete, with some ripe black cherry pie, maybe some spiced plum, something like that. There's a good dose of pepper and ashy smoke here as well, it's just not quite as overwhelming as it is on the nose, and a little bit less vegetal. It does need a little bit more acidity, I wouldn't call it flabby or anything but it feels a bit disjointed to have such a savory wine with a fairly soft, simple delivery. I liked the structure a lot though, the tannins felt powerful but were very fine and even powdery, pretty nice.

For me, fun/enjoyable overall and great to share while listening to Tom Waits' mule variations. But for over $30 I feel like there's much better balanced syrah out there that shows just as much complexity, very much including from this producer.

10/29/2021 - AGELVIS Likes this wine:

Five hour decant. Very deep dark magenta color. Black cherry, blueberry, pistachio, flint, coffee bean and maple-glazed donut on the dark, fruit forward nose (with a Syrah-like edge). Dry, velvety, full bodied palate, with hearty, smoldering acidity. Firm, full tannins on the long finish. This is already drinking beautifully and will only improve over the next 2-3 years.

6/30/2021 - Clark W Griswold Likes this wine:

Double decant. Concentrated black fruits. Barnyard funk. Great texture. Sort of drinks like a full bodied Beaujolais. Amazing complexity at $25 price point.

12/24/2018 - Clark W Griswold Likes this wine:

Decanted 8 hours. Lots of vanilla and alcohol. Gorgeous mouthfeel. Smother around the edges than cvr but this vintage did not quite meet our expectations.

9/12/2021 - theebigjuan wrote:

Not my style at all so I didn't rate. Bought it because 1) I like the GSM blend and 2) I like Washington fruit. Unfortunately, this tastes like supermarket central valley big grapes big alcohol, so negatory on the two likes above.

Gave it tastings on days 2 and 3 to see if it would mellow. It did, but not enough.

3/31/2021 - Clark W Griswold Likes this wine:

Pale pink. Tart cherry and watermelon. Lively, crowd pleasing style. Killer buy at Costco for $6!

4/30/2021 - mahmudn wrote:

Look: Deep ruby, mostly opaque, lighter translucent edges, and full body
Nose: Dark jammy flavors, dark chocolate, dark cherry, mild astringency,
Taste: no acid, medium tannins, dark red jam, dark chocolate, vegetal, cherry, and some savory notes.
Finish: long, medium tannins, medium alcohol, some pepper and cherry

5/8/2021 - tomlee wrote:

Jet black in color. 14% ABV. Savory nose of red fruits, citrus, olives and charred meats. Medium body with strong acidity. Rustic and fruit forward. Black cherry, salmonberry, blood and pepper on the palate. Exceptional length on the finish. Exceedingly approachable with just an hour in the decanter. This is the wine to drink on the early side while the other two lay sideways. Best over the next 4-6 years.

1/10/2021 - Clark W Griswold Likes this wine:

Double decant. Red fruits, peppery with floral and almost slight rocks funk. Medium bodied and very Elegant. similar in style to a k vintners syrah. Me impressed. This is a kick ass wine for the money and stupid good at the current $20 Costco price.

11/8/2020 - Clark W Griswold Likes this wine:

Bright green apple with a great minerality. Crisp clean finish. Really great! Incredible value at the full pull price of $10.

10/30/2020 - Elvis1969 wrote:

För syltig för min smak.

7/8/2020 - CAMwinos Does not like this wine:

Bland

6/16/2019 - Clark W Griswold Likes this wine:

Double decant. A year later this wine remains very masculine and closed up. Some nice savory notes but almost no fruit flavors. I like it and it’s a good value that may come out of its shell one day.. This is my last bottle.

11/27/2019 - sjmiller wrote:

$50.

10/6/2019 - Clark W Griswold Likes this wine:

Double decant. Blue and black fruits. Savory and meaty. Finish goes on for over a minute. Love this wine!

11/4/2019 - Margaux Bro Likes this wine:

Popped this because I haven't tried it yet and wanted to save my 14s. I was seriously impressed with this bottle at this price point. I think its made in a similar style to Cayuse Armada and Reynvaan In The Rocks, but without the (sometimes over the top) rocks funk. For being a 14.5% wine, the alcohol was most definitely integrated and it did not come across as a hot wine. Early on the primal notes showed, with some bitter coffee on the palate that reduced into a intense and long ass finish. That bitterness blew off with 4 hours in the decanter, and I would expect this wine to integrate more with time. Charles Smith nailed on on this one, and I will be buying this wine on release for the foreseeable future. Drinking it made me ponder what it would taste like with a splash of viognier like a northern rhone.

3/3/2019 - Clark W Griswold Likes this wine:

Double decant and consumed over several hours. Core of sweet red fruit, toffee, smoked meats, olive brine, gravel. Unique creamy texture. Hard to put down. Sexy wine for sure! First Delmas for us. I obtained this bottle from full pull. Opened it in honor of being upgraded from the wait list at Delmas to the allocation list.

8/28/2019 - Clark W Griswold Likes this wine:

Pnp. Syrah with 20% Grenache this time around. Red fruits, with savory meat and brine flavors and some peppery notes on the finish. I like it, but it’s not as good as the 14. The syrah is similar but the Viognier coferment is maybe what I miss from the 14. Still it’s very good and for an unbelievable $15 at Costco right now...

12/15/2018 - Clark W Griswold Likes this wine:

Not much going on but it’s a smooth and easy drink.

5/16/2019 - ziavino wrote:

Hard to rate. Powerful, with notes of ruby grapefruit, peach, grass, and honey. Electric acidity is tempered by creaminess from the Semillon. This checks off a lot of boxes, yet feels disjointed and isn't something I'm excited to drink again. At this stage, I'd rate it as a really good QPR; only $15 at Costco.

3/31/2019 - khmark7 wrote:

A softer more integrated approach that is very perfumed and easily ready to drink now. Paired with the first ribeye of the season this may be best with grilled pork. Even at this young age this is easily outstanding and tannins are very fine.

Agree with the saline character from the previous note.

3/16/2019 - tjross Likes this wine:

Ah, crazy good. The only “white” wine I really love. Decanted for about four hours. Drinking really well. Played supporting role to a Dough Zone dinner. Structurally it is nearly flawless. Taste is certainly unique. Earthy and bright.

9/15/2018 - jeginmt Likes this wine:

Dark red, full bodied, rich dark berry fruit, oak, medium tannins, high but integrated alcohol—an excellent wine. It definitely improved after opening and exposure to the air. Very oaky and alcoholic when first opened, had some doubts, but every hour it improved, until wow! To my surprise I found a few bottles at Costco? Going back for more.

8/14/2018 - Clark W Griswold wrote:

Great winemaker. Great vineyard. Pours almost black. Double decant through menu decanter. Superb mouthfeel! Not a lot of fruit here but dark fruits are present, smoke, cedar, with baking spice and savory notes. Masculine. Short finish. Seems a bit overrated here on CT at the moment. Huge value from full pull.

Update:
Pnp tonight and there is a bit more of a rocks kind of funk coming through here.. still not my favorite but I would say this wine is better without a decant.

7/12/2018 - pkpjoe Likes this wine:

Good qpr. Medium-light body. Funk. Good finish.

3/27/2018 - Clark W Griswold Likes this wine:

Double decant. Pretty good juice! Hard to find better qpr. Had along side the 2015 vintage and I must say I prefer the 2016 as a daily. The 15 is maybe a bit more tannic and may age better but who’s aging $12 Wine?

6/21/2017 - bajayngo wrote:

Bionic Frog vs Stonessance vertical tasting - the most unique note of parsley in a wine I've ever had. The parsley stayed with the wine followed by pepper, green olives, jalapeno's, musk, cherries and that saline mouth feel. My #7 of the tasting

11/13/2017 - luckycharmpdx wrote:

DC