October 3, 2022 - 1st bottle consumed of 3 originally purchased, this wine is drinking nicely.
Dark and opaque, showing aromas and flavors of smoke and black cooked fruits, coffee grounds and black pepper, and fresh meats.
There is ample acidity to keep the wine from being flabby. This is not a big and bold, uninteresting Syrah...it has a soil-driven character about it, and will likely drink well through 2030+.
December 15, 2021 - Deep garnet, nose of tobacco and ocean air. On the palate, dry high acidity, medium tannin, surprisingly low alcohol, medium body, medium intensity, primary characteristics of slightly unripe red cherries and black pepper with some mineral notes on the finish. It's an interesting wine, surprisingly low alcohol, complex but lacks much follow through. Very good. Possible it needs more time to develop.
April 30, 2021 - Dark garnet, not quite opaque, medium full body; nose shows a nice melange of olive, pepper, anise, spiced herbs, layered over a core of clean dark fruit; vibrant dark fruit on the palate, deep blackberry, boysenberry, with those same swirling spices, pepper, anise; youthful tannins are still present and slightly mouth gripping, but resolved enough to make this quite drinkable, and lending a somewhat creamy texture. The group I served this to blind struggled to place it, torn between Rhone and cool climate California. I can see that, as this has all the positive attributes of a quality Northern Rhone syrah, while not fitting cleanly into the character we expect from Rhone (honestly, that probably means the brett we are used to in many Rhones, even at a very low level, is missing in this wine). This is a delicious, complex, quality Syrah, with many years of positive development ahead of it.
April 29, 2021 - Wine Dinner (Zoom): Tasted blind. Medium-deep ruby, no bricking and youthful color; high intensity aromatics, purple fruits, minerals, gamey, relatively clean; palate is medium bodied, medium-plus acidity, medium-minus tannins, balanced medium alcohol (12.6%), blueberry fruit which lacks a bit of persistence through the midpalate; finish is medium to medium-minus length. This seems like a youthful Northern rhone syrah, polished without being overtly modern. Length on the finish holds this back from being really excellent. 89
January 6, 2021 - Tasted over 3 hrs
-opaque dark purple
-fairly complex dark berry olive juice
-med+ acidity, med/med- weight earthy tart savory elements, med/med- tannins
-this has picked up some weight with age and has some interesting savory complexity, not overtly mature - who knows it might even get more interesting over several more years
May 31, 2020 - ! hr decant, much better than previous bottles, everything was hitting their marks tonight. Balance was great, good fruit/tannins/acid in a CA way which means to me no complexity but as good at i've had.
December 21, 2019 - decanted for 5 hrs after reading others notes...not sure how/if this helped or not, overall the wine while fairly soft in tannins is desidely simple and very short on finish. No acid apparent.
December 17, 2018 - MNB: Low-acid whites (Home (Noe st)): Medium ruby, garnet at the rim.
Medium intensity aromatics, slight meaty smoked meat, slight pepper, blackberry, slight savory date/fig oxidation (tertiary development)
Dry, medium body, 13% alcohol (actually 12.6%), high acid, medium tannins (tissue-paper). .
Lean slightly sprucey/pine notes.
Pepper and structure suggests N. Rhone syrah. Leaner body and herbaceousness suggests Crozes or Saint-Joseph, not Hermitage or Cornas.
Final call: given the slight age, 2013 Alain Graillot Crozes-Hermitage.
Actually: 2010 Copain Halcyon Syrah, 12.6%
Analysis: I'm not far off. It is a pretty clean for the style.
November 25, 2018 - Coravin taste: a young and immature wine that needs time, but found some good black and red fruit, olive and a savory taste amid the closed wine. Needs 2+ years. Hold.
With Sue and Jen in Princeton after our China trip and with Mamoun’s food.
September 24, 2018 - Drank one of these 3 months ago, which came off kind of boring to me. Figured I’d try my final bottle last night, as I wanted something that if I didn’t care for I could just dump the rest and move on. Turned out the bottle last night met the savory flavors I was chasing to pair with dinner. Huh. With 12.6% ABV, I drank about 1/2 of it and tossed the remainder back into the fridge. Retasting tonight paired with lentil soup, the wine has filled out some more. Dried purple flower, black cherry, charcoal, olive, some chalky tannin that is mild to moderate in intensity, finishing with a savory, tarry, creosote-like note. This bottle is far better than the one from June and shows some decent structure to keep aging.