September 1, 2023 - Sweet blackberries, kirsch, earth, chocolate shavings, brown spices and lots of fresh herbs. Clearly built with the great Northern Rhones in mind, this has quite an elegant posture, lovely acidity, integrating tannines, some transparency and a wonderful balance between richesse and coolness.
September 1, 2023 - Lots of tanens, long finish, hint of fruit at the start. Smooth
Delicious
August 21, 2022 - I shouldn’t have decanted an hour b4 meal. It tasted great, but I left 1/3 of it in the bottle and put a cork in it. After we finished the decanted portion, I poured the remainder in our glasses and it was much better. Our last bottle, but I suggest opening it an hour before and tasting it. Reidel Syrah glasses
June 7, 2021 - good - well aged and still strong
December 28, 2020 - Delicious wine! Savory Northern Rhone palate with Cali nose of blackberry and a distant green mint. Slightly dusty tannins that seemed to mellow after an hr or so, even as wine gained weight. Dark fruit emerged over course of drinking. Pop and pour, consumed over a few hrs, stored in passive cellar since release (60-64). I’ll pop my last bottle in another year or two.
September 7, 2020 - Decanted for 3 hours. Nice wine but nowhere near as good as 2011 and older vintages. This is past its peak. Fruit is muted and nothing really makes up for it. Drink these now, best served on a mid-week night where there are no expectations of greatness. Served with grilled ground beef/lamb kebabs
August 8, 2020 - Opened up oxidized and I was concerned, but it settled into an old world style. Savory, with lots of red fruit, earth, leather and black pepper on the finish. Truth is, I may have caught this one in a lesser stretch -- I won't say bad stretch because this wine is hardly ever "bad' for me. Always engaging.
Okay, I've equivocated long enough, lol. Bottom line -- I always love this wine. This particular bottle underwhelmed me. But I drank it all.
April 24, 2020 - Drank really well. Decanted 1hr before consuming over the next 2 hrs. The wine still looks pretty youthful- some slight fading on the rim, deep purple core. Aromas of crushed rock, boysenberry syrup, herbs, vanilla and oak. This wine is not too fatty or bacon/meaty olive- there's more fruit, barrel, and mineral structure in the aroma. The wine is full in the mouth, bright fruit in the fore, creamy mid palate- not quite jammy (good IMO), and a silty tannin and mineral finish, the vanilla is more dominant in the nose than on the palate- the wine still feels youthful as well- more on the frontside of the apex rather than the backside. Flavors match the nose, but it's still quite a good wine, much better than the later bottlings which I have found to be stewy, heavy handed, over-extracted fruit bombs.
April 22, 2020 - - Brick color with medium forming legs and aromas of smokey and prune. It's somewhat balanced and has flavours of prune with a full body. Round texture with a long finish - Syrah predominance, drinking well now and dont think it will improve with additional aging.
January 1, 2020 - More time. Aired for 3 plus hours, which tells me longer aging. Reidel Syrah glass.