January 21, 2024 - Really beautiful Syrah reflection, handled spicy Asian. Very well. Good opening notes and dark cherry and over ripe plum taste profile.
Deep purple violet color, decent legs
October 20, 2023 - Wine Palooza (Eagan, MN): Showing well with dust, earth cherry, blackberries, minerals and rose petals. Comple and medium plus finish. A Solid.
August 8, 2023 - Big, rich and sassy. This wine is extroverted & almost insincere, but it comes together pretty well. Saw some reviews questioning day 2 quality, but for us it was perhaps better. Intense light/dark fruit jam with pipe tobacco, a slight hint of barnyard and a generous finish. I have one more bottle and won’t be in a rush to close the account.
July 3, 2023 - Aerated, in glass for one hour. Get a blend of plum, Chinese five spice and a bit of freshness springing forth. Tannins in check and the finish lingers. About 1hr later, spice is almost gone and olives and violets come through. On paper, this sounds intriguing and right up my alley. But there’s something lacking here—can’t put my finger on it, so we’ll just term it “greatness.” This wine wants to be great, but it’s not quite there. I remember a Royal City I had back in ‘09 that was fabulous. I feel like K Vinters has lost some oomph, resting on the labels to bring the pizzazz and not the juice.
February 17, 2023 - This was my second K Vintner's King Coal 2016. The wine is still in the middle of its drinking window. The wine needs 2 - 3 hours to get up to 93p, to begin with the fruit is great but the oak is too dominant, but it gets better after 2 - 3 hours. Like so many Cabernet dominant wines from Charles Smith they are best after 5 - 7 years, I think, Syrah wines often have a better tannin structure and slightly higher acidity, which makes them more long-lived.
February 6, 2023 - This tasting note will be all over the place, which I think matches the wine.
Opened 4 hours before serving. Double decanted back to clean bottle, let sit without cork.
Nose and taste before decanting: heavy on the oak notes, vanilla, baking spice. Jammy black fruit.
First night: vanilla and baking spice gone, replaced by cocoa powder, black fruit (less jam my than before), and some earthy/olive Syrah notes. Moderate acidity. It drank really hot for being listed at 13.5%. It was interesting, difficult to describe, and paired reasonably well with a steakhouse spread. There was something unbalanced here, maybe the alcohol amplifying certain flavors.
Night two: pretty dead. Nose was gone and we are back to lots of oak influence.
When it was good on night one, I enjoyed it, although not enough to finish the bottle with a group of 5 and two alternates also opened. Night two was unpleasant. It may need time to integrate all those mixed flavors, but the high perceived alcohol and the fact that it degraded by day two makes me doubt it has enough time to come together.
January 25, 2023 - This had it all. Smooth and refined tannins, nice fruit with balanced acidity.
January 21, 2023 - Clear medium ruby/garnet; clean medium plus nose of tomato leaf, savoury herbs, balsamic, cassis and fresh blackberries; dry; high acidity; medium plus tannins; high alcohol; medium plus body; pronounced flavour intensity; palate is tarter with addition of cocoa and wood smoke; long finish; drink now or in 5 years; beautifully balanced wine that Devon found soft and feminine - even after she saw the bottle art
July 3, 2022 - >>Wine 3 of 4<<
An incredibly exciting and educational blind tasting of four wines from K Vintners (Charles Smith).
Where we pitted Hidden Syrah vs Powerline Syrah against each other and King Coal vs Creator (both 80% Cab and 20% Syrah). But also a total assessment of where the wines are in their respective drinking windows.
Regarding Syrah, there was never a match, the depth and complexity was superior at Hidden. Hidden had the advantage of a 2 year older vintage. But Powerline also very nice but a little less tannin structure and shorter finish.
The match between King vs Creator was all the more even. After about 2 hours we could not distinguish any winner, but after another hour, King Coal sails away. Fantastic dark fruit, wonderful complexity, integrated oak. But both very good.
The result was as follows;
1. Hidden
2. King Coal
3. Creator
4. Powerline
All four very good, no panic with any of the wines. The Syrah wines deliver after an hour or so in the glass. The Cabernet wines need 2-3 hours before they start to shine.
After the tasting, the wines went perfectly with grilled whole Entrecôte with roasted potatoes and chili bearnaise.
May 22, 2022 - Steak and potatoes grill night with the boys. Delicious bold wine with well integrated tannins and large fruit flavors. Very well paired with BQ grilled steaks, baked potatoes, asparagus, and corn on the cob.