December 30, 2022 - Still great! Lots of fruit but full bodied.
October 2, 2020 - Tasting really good right now !! Perfect cork after around 14 years in the bottle. Consumed from a half bottle over five + hours. This balanced wine started a little tight and closed, but opened up and showed more fresh fruit after 30 minutes. This balanced wine took three or four hours to soften with increased depth and integrated complexity. Dark red color with no to no oxidation, clarity medium. Aromas of cherry vanilla, pomegranate, and glycerin. Flavors of black cherry cola, raspberry framboise, and leather. This cool climate Syrah has a beautifully long finish. This balanced and flavorful Syrah is an age worthy wine with more years of life left. This Gravel Lens Hop Camp Vineyard is my favorite Martinelli Syrah. A great fruit source and another great winemaking effort.
May 14, 2019 - Really a nice wine at this age. Much more subdued, balanced and even elegant. Great food wine.
June 8, 2018 - Still youthful in appearance, near black with a magenta rim, and still youngish on the nose, with blackberry and blackberry leaf, with a minty edge. It’s still quite primary and fruity with black and blue berry flavors in the mouth. Good juicy finish.
I don’t know how it can be so youngish and yet still need a decant for sediment, but it does.
November 2, 2016 - Cork was dry and crumbled but has been properly stored. Nose was minty, almost like wintergreen with some sweetness but the body was completely dumb, no fruit just vacuous en the finish was hot and peppery. I'm assuming this bottle was somehow spoilt but it was corked in any way I've seen.
September 29, 2016 - Nice Syrah at a nice stage right now. This wine has a nice bit of funk and musty leaves early in the body but ample fruit and terroir. This gives a more northern Rhone style but without the deep minerality and tar.
November 1, 2015 - My second of 3 purchased bottles. This one showed much better than my first bottle earlier this year. I have to agree with an earlier taster, who called this a Pinot Noir lover's Syrah. Still have lots of life left in it.
August 15, 2015 - Cork was extremely brittle, but wine appeared to be ok. Still, not as good as I remember it from a tasting years ago. Good fruit on front end, but a bit thin thereafter. Some secondary pepper notes on the finish.
July 9, 2015 - Had this at a Martinelli night of my wine group. We had the2011 Chardonnay Bella Vigna, 2009 and 2012 Blue Slide Ridge Pinot Noir, the 2009 and 2012 Bondi Home Ranch Pinot Noir , the 2006 Syrah Hop Camp Vineyard, and the 2007 Zinfandel Jackass Vineyard. All the wines were, except the Chardonnay were opened, but not decanted 30 minutes prior to the dinner, with the Syrah and Zinfandel being drank last, they received the most breathing time.
One wine had to finish last...this was it. I don't know why, I love Martinelli's wines, but I always seem to be disappointed in their Syrahs. We drank it side by side with the Zinfandel, and that could have hurt it, as everything the Syrah had, the Zinfandel seemed to have more of.
August 24, 2014 - Powerful but slightly disjointed. Very fruity with a tartness. Not well structured at this point. Acidity comes through on finish.