December 8, 2021 - Concur with previous note; still going strong. Don't know what 2018 window means. Maybe not going to get any better afterward, which I would concur with. But this will be good drinking for a few more years.
November 13, 2021 - Still going strong! Took a little while to open, but evolved in a beautiful, mellow smokey delight. Still has some rich fruit, with subtle sherry undertones plus milk chocolate overlaid with some BBQ sauce. Lovely stuff. Drink now.
March 8, 2019 - Pure silk tannins, dark berry and tobacco, long finish, enough acidity to go well with cheese and pizza.
December 9, 2018 - Dark ruby color. Needs to breathe for at least 45 minutes. Opens up with berries and leather notes. Smooth and with little acidity. Great with sirloin. Great effort, wine can be enjoyed for another 10 years easily.
June 1, 2018 - Still young. Soft tannins. Dark fruit. Endless finish.
July 8, 2017 - Drinking absolutely ridiculously right now.
June 11, 2017 - Dinner at Provisions with friends: Decanted around an hour or two before digging into it. Full bodied, full throttle. Nose of Black pepper, Tapenade, rosemary, charred meat, smoke and so much more, just begging for some gamey meat. Slightly odd because the fruit profile was all over the place, raspberry, plum, even slightly floral, which with the meat aroma seemed odd to me... Finish held on for a good 1.5-2 minutes. As others have noted the alcohol leaves you with a touch of heat on the palate, not bad, but I feel it is slightly elevated too much for the rest of the wine, which is really saying something because this has so much going on...
The Petit Sirah shows through even though it is just 20% of the wine. A nice wine, but for my money I prefer Northern Rhone, offers many of the same flavors, but seldom does the heat show so much...
March 19, 2017 - Drank after last glass of Limerick Lane 1023, but opened with lamb chops. This is still doing fine (good cellaring assumed), but may be showing signs of beginning to fade. Very smooth, a little hot (as others have documented, but not a distracting level) and good flavor. No reason to wait, but no panic just because it says 2107 in the community drink window.
July 4, 2016 - This wine had heat. Nonetheless surprised at how young it tasted, like it was a 2013 vintage. This one has many years in it.
I blind-tasted this along with a $17 J. Lohr Syrah 2013. I was able to distinguish the Shafer just by the longer finish and depth of flavor. But I must say, there wasn't a clear difference between the two.
My friend who has little to no experience in wine tasting did not like this wine at all. He preferred the $17 because Shafer was too alcoholic and had a lot of heat in the back-end. I understand where he is coming from, cannot disagree. Very tannic even after 7 hours of slow-oxidizing in the bottle. Maybe my bottle was stored poorly; purchased from auction.
April 17, 2016 - Drank last night with other amazing wines. This must be at its peak and was memorable. Beautiful fruit, integrated tannins, plush mouth feel, and a beautiful finish. Amazing wine.