2011 Tensley Syrah Tierra Alta Vineyard

Community Tasting Notes (11) Avg Score: 90.4 points

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  1/7/2024 - tannictongue Does not like this wine:

  Gamey. Past its prime. I’m not finding Tensley’s to be age worthy. I’ve had three Syrah vintages over the last month that just did not hold up.

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  4/9/2020 - spidersva Likes this wine: 92 Points

  Delicious! Super drinkable right now. Delightful robust Syrah.

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  5/20/2019 - ChrisWagner Likes this wine: 93 Points

  This is fantastic.
  
  Still fair amounts of fruit. Blueberries, black cherry, loganberry, etc.
  
  Lots of olives, smoked meat,Mediterranean herbs, etc.
  
  Some of the Tensleys are over the top, this isn’t one of them. Maybe it’s vintage, maybe it’s vineyard.

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  3/5/2018 - Seafoam Manor wrote: 91 Points

  A little atypical from what I expect from Tensley, but not necessarily a bad thing. The color is more of a medium ruby, as opposed to many of their wines that skew very deep, inky and almost opaque.
  
  The palate and the nose really reflect the cooler nature of 2011, which skews a little green, but more in a herbaceous sense than a heavy pyrazine, bell pepper note. The classic smoke, pepper and meat notes retains the syrah profile, but the fruit is more in the red spectrum and there is an earthiness and forrest floor quality that hints at Burgundy a bit. Given the cooler profile, I would have guessed that this was the Turner vineyard.
  
  The tannins are very well integrated, medium+ acidity and the alcohol, while still high, is handled very well. The fruit is a little bit short on the finish, but the earthier notes really linger, so it is more a matter of personal preference than objective quality. Really nice wine but a bit of an outlier in the context of the greater Tensley portfolio. Comparing this to the 2012, I doubt that you would conclude that they were even the same varietal.

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  10/29/2016 - rharl wrote: 89 Points

  A little green on opening -- did better with time... would suggest planning on 90 minutes open even if just in the bottle. Not the strongest Tensley showing, but understood given 2011.

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View all 11 Community Tasting Notes

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