Drinking nicely with smoke, meat, plummy fruit and good acidity. Good structure with ripe tannins. Has the aromatics of northern Rhône Syrah with the weight and body of a cool climate California Syrah. Got better with air opening up and revealing layers of flavor. Interesting briney olive note and blackberry fruit on the palate. Drinking great now but should hold for many more years as it’s well balanced. Give it a decant and an hour or more of air to open up.
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Shows its age on the nose, with rich graham cracker and caramel and deciduous forest notes, and those appear in the mouth too, but the fruit is still powerful and pure blackberry and black raspberry, with nice acidity, and still ample structure. A pretty wine, a real treat to try it with this age behind it. Drinking at or after peak.
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Jon R got this one right....outstanding with age, much more N Rhone than Cali with fruit still strong but tempered by age and good earthy base. wish I had more
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Continues to show itself to be a spectacular wine with age. Beautiful, balanced ripeness is ever present in the wine. Blackberry, blueberry, leather, hint of smoke and pepper. This bottle direct from Fontodi's library stock. A roomful of somms blown away by how well this bottle was showing.
Does not express as much olive and dried/smoked meat as you might find in a comparable wine from the Northern Rhone (some folks liked that fact; I like really enjoy N. Rhone typicity as well as the character that this wine presents). That said, this is unmistakably Syrah - majority of folks in the room tasting this blind identified it as ripe vintage Hermitage or St. Joseph.
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WTF Blind Tasting (Roswell, GA): Dark opaque core, cloudy dull maroon rim; caraway, fennel, brown sugar, aged; palate confirms Italian nose, raisin, dark fruit, chocolate covered cherries, prune, tar, slight cedar; was on '03 Montepulciano- very dark, almost apassimento, and lower in acid.
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8/28/2019 - Pinotfanbg Likes this wine: 92 Points
Drinking nicely with smoke, meat, plummy fruit and good acidity. Good structure with ripe tannins. Has the aromatics of northern Rhône Syrah with the weight and body of a cool climate California Syrah. Got better with air opening up and revealing layers of flavor. Interesting briney olive note and blackberry fruit on the palate. Drinking great now but should hold for many more years as it’s well balanced. Give it a decant and an hour or more of air to open up.
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6/28/2019 - pgm Likes this wine: 94 Points
Shows its age on the nose, with rich graham cracker and caramel and deciduous forest notes, and those appear in the mouth too, but the fruit is still powerful and pure blackberry and black raspberry, with nice acidity, and still ample structure. A pretty wine, a real treat to try it with this age behind it. Drinking at or after peak.
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11/16/2017 - Mr T wrote:
Jon R got this one right....outstanding with age, much more N Rhone than Cali with fruit still strong but tempered by age and good earthy base. wish I had more
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4/14/2017 - Der Weingelehrte wrote: 95 Points
Continues to show itself to be a spectacular wine with age. Beautiful, balanced ripeness is ever present in the wine. Blackberry, blueberry, leather, hint of smoke and pepper. This bottle direct from Fontodi's library stock. A roomful of somms blown away by how well this bottle was showing.
Does not express as much olive and dried/smoked meat as you might find in a comparable wine from the Northern Rhone (some folks liked that fact; I like really enjoy N. Rhone typicity as well as the character that this wine presents). That said, this is unmistakably Syrah - majority of folks in the room tasting this blind identified it as ripe vintage Hermitage or St. Joseph.
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9/20/2016 - Rezy13 wrote:
WTF Blind Tasting (Roswell, GA): Dark opaque core, cloudy dull maroon rim; caraway, fennel, brown sugar, aged; palate confirms Italian nose, raisin, dark fruit, chocolate covered cherries, prune, tar, slight cedar; was on '03 Montepulciano- very dark, almost apassimento, and lower in acid.
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