Back in the '80's when JimClendenen started producing Pinot from BN and BobLindquist Syrah from BN, these were the flagship wines coming out of SantaBarbaraCnty. Other producers also produced Pinots from these grapes that were pretty good. The planting of the Hillside block of Syrah ratcheted up the notch a bit on Syrah for Qupe/Ojai/Jaffurs.
As other vnyds have come online in SBCnty since the '90's, it seems to my palate that the BN vnyd wines no longer represent the flagship wines coming out of SBCnty. We tasted thru all the Jaffurs SingleVnyd Syrahs '04 & '05 last night and I thought the BN Syrahs were clearly the lesser than the others. The BN wines from my favorite producers continue to be good/tasty wines, with that sorta plummy/black cherry character BN seems to display mostly. But they no longer seem to me the primo wines.
Anybody else been making that observation??
Tom (stirring the pot as I wait for tonight's snowstorm to hit)