We had Bill&Jane Easton over for dinner Sat night and had these three Syrahs:
1. ReneRostaing AC: Cote-Rotie (12.5%; MeBalP) Ampuis 1990: Med. somewhat bricking color; lovely smoked meats/espresso/roasted/pungent classic mature C-R very complex nose; lightly tart bit drying/astringent strong smokey/smoked meats/espresso/roasted little fruit quite complex/old C-R flavor w/ light drying/astringent tannins; long bit drying/astringent classic mature C-R/roasted/espresso/smoked meats finish w/ light astringent tannins; a lovely complex mature C-R but starting to dry out on the palate.
_______________
2. Christophe et Maryline Billon AC: Cote-Rotie LesElotins (13.5%) Ampuis 2003: Very dark color w/ no bricking; fairly strong blackberry/Syrah/ripe slight roasted/C-R bit complex nose; soft/fat strong Syrah/blackberry/ripe/big fruit very slight coffee/roasted flavor w/ light slightly bitey tannins; very long slight roasted/C-R strong primary/blackberry/Syrah/ripe fruit finish w/ light angular tannins; lots of primary Syrah fruit but not a lot of smokey/C-R character; a sound 4-square kind of Syrah.
_______________
3. SineQuaNon Queen of Spades SBC TW (100 measly cases; ??%) elaine & manfred KRANKL/ArroyoGrande 1994: very dark/near black color w/ no bricking in a trademark massive SQN btl; very strong blackberry/Syrah/boysenberry/ripe slight smokey/espresso rather toasty/Fr.oak slight peppery/spicy some complex Syrah nose; soft ripe/lush/mouthfilling structured very strong blackberry/Syrah/boysenberry/ripe some peppery/cracked black pepper bit smokey/C-R-like strong toasty/Fr.oak complex flavor w/ modest ripe/angular tannins; very long/lingering intense/primary blackberry/Syrah/ripe/boysenberry some toasty/oak slight C-R/cracked black pepper/smokey bit complex finish w/ modest hard/angular tannins; still very youthful & loads of primary Syrah fruit; probably not going anywhere I suspect and will unlikely ever have the complexity of the Rostaing; resembles some a 10yr old Jaffurs Thompson Syrah; an impressive wine because of the intensity of primary fruit after 23 yrs of age.
___________________________
A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. The Billon C-R was a wine Connie brought. She had purchased it a Marche au Vin and arranged for it to be shipped over. LesElotins is their blended C-R from their various parcels in C-R. This is a producer w/ whom I've had no experience.
_______________
2. SQN QoS: This was the inaugural vintage of SQN. So a piece of history I thought worth sharing. Sells for about $1700 on the current market. Manfred made his first wines at AdamTolmach's OjaiVnyd, which is where I discovered them. I saw some barrels marked w/ visiting w/ Adam that were chalked w/ "SQN". When I asked Adam about them, he gave me this $hit-eating grin and responded "Ohhh..that's Manfred Krankl...you should meet him...somebody to watch". The following yr, I was making a visit w/ JohnAlban and Manfred was there, working on his wine that he'd brought up from Ojai. John introduced us & that's was when I got on the SQN mailing list. The subsequent yr, I made an appointment for a visit w/ Manfred, at his wnry out behind this junkyard on the outskirts of Ventura. We tasted a few things but wound up talking more about his LaBrea bread.
Though SQN (like Alban) is not a style of Syrah that particularly appeals to me anymore, this was a wine I wound up liking quite a lot. It shows no signs of drying out are falling apart. Probably best to drink up now as I doubt it'll ever develop a whole lot of complexity like a good C-R or a Qupe or EdStJohn.
Tom