by TomHill » Fri May 25, 2018 10:44 am
At Larry's BBB CdP tasting last night ('07, '01, '95), he threw in two Calif Syrahs to save the tasting:
1. EdmundsStJohn Syrah BassettiVnyd/SLOCnty (13.7%) 2001: Very dark color w/ no obvious bricking; very strong cracked black pepper/cold-climate Syrah intense blackberry/boysenberry/Syrah very complex beautiful nose; rather tart very slight brett/earthy very cracked black pepper/c-c Syrah intense blackberry/Syrah/boysenberry/very spicy w/ light bit hard tannins; very long/lingering intense cracked black pepper/c-c Syrah blackberry/Syrah/spicy/boysenberry very slight brett quite complex finish w/ light crunchy tannins; a beautiful classic c-c Syrah that's fully mature and may not outlive the tannins.
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2. Neyers Syrah Cuvee d'Honneur HudsonVnyd/Carneros/NapaVlly (14.8%) 2002: Very dark color w/ no bricking; very strong black olive tapenade rather c-c Syrah/black pepper strong w-c/peppery very strong blackberry/Syrah bit smokey/oak beautiful complex nose; somewhat tart very strong black olive tapenade/classic Carneros Syrah rather w-c/peppery/quite Rhonish strong blackberry/Syrah/boysenberry light toasty/oak fairly smooth very complex finish w/ modest smooth tannins; very long/lingering quite Rhonish/whole-cluster/peppery strong black olive tapenade/Carneros Syrah blackberry/spicy/Syrah balanced/smooth complex finish w/ light gentle tannins; a beautiful very Rhonish classic Carneros/c-c Syrah that's probably as good as it's ever gonna be.
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. Two really spectacular c-c Syrahs at pretty much their peaks. Liked the Neyers slightly better because of its Rhonish character but Steve's Bassetti is certainly no slouch.
The Neyers was made back in the days of EhrenJordan. It's always been one of Calif's great Syrahs. Alas, they no longer make a HudsonVnyd Syrah nor the Cuvee d'Honneur. Don't know if the Hudson grapes became to expensive for the bottom-line folks at TrincheroFamily or not. Under TadBorchardt, the Neyers wines are still outstanding but, w/ no Syrah, just not of much interest to me any longer.
Tom