WTN: Syrah Swan Song

[David M. Bueker]

• 2010 Enfield Wine Co. Syrah Haynes Vineyard - USA, California, Napa Valley, Coombsville (12/18/2023)
  This bottle has been standing up, at the ready for a year. I just needed to decide to pull the trigger. Tonight was the night, and it could have been any night between now and 2030. The wine is in a fantastic spot, still showing dark berry fruit, but also loaded with savory elements, from roasted meat to light soy to warm leather and mushroom. It’s a complete Syrah that also has tannic and acid structure to go for much longer. If only I had a few more bottles.

[Jenise]

Sounds absolutely lovely. I've not been buying wine as I keep saying, but look on longingly over things other people post about. Enfield wines are definitely in that group.

[David M. Bueker]

My buying days will be ending in just a few months.

[Jenise]

And there will always be exceptions. I picked up some Kobayashi syrah (the hardest wines to get in WA right now) the other day and some St. Innocent BdBs. But that's filling holes or nabbing once in a lifetime opportunities--indulgent, off-plan puchases that really aren't justifiable, I merely pretend they are. Buying is a hard habit to break.

[David M. Bueker]

And there will always be exceptions. I picked up some Kobayashi syrah (the hardest wines to get in WA right now) the other day and some St. Innocent BdBs. But that's filling holes or nabbing once in a lifetime opportunities--indulgent, off-plan puchases that really aren't justifiable, I merely pretend they are. Buying is a hard habit to break.

Hard? More like impossible. I am drastically cutting back but there is a line item in the retirement budget for monthly wine…mostly Champagne.

[Jenise]

When do you plan to retire?

My buying days will be ending in just a few months.

My wife keeps exhorting me to call an end to wine buying - we have enough to keep us going for 11 or 12 years at our normal consumption rate (not including wine lunches and such), but I am weak willed and when something interesting comes along I have little resistance (it doesn't help that my friends are like minded - not mentioning a lady whose name starts with a 'J'). The one thing that dissuades me from accumulating even more wine is the prospect of paying $150 or $200 for current vintages of wines I used to pay a relative pittance for. Good example - the 2019 Jaboulet La Chapelle costs $365 a bottle here (I used to pay maybe $50).