WTN: '96 ESJ Syrah

David is visiting, he and his mom were cooking a family favorite, beef jantaboon. I grilled some shisitos and opened the 1996 Edmunds St. John Syrah (California), didn't want Dave to miss Berkeley too much. Not sure vineyard source for this. Resolved tannin, black plum fruit overlaid with smoke and meat notes. Gets spicy. Holds up well for couple hours, nice sweet finish if not really long. Fun, in a good place. B++

Let's see: Durell (5 different blocks), Fenaughty (3 or 4 different blocks). Think that's it. A bit of Grenache, from both Pallini, in Ukiah, and a touch of Grenache from Fenaughty. (Grenache portion roughly 3% of total volume.). The Syrah at Durell that was under contract to Kendall-Jackson they bailed on, and I opted to take a run at it. Since the wine's still offering some pleasure in the glass, I guess I got no complaints.

[David M. Bueker]

Nice!

I didn't get the '96 in either of my library purchases, and now wish I had. Oh well. I'll "suffer" with the '95 and '01.