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And the usual nonsense from the bloody pulpit:
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EdStJ Syrah '86: The DurellVnyd was planted by Steve Hill (gotta like that
name!!) about 1980 for Kendall-Jackson. SteveEdmunds got his first batch
of grapes from Durell in '86, and it was the first EdStJ Syrah that really
blew me away, IIRC. Subsequent vintages, Steve did as a Durell vnyd designate
and should be credited for putting the vnyd on the map as one of Calif's
great Syrah vnyd. For this seminar, I wanted to show an example of how
well a Calif Syrah can age. But there's always a degree of risk involved
that it'll do just the opposite. Fortunately, this btl was superb and easily
made my case; the people were mightly impressed, as was I. When I went
back and tried the decanter at the end, it was starting to fade a lot.
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EdStJohn W-F Syrah '00: This wine is a text-book example of what winemakers
refer to as "fine- grained" tannins. It has plenty of tannins for the long
haul, but yet doesn't have that gritty/ astringent character in the finish
that some over-extracted Syrahs can show. Steve things this is one of the
best Syrahs he's made, IIRC. Not so sure I agree at this point in time,
but think it's probably about the best ElDorado Syrah I've yet had, though
a few of John MacCready's come close.
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EdStJ Syrahs: I've followed Steve's Syrahs from the very start, which goes
w/o saying. They are, to me, some of the best, yet most under-appreciated,
Syrahs produced in Calif. They have just enough funky character to give
them more of a Rhone character than any others from Calif, yet showing
plenty of blackberry/Syrah fruit and a peppery/pungent quality that few
others seem to attain in Calif. Sorta like the "Draper perfume" in Zin,
we need an "Edmunds ????" to describe that unique quality in Steve's reds.
Suggestions welcome.
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Melville vnyd Syrah: I served up this pair of wines to illustrate cold-climate
Syrah and the contrast in winemaking style coming from (essentially) the
same grapes. It was a very good example, I thought. The Pinot-making influence
of Steve Clifton showed on the Melville version, the Jaffurs showed much
more extraction, yet both had that spiciness that comes from those grapes/
terroir.
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Cold-climate Syrah: In my hand-outs for the seminar, I noted in Jancis
Robinson's comments "The trouble is that Syrah does not respond well to
too cool a climate". Ahhhh.... little does she know. The wines from plantings
on the western end of SantaYnezVlly, particularly this Melville, are very
impressive. The Que Syrah vnyd in the Sonoma Coast and the Bassetti Vnyd
in western PasoRobles near Cambria have produced some mightly impressive
Syrahs I must say. If you can get them to ripen (and even if you can't),
you can get some mightly impressive Syrah. Alas, there will be yrs like
this one when Ellis Bassetti lost nearly his entire crop. But, I think,
cold-climate Syrah is where it's at.
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WashingtonState Syrahs: These two were designed to show how great some
of the Wash State Syrahs can be, one with a bit of age on it. They wern't
the best of examples, I felt. Wisht I'd have had a Macrea example to show.
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Oz Shiraz: These two wines were designed to impress the crowd w/ my pronunciation
of Sheeraz and contrast Barossa/McLaren Shiraz w/ cold-climate Shiraz (Margaret
River). The Balmoral was pretty much where I thought it'd be. The Clonakilla.....
incredible/killer very NortherRhone-like, probably the best Oz Shiraz I've
had.
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The Novy and the Ojai Syrahs were designed to show what top-flight Syrah
producers in Calif, whose wines are available here in NM, are doing these
days. The folks seemed mightly impressed with them. Alas, there's not much
Novy coming to NM and the Ojai distributor (Southern) is totally clueless
as to how good the Ojais are and make virtually zero effort to market them,
as they also do w/ the EdStJ wines. So sad.
TomHill
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