Winemaker Notes
Blend: 96% Syrah and 4% Viognier
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Bradley Brown's Syrah magic shines again on this wine from a vineyard planted 2,300 feet over the eastside of the Salinas Valley. The wine is redolent on the nose, with black pepper, crushed violet and salted pork. It pulls a tannic punch to the mouth once sipped, with blackberry, leather, heavy-duty tar and persistent pepper. Decant for maximum flavor extraction.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Similarly styled, with a decidedly cool-climate feel, the 2011 Syrah Coastview Vineyard is a classy, medium-bodied Syrah that excels on its purity and elegance. Showing darker fruits, green olive, sappy herbs and tinges of mint, it has good, not great, concentration, integrated acidity and a clean finish. It’s another high-quality Syrah that will evolve nicely for a decade.
Marked by an unmistakable deep purple hue and savory aromatics, Syrah makes an intense, powerful and often age-worthy red. Native to the Northern Rhône, Syrah achieves its maximum potential in the steep village of Hermitage and plays an important component in the Red Rhône Blends of the south, adding color and structure to Grenache and Mourvèdre. Syrah is the most widely planted grape of Australia and is important in California and Washington. Sommelier Secret—Such a synergy these three create together, the Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre trio often takes on the shorthand term, “GSM.”
At elevations reaching well over 2,000 feet, the Mt. Harlan AVA in the Gabilan Range is an anomaly among its surrounding Central Coast appellations. Recognizing the splendor of the area and its ideal limestone-rich soils, Josh Jensen chose Mt. Harlan as the home of his Calera Wine Company in the 1970s. Awarded his own AVA in 1990, Calera is the only commercial winery in the appellation.