Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The brilliant 2008 Hommage a Nos Pairs is a blend of 96% Syrah and 4% Grenache from the Russell Family Vineyard on the west side of Highway 101, planted on limestone soils. Remarkably, it was aged in 100% new French oak for 18 months, but it doesn’t show much evidence of vanilla or toast. A beautiful blue/purple with oodles of black raspberries and floral notes intermixed with some boysenberry and wild mountain berries, this superb wine is full-bodied but elegant, with tremendous purity and richness.
Rating: 94+ -
Wine Spectator
Rustic and chewy, with a sweet-and-sour character, but also a sense of charm and focus, offering dense wild berry and blackberry fruit, with mineral, sage and cedary notes that are full-blown and powerful, yet focused and persistent, returning to the chewy tannins on the finish. Syrah and Grenache. Drink now through 2020.
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.”
Paso Robles has made a name for itself as a source of supple, powerful, fruit-driven Central Coast wines. But with eleven smaller sub-AVAs, there is actually quite a bit of diversity to be found in this inland portion of California’s Central Coast.
Just east over the Santa Lucia Mountains from the chilly Pacific Ocean, lie the coolest in the region: Adelaida, Templeton Gap and (Paso Robles) Willow Creek Districts, as well as York Mountain AVA and Santa Margarita Ranch. These all experience more ocean fog, wind and precipitation compared to the rest of the Paso sub-appellations. The San Miguel, (Paso Robles) Estrella, (Paso Robles) Geneso, (Paso Robles) Highlands, El Pomar and Creston Districts, along with San Juan Creek, are the hotter, more western appellations of the greater Paso Robles AVA.
This is mostly red wine country, with Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel standing out as the star performers. Other popular varieties include Merlot, Petite Sirah, Petit Verdot, Syrah, Grenache and Rhône blends, both red and white. There is a fairly uniform tendency here towards wines that are unapologetically bold and opulently fruit-driven, albeit with a surprising amount of acidity thanks to the region’s chilly nighttime temperatures.