Winemaker Notes
The aromas of the 2016 “IX Estate” Syrah exemplify the strikingly coastal feel of the growing season. The bouquet offers gorgeous wild notes of game meats, niçoise olives, and sea breeze alongside delicious flavors of black cherry and dark licorice. Hints of graphite and cracked pepper reveal themselves subtly. The viscous texture of this wine is tempered beautifully by a bright acidity with a markedly saline feel. Flavors explode on the palate ensuring this deliciously succulent wine will become even more enticing over time.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Lastly, the 2016 Syrah IX Estate reminds me of the otherworldly 2010 and is as profound as Syrah gets. Tasting like Guigal’s Côte Rôtie La Mouline (maybe on steroids) with its huge notes of bacon fat, spring flowers, blue fruits, barbecued meats, and incense, it’s full-bodied and massive yet also thrillingly pure, seamless, elegant, and weightless. It’s certainly approachable today yet is going to benefit from 2-4 years of bottle age and keep for two decades.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 IX Syrah Estate is very deep purple-black colored with gorgeous blackberry preserves, preserved plums, chargrill and licorice with tar, mandarin peel, Sichuan pepper and violets plus a compelling peach blossom note and a waft of wild sage. The palate is full-bodied with fantastic finesse, so plush and light on its feet and very spicy on the long, long finish.
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James Suckling
This is so beautiful now and touches every millimeter of your palate with dark berries, nutmeg, hazelnuts, light chocolate, meat and smoke. Wonderful depth and length to this. Drink or hold.
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Wine Spectator
Dynamic and multilayered, with polished blackberry and cured meat flavors, revealing mint hints in the background, building toward refined tannins. Drink now through 2027.
Undoubtedly proving its merit over and over, Napa Valley is a now a leading force in the world of prestigious red wine regions. Though Cabernet Sauvignon dominates Napa Valley, other red varieties certainly thrive here. Important but often overlooked include Merlot and other Bordeaux varieties well-regarded on their own as well as for their blending capacities. Very old vine Zinfandel represents an important historical stronghold for the region and Pinot noir is produced in the cooler southern parts, close to the San Pablo Bay.
Perfectly situated running north to south, the valley acts as a corridor, pulling cool, moist air up from the San Pablo Bay in the evenings during the hot days of the growing season, which leads to even and slow grape ripening. Furthermore the valley claims over 100 soil variations including layers of volcanic, gravel, sand and silt—a combination excellent for world-class red wine production.