Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Syrah Domaine Des Chirats comes from Rockpile. It is a collaboration with Yves Cuilleron from France’s Northern Rhône. This is made from what is believed to be Chapoutier suitcase clones. It is 100% Syrah aged in about 30% new French oak with about 30% whole clusters during the fermentation. Beautiful elegance and complexity with notes of blueberry, blackberry, floral notes, and great acid, this is a dead ringer for a Northern Hermitage or Côte-Rôtie. A gorgeous, dense purple color to the rim, sweet, juicy fruit, full body, but again, incredible freshness and vibrancy. This is a stunner and comes in at 15.2% natural alcohol, but seems light on its feet. Drink it over the next decade or more. P.S. As it sits in the glass, some bacon fat, lard and meaty notes also emerge.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2014 Syrah Rockpile Vineyard Domaine Des Chirats is more mature in the glass 11 years on, showing notes of leather and baked plum. The palate is ripe and structured, holding on nicely and retaining good freshness. For my taste, It’s in a fully mature place, but the palate is well-structured and offers notes of gravelly earth on the finish.
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Wine Spectator
An assertive Syrah, showing power and finesse, offering aromas of berry cobbler and toasty spice, with rich flavors of smoky black cherry and licorice. The tannins build slowly toward the finish. Drink now through 2025.
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.”
High elevation vineyards—800 to 2,100 feet—on well-drained soils of red and brown clay loam, gravel and large rock outcroppings produce low yields of intense, high-quality fruit. Surrounded by Northern Sonoma County and overlapping Dry Creek Valley in its northwest corner, the Rockpile AVA produces some of California most powerful Zinfandel, Petit Sirah, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon based wines.