Winemaker Notes
A dark royal purple/red color that leads you to aromas of savory black cherry, white flowers, charcoal, dark chocolate and bacon frying in the pan. The palate is a complete package from the lush front palate to the luxurious finish. Focused on brandied black cherries with savory notes, hints of lavender and mineral back bone, a true experience in terroir for sure.
Professional Ratings
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Connoisseurs' Guide
No less ripe and well-filled than any of its maker's outstanding Syrah's in 2016, this stunning effort vies for top honors in what is a marvelously rich bunch by dint of its fruity purity, its show-stopping depth and its altogether exemplary structure. It is very expressive stuff, to be sure, but it is marked by a certain youthful tightness that makes for easy predictions of an extraordinarily long and increasingly complex life ahead, and all serious collectors of top-shelf Syrahs would be well-advised to lay a few bottles away - and even more if at all possible - to enjoy well beyond its tenth birthday.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Similarly inky colored, the 2016 Syrah Rockpile Vineyard Haley offers a more bloody, meaty style in its blue fruits, crushed rocks, smoked game, pepper, and lavender scented aromas and flavors. It's rounded, full-bodied, beautifully pure, has sweet tannins, and this sense of sweet, earthy fruit that's incredibly compelling. It's another brilliant wine from this incredibly talented winemaker. This wine was fermented with 40% whole clusters and brought up in 80% new French oak.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Syrah Haley Rockpile Vineyard has an opaque purple-black color and bursts from the glass with intense violet and wildflower aromas, slowly overtaken by dark chocolate, toasted coconut, graphite and cast iron with a savory current of cured meats and savory herbs and a core of cassis and warm blue fruits. The full-bodied palate explodes with perfumed fruits supported by amazingly ripe, pixelated tannins and juicy freshness, finishing very long and layered. Unbelievable! This still needs plenty of time to show its best, so forget it for a while. 317 cases produced. Rating: 95+
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Wine Enthusiast
This is a thick, richly layered red with floral earthy undercurrents of exotic complexity. Full bodied with a huge tannic grip, it integrates the fruit and oak well, lasting in flavors of lavender candy.
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.