Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Morlet's first Syrah, the 2006 Syrah Bouquet Garni, comes from a hillside vineyard in the Bennett Valley. The wine has dense peppery, blackberry fruit intermixed with some lard and truffle-like notes. The wine has terrific fruit intensity, full body, sweet tannin, and low acidity. Morlet told me this is essentially a warm vineyard in a relatively cool-climate zone. This is an impressive debut from one of the up-and-coming new superstars in California.
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Wine Spectator
There's lots of spice, red berry and black cherry fruit in this elegant, stylish offering, which ends with a nice mix of tar and earth. Dense and concentrated.
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.”
With boundaries overlapping the Sonoma Coast AVA and Sonoma Mountain AVA, Bennett Valley benefits from the cooling effects of the nearby Pacific Ocean just like its neighbors. Top grapes planted include Barbera, Pinot noir and Chardonnay, as well as Bordeaux and Rhone varieties.