Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2020 Syrah Les Titons is ripe and more brooding, with savory tones of olive, blackberry, plum, and ripe earth. Full-bodied and pure, it has a fantastic, gripping structure and is more grounded but weightless. Drink 2025-2040.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2020 Estate Syrah Les Titans has a medium ruby-purple color and gregarious aromas of cassis, menthol and bitter chocolate plus wafts of blueberry. The full-bodied palate has a dense core of fruit with a light, charry woodsmoke-like character, slightly chewy tannins and a gently rustic finish.
Rating: 93?
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.”
A vast appellation covering Sonoma County’s Pacific coastline, the Sonoma Coast AVA runs all the way from the Mendocino County border, south to the San Pablo Bay. The region can actually be divided into two sections—the actual coastal vineyards, marked by marine soils, cool temperatures and saline ocean breezes—and the warmer, drier vineyards further inland, which are still heavily influenced by the Pacific but not quite with same intensity.
Contained within the appellation are the much smaller Fort Ross-Seaview and Petaluma Gap AVAs.
The Sonoma Coast is highly regarded for elegant Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and, increasingly, cool-climate Syrah. The wines have high acidity, moderate alcohol, firm tannin, and balanced ripeness.