Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The dense opaque purple-hued 2006 Syrah Rodger’s Creek Vineyard offers aromas of melted chocolate, ground pepper, exotic peach and lychee nuts (5% Viognier is co-fermented), and an earthy, blackberry, smoky mid-palate as well as finish. Enjoy this superb Syrah over the next decade.
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Wine Spectator
Firm and concentrated, with spicy, peppery beef jerky and berry flavors that are rich with a loamy earth base. Finishes with a full-bodied, complex mix of savory berry, herb, tar, licorice and tobacco. Drink now through 2017. 1,100 cases made.
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.