Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Slightly better is the 2006 Syrah Shanel Vineyard. It includes 3% Viognier, but it is less noticeable at this stage. An opaque purple color is followed by enormous quantities of blackberries intermixed with tapenade, acacia flowers, and truffles. Full-bodied, meaty, and dense, it cuts an even broader mouthfeel than its sibling. It, too, can be drunk over the next decade.
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Wine Spectator
There's lots of spices, white and black pepper, but also plenty of grapey dark berry, red licorice, herb, mineral and cedar notes. Very complex, full-blown and well-balanced, becoming even more complex on the finish, where the flavors unfold to reveal subtle nuances. Drink now through 2015. 1,250 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.