Winemaker Notes
This wine is incredibly aromatic with notes of violet, plum, anise, black fruits, white pepper and dates.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Complex and structured, this is an incredibly impressive and memorable wine, made from coastal fruit. With a peppery beginning, it unveils a thickness of tangy red berry, tight-grained tannin and oak, with mineral-driven intrigue built around focused and fresh acidity.
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Wine & Spirits
Though the Red Car Estate is only 3.7 miles from the Pacific, it’s protected enough by the coastal ridges to ripen syrah. This 2018 delivers a spicy pink peppercorn bite, then lays out its cool saturation of purple, velvet-textured fruit and coastal forest scents. Fermented with ambient yeasts, it delivers layers of complexity softened by some cocoa-rich tannins. This should evolve well over the next several years.
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Wine Spectator
Structured and well-framed, with detailed dark plum, spiced cinnamon and savory forest floor accents, finishing with lively acidity and snappy tannins. Drink now.
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.”
On the far western edge of the larger Sonoma Coast appellation, the Fort Ross-Seaview AVA hugs right up against the Pacific coast. Vineyards, planted at rugged elevations between 920 to 1,800 feet, occupy only two percent of the total land in the AVA. Fort Ross-Seaview growers believe that the region boasts an ideal mix of sunshine, cool air and beneficial stress for producing high quality Chardonnay and Pinot noir.