Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
What's becoming the flagship Syrah for the estate, the 2013 Syrah Originals Estate comes from the original planting of the estate from 1992. It offers more texture, depth, richness and elegance over the Estate Syrah and possesses beautiful notes of creme de cassis, barbecue smoke, crushed pepper and violets. Medium to full-bodied, ripe and textured, yet always pure and balanced, it will have a decade of longevity.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
The 2013 Stolpman Vineyards Original Syrah is serious. Showing just more than black fruit flavors, this wine offers additional complexities of rustic earthliness to the mix. Its structure is excellent making this a perfect choice with flavorful braised meat dishes or aged blue-veined cheeses. Drinks nicely now. (Tasted: October 19, 2016, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine Enthusiast
Smooth and sultry purple fruit and flower notes get more specific on the black pepper and blackberry elements in this bottling from the family's original blocks, planted in 1992 and 1993. The palate is both dynamic and straightforward, with nuanced blueberry-blackberry fruits decorated by peppery spice that dances across solid structure into the long finish.
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.”
Accounting for only ten percent of the greater Santa Ynez AVA, Ballard Canyon’s north-south orientation provides an ideal pattern of sunshine and martime fog for producing excellent Syrah. While Syrah is planted to half of the total AVA acreage, an additional third is dedicated to other Rhône varieties, red and white.