Winemaker Notes
2016 was truly a phenomenal vintage and it delivered everything we love in a great Syrah from the Annadel Gap. With gorgeous notes of blackberries, freeze-dried blueberries, smoked meat, and a core of cherry liqueur. As the 2016 Westwood Estate Syrah continues to open, a juicy wash of salted violets, black pepper, and blueberry cedar linger for a long and complex finish.
Professional Ratings
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Tasting Panel
Blackberries paint brushstrokes of violet on the plush nose and palate. Grainy, powdered tannins add more textural layers as chocolate fudge cake meets a core of cherry liqueur. As the wine continues to open, it sends out a juicy wash of salted violets, black pepper, blueberry, and cedar.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Medium to deep garnet-purple colored, the 2016 Syrah Annadel Gap Vineyard has evocative scents of warm black plums, wild blueberries, Sichuan pepper, smoked meats and violets. Full-bodied and packed with rich, ripe black fruit flavors, it has a firm backbone of rounded tannins and just enough freshness, culminating in a long peppery 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.”
Perhaps the most historically significant appellation in Sonoma County, the Sonoma Valley is home to both Buena Vista winery, California's oldest commercial winery, and Gundlach Bundschu winery, California's oldest family-run winery.
It is also one of the more geologically and climactically diverse districts. The valley includes and overlaps four distinct Sonoma County sub-appellations, including Carneros, Moon Mountain District, Sonoma Mountain and Bennett Valley. With mountains, benchlands, plains, abundant sunshine and the cooling effects of the nearby Pacific, this appellation can successfully produce a wide range of grape varieties. Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Gewürztraminer, and most notably, Zinfandel all thrive here. Ancient Zinfandel vines over 100 years old produce small crops of concentrated, spicy fruit, which in turn make some of the Valley's most unique wines. These can also be made as “field blends” (wines made from a mix of grape varieties grown in the same vineyard) along with Petite Sirah, Carignan and Alicante Bouschet.