Wine & Spirits - February 2018 - 39

YEAR'S BEST US GRENACHE & SyRAH
Our blind panels tasted 376 new-release US grenache and syrah over the past 12 months. Our critics rated 45 as exceptional (90+)
and 9 as Best Buys. Joshua Greene reviews California wines (reviews by Luke Sykora from previous issues are noted with his initials);
Patrick J. Comiskey reviews New York and Washington. Find a complete list of wines tasted and all reviews at wineandspiritsmagazine.com.

C A L I FO RN I A

(accented by 30 percent whole bunches
included in the fermentation). The flavors
fatten toward meaty black olives and crunchy
pork belly while sleek acidity cinches that
richness and amplifies the spice through a
long finish. The wine continues to brighten
over the course of several days, its beauty
clarified with air. Suited to a few years of
cellaring, this will match roast lamb with
tapenade. (480 cases)
450077

GRENACHE

94 | Red Car
450323

91 | Folded Hills

$34

2015 Santa Ynez Valley Grant Grenache ^
This is brisk, lifted grenache, its bright,
strawberry-red flavor turning floral at the
end while the tannins are gripping, herbal
and refreshing. It's not a complex wine; it's
all about fruit, with no oak or overripeness
to mar its vibrant grenache character. (W&S
10/17; 527 cases) -L.S.

SYRAH
508409

95 | VGS Chateau Potelle

$80

2015 Mt. Veeder Napa Valley Syrah ^ This
grows at a south-facing vineyard at 1,600 feet
in elevation, where the syrah vines have been
dry farmed since 1970. It's free-run juice, fermented without stems and without added
yeasts, then aged in new French oak barriques for 16 months, though the wine seems
to have completely subsumed the oak into its
vinous flavors. This starts off on black peppercorn spice, scents of freshly ground meat
and roasted fine herbs. It's perfumed and
precisely structured, with muscular tannins
that gain detail and stature with air. Completely savory, this is a tense syrah with a long
life ahead. (W&S 12/17; 389 cases)
509329

94 | Presqu'ile

$40

2014 Santa Maria Valley Syrah ^ A lithe and
refreshing syrah, this grows at the Presqu'ile
Vineyard on sandy soils close to the coast,
where the Murphys planted 6.5 acres of
syrah in 2009. The cool site is already producing wines with precise structures, this
one focused on crushed green peppercorns

$50

2013 Bennett Valley Vivio Vineyard Syrah ^
Carroll Kemp works almost exclusively on
the extreme coastal side of the Sonoma
Coast, but he makes an exception with this
wine, harvesting syrah from a vineyard characterized by red volcanic soil and occasional
inland warmth tempered by the coastal
influence of the Petaluma Gap. The 2013 is
mouthwatering and vivid, with a Technicolor
brilliance, bringing together a cool, clean,
minty scent with floral high tones and tarry,
volcanic spice. It's also as tight as a wire-
while you could drink it now, it will probably be at its prime in five or six years. (W&S
10/17) -L.S.
507828

93 | Bien Nacido Vyds.

$60

2013 Santa Maria Valley Syrah ^ Trey
Fletcher makes this wine from a west-facing
hillside block planted in 1995 at California's
original cool-climate syrah site, cofermenting the syrah with a touch of viognier. It's a
wine with energy to burn, its supercharged
hibiscus and peppercorn scents becoming
more intense as it takes on air, melding with
the subtle richness of the wine's oak and its
umami-driven black-olive character. As it
expands toward warmer purple fruit, it maintains a firm, stony center. Cellar it for five
years or more. (W&S 10/17; 300 cases) -L.S.
509602

93 | Big Basin Vineyards

$55

2014 Santa Cruz Mountains Rattlesnake
Rock Syrah ^ When Bradley Brown set out
to plant syrah at his Santa Cruz Mountains
vineyard, he worked with John Alban, one of
the pioneers of Rhône varieties in California.
Alban provided the plant material for Rattlesnake Rock in 2000, a site Brown farms

organically. It grew a tart, woodsy, red-fruited
syrah in 2014, with a black-olive meatiness to
its tannins. This is the kind of refreshing red
that syrah can give, a bright partner to a tritip sandwich. (280 cases)
450228

93 | Qupé

$35

92 | Anthill Farms

$32

92 | Baker Lane

$50

92 | Big Basin Vineyards

$36

2014 Santa Maria Valley Bien Nacido Vineyard Syrah ^ Qupé winemaker Bob Lindquist
was instrumental in getting syrah planted at
Bien Nacido in the late 1980s. At the time, it
was the coolest syrah site in California. This
comes from the X-Block, that initial 1987
planting. While he selects the more structured fruit for his X-Block bottling, this Bien
Nacido normale rocks in 2014. The wine sees
less new oak than his Hillside Estate and XBlock syrahs, and the emphasis is on immediate fruit, which is meaty, violet-edged and
pleasantly plump. It's as pretty as it is rich,
with a velvet softness that's compelling.
(W&S 8/17; 92 cases) -L.S.
509385
2015 Sonoma Coast Peters Vineyard Syrah
(Best Buy) ^ The Anthill Farms team had been
buying pinot noir from Randy Peters's vineyard in the Petaluma Gap, and asked him
to plant a small block of syrah. There's now
just under an acre of syrah (interplanted with
viognier) at this cool site, which produced a
bright syrah with scents of black peppercorns, sage and green olives in 2015. Floral
and edgy as a young wine, this will grow into
something fine. (140 cases)
509498
2012 Sonoma Coast Estate Vineyard
Syrah ^ Greg Adams has made a cool, coastal
syrah in 2012 from Stephen Singer's organically farmed vineyard west of Sebastopol.
The fruit is sunny and tart, a brash, strawberry crush with gentle tannins and lasting
flavors that carry the clean scent of meadow
flowers and roses. There's a touch of sweetness to the fruit that places it with gamey
meats. (285 cases)
509604
2014 Santa Cruz Mountains Syrah (Best
Buy) ^ Blended from the fruit that Bradley
WINE & SPIRITS

FEBRUARY 2018

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - February 2018