TN: 2002 Arcadian Syrah Sleepy Hollow Vineyard

Popped this open last night to pair with a seared prime strip steak seasoned with a rub of salt, espresso grounds, ancho and chipotle chile powders. Just finishing the last glass here, now about ~26 hours later, and am wishing I had more of these. Great snag at the $20 or $25 I think these went for way back when. These Arcadian syrahs always strike me as a “pinot-lover’s syrah,” in that they tend to carry great acidity and seem to more feminine than many of their domestic counterparts from the same AVA’s…which is why these are some of the only domestic syrahs I still buy.

  • 2002 Arcadian Syrah Sleepy Hollow Vineyard - USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Lucia Highlands (4/24/2015)
    This showed some serious reductive stank at first, but that mostly went away after an hour or so to reveal a bouquet of tar, black cherries and violets. In the mouth there is more of the black cherries, some licorice and a bit of funky asphalt lingering in the background. The tannins are nicely polished and the package is kept fresh by a great streak of acidity. In short, this is a very tasty effort (particularly at the price of entry). If I had any more of these, I’d be excited about the upside potential of another year or three of development but, alas, this was my only remaining bottle.

Posted from CellarTracker

Awesome. I still have two of these somewhere. If we do the Dr. Dietz Arcadian night I’ll try to fine one.

Crazy but when I checked CT, my last not was from March 2006!

NOTE IS FROM MARCH 2006

2002 Arcadian Syrah Sleepy Hollow Vineyard
Wow! This is the first Sleepy Hollow syrah I have had but it sure as hell won’t be the last. This wine is amazing with about 2 hours airtime. Letting it rest for another year would probably be good but I will be cracking another bottle in the next few months for sure. On the nose and on the attack you get a nice splash of raspberry and then it flows into an amazingly balanced syrah. Often I tire of Cali syrahs after the first glass. Not that I don’t love that first glass but after that I am done…and probably buzzed. But this wine definitely leaves you wanting more. I think the alcohol was around 13.9%. Great job!

It’s too bad that Joe stopped making Syrah as he obviously had a deft hand at it. I’ve had a couple of them, but have not enjoyed them as much as the ‘usual suspects’ . . . Perhaps I’ll have to hit Joe up for a few more to check out :slight_smile:

Cheers!

Oh, no! This is news to me. Which was his last vintage of making Syrah?

News to me as well.

I think 08 or 09 but he should be the one to answer this, my friends . . .

Well, this will certainly clear some funds for French and S. African syrah, both of which I keep telling myself I need to buy more of, and both of which I continue to not buy more of. [head-bang.gif]

I sure wish you could “tag” folks on Berserkers.

J

Whaaat?..say it ain’t so!

I haven’t seen any mention of Arcadian wines past the 2008 vintage. I bought 2007’s in 2010. Have there been any wines since the 08’s?

There is one '09 chard and 3 '09 pinots and no syrah listed on the website.

2008 is, for the most part, the current release for Arcadian. At some point (2007 or 2008 vintage, I believe), Joe switched to some seriously extended barrel ageing for his Pinots, hence the apparent lag/oddity in release schedule.