2015 Vintage Overview
The 2015 vintage was a wonderfully classic year for both Sonoma and Napa Valley wines. This was the last of the drought-like winters that marked the 2012-15 vintages. A dry, moderately warm winter followed by warm spring temperatures, led to an early bud break that set the stage for one of the earliest harvests on record. Crop levels were lower than average due to the dry conditions and a cool weather spell during flowering. The dry soils led to low vigor vines and small berries, creating very concentrated fruit. With lovely stress free summer weather, the stage was set for my earliest harvest yet. The resulting wines are dense, yet opulent with incredible intensity, power, and wild aromatics.
You will find below that I’ve included the usual descriptions of the vineyards, as well as updated tasting notes. One of the benefits of releasing my wines much later than my peers is that much of the critical hype and sensational marketing around each vintage is long gone. The wines really have time to come into focus and reveal the true character of the vintage. In essence, the wines begin to speak for themselves.
As my loyal customers know, I make the wines in a vin de garde style that benefits from aging in a cool cellar over several years. If you must open a bottle in its infancy, please give these wines a thoughtful decant before serving.
Thanks for you continued interest and support,
Christopher
Christopher Tynan Wines
2015 Judge Family Vineyard Syrah
The 2015 Judge Family Vineyard Syrah is sourced from the cold climate of the Bennett Valley of Sonoma. Meticulously farmed by Joe and Gail Judge, this rocky sloping vineyard planted on a mix of volcanic tufa, weathered stones, and clay, produces elegant and intensely aromatic Syrahs reminiscent of the great wines of Northern Rhone. Bennett Valley is a gently sloping elevated valley nestled between three mountain peaks in Sonoma County. Within the Sonoma Valley appellation and overlapping a portion of both Sonoma Mountain and the Sonoma Coast, the well-drained mountain benchland soils combine with early morning fog and cool marine breezes to create ideal conditions for growing exceptional cool-climate varietals. The wine was cave aged in a combination of 80% used and 20% new French oak barrels for 20 months and bottled unfined and unfiltered.
2015 Tasting note:
With its bouquet of fresh spring flowers and savory aromas of smoked meats, the 2015 Judge Family Syrah is a dead ringer for Cote Rotie and is certainly the best Syrah I have made to date. This elegant wine is resplendent with scents of violets, warm raspberries, and spiced aztec chocolate. Notes of Peking duck, black truffles, and cracked black pepper fill out the upper register of this gorgeous elixir. Dressed in silky texture, the expansive entry fills the palate with a rich unctuousness that melts and softly caresses, bringing out deeper flavors of bacon lardons, black tea, and wild game. The acidity is buoyantly suave, while the tannin is persistently ultra-fine.
100% Syrah – Clones 877, 174, Estrella River
pH 3.89 Alcohol 14.2% TA 5.6 g/L
115 Cases Produced
2015 (Meleagris gallopavo) Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon
Perched in the western hills, high above the town of St. Helena, the (Meleagris gallopavo) Vineyard has one of the best views of the Napa Valley one could ever imagine. Planted in 1970 to an unknown clone of Cabernet and St. George rootstock, these beautiful old dry farmed vines grow on a modest 1.5-acre sloping hillside bench 850 ft. above the valley below. The vineyard gets its name from a small family of indigenous turkey that come down each fall from the old oak forests surrounding the vines. They’ve learned over the decades that within this secret hillside vineyard’s walls, a feast of ripe and succulent fruit awaits each harvest. The old vines produce only 2 tons per acre in the most fruitful of years. The tiny precious crop is some of the most concentrated and complex hillside fruit I’ve ever tasted. This is a one-of-kind site that produces a distinct, aromatically complex, and age worthy wine that will last decades. Different sections of the vineyard were picked separately and fermented in stainless steel and small oak fermenters. The wine was cave aged in a combination of new and used French oak barrels for 20 months and bottled unfined and unfiltered.
2015 Tasting note:
The 2015 Meleagris was sculpted in a vintage where only the smallest of clusters and berries were produced by the hillside vines. That chiseled concentration is reflected in its tightly wound character. Youthful and primary, the nose on this fledgling beauty is all black fruit, crushed rock, and cool slate. There are pretty violets among the mineral aromas with black currant, lavender, and spice box notes unfurling out along the bouquet. The summer blackberry and melted licorice flavors pour over the palate in a well delineated fashion and persist long after each taste. This powerhouse tastes like it will last forever and get better and better with time.
100% Cabernet Sauvignon
pH 3.83 Alcohol 14.6% TA 5.8 g/L
94 Cases Produced
What the critics are saying:
Jeb Dunnuck 98+ pts
The 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Meleagris Gallopavo Vineyard comes from a site in the western hills above St. Helena and vines planted in the 1970s. Aged 20 months in a mix of new and neutral barrels, it just jumps from the glass with an exotic array of bloody blueberry and blackberry fruits, crushed smoke tobacco, menthol, cold fireplace, and damp earth/forest floor. This rich, opulent, exotic and singular beauty has a wealth of fruit and massive richness yet has the purity and approachability of the vintage front and center. It needs 7-8 years of bottle age and will have 3-4 decades of longevity. -Jeb Dunnuck Jan. 2019