1995 Edmunds St. John Syrah- USA, California (8/4/2019)
Very heavy sediment required a careful decant, even so leaving the wine a touch cloudy. First sip was all road tar, roasted meat and underbrush. An hour later, the wine cleared up, and a hint of blackberry fruit was added to the mix, alongside some worn leather. It never got into bacon fat territory, but was still classic, aged Syrah. Medium body, balancing acidic structure, and a long, meaty finish kept me going back sip after sip until it was gone.
I don’t normally say this with ESJ wines, but I think this bottling is at the drink up stage. It’s lovely now, but does not have the extra depth for further aging. I have one more which I will open within the next year.
One wine-related thing I would like to go back 25 years and tell my younger self: Buy more ESJ wines.
Thanks, David. Sounds like typical ESJ goodness to me. Approaching 25 years old is a good run.
Kudos to Steve.
Yep. That was a great run of wines. I can still vividly recall the dinner/tasting event at John Gilman’s place where a bunch of us assembled 15+ ESJ wines. The Durells were stunning. It has to be said that the W-F Syrahs were amazing as well, just cut from a slightly different cloth.