Edmunds St. John Tasting (1987-2003)

I hosted some of the usual suspects for dinner last night and a tasting of Edmunds St. John wines.
We had a nice lineup.
We had a couple of problematic bottles that were flawed in some way.
However, the wines that were on, were truly sublime!
Don sent me an email with some great notes, hopefully he’ll post them here.
I’ll jot down basic thoughts from my scratch notes.
Bravo Steve Edmunds!

1987 Les Cotes Sauvages–Stunning, really, for what it is. Takes some time to get going, but really opens to be a treat. Smoky and dank nose. Rhone-ish character to the palate. Just enough backbone. Don called it Burgundian in intensity. Perhaps my WOTN. Bowden carried this back from Big D. Thanks P-Rob!
1993 Syrah–Just awesome. Intense, with fresh acidity and concentrated fruit. Barnyardish nose that is so appealing. Really in a fine place and my other WOTN. Yes please.
Stunning old-school styled Cali Syrah.
1995 Syrah–Not right. Unfortunate, but this was rotted almost. Burnt.
1995 Syrah Durell Viineyard–Concentrated. Tight. Not the best showing for this, but it’s just a matter of time. There’s a lot here and it’s going to play well one day.

2000 Syrah Wylie-Fenaughty–Not quite right. Slightly sherried. Bummer as this was my light bulb ESJ wine a few years back and I’ve had some great runs with this one.
2003 Syrah Wylie-Fenaughty–Unctuous and ripe. Lots of dark fruit. Very primary. Needs time. Built for the long haul. A bigger style for Steve’s WF, but time will tell.

2001 Rocks and Gravel–Fresh and vibrant. A bounce to the acidity. Ripe fruit. Just right tasty.
2001 Syrah–Nicely balanced. A bit less ripe to me. Shows great texture on the palate. Again. Tasty as hell.
2001 Syrah Basetti Vineyard–Young. Powerful. Northern Rhone. Primary dark fruit. So poised for extended time in the cellar. A real triumph and good wine to close on.

We also stated with a nice mag of 1993 Carillon Puligny Les Perrieres and 1990 Potel (Ampeau) Les Combottes from Rowdy…ooh that Carillon was good!

Thanks for the invite Dennis.
I love those older ESJ’s.
Here are my notes.
Some great food too Dennis especially the new potatoes roasted in duck fat. YUMMY!


1987 La Cote Sauvage

Incredible nose. Sexy red fruits. “Very Rayas-like” but not having that intensity. The palate started lean but picked up significant volume over one hour. After one hour, the nose was screaming and the palate was wonderful. Almost like a Burgundy in intensity. Amazing wine.
A testament to the longevity of Steve’s wines.


Flight One

1993 Syrah
Wow! A nose of heaven. Darker fruits laced in very delicate earth. Unique in that it doesn’t scream “Old World” or " New World" . It just screams “Other World”. It wafts into your sinuses and hangs out. The palate is medium concentrated and so satisfying. This has a refreshing finish. I was blown away completely. This only lacks the complexity of the 1993 Durell on the palate but not the intensity. A home run.


1995 Syrah (375 x 2)

We sampled two 375’s. Both were flawed. A nose of rotted cabbage. Dark burnt caramel. Oxidative palate. Don’t know what was really wrong here but we could not taste either really.

1995 Durell

A baby. Almost primary fruit syrah nose here. Focused blueberries with hints of earthiness. This took some coaxing. More concentration on the palate here. Really incredible complexity on the finish but this one is still not unwinding completely. Deep freeze bound for Rowdy and Dennis.


Flight Two

2000 Wylie-Fenaughty
A nose that showed some oxidation and also stripped fruit. ???

2003 Wylie-Fenaughty

Ripe. This one has a touch of volatility on the nose that actually helps the fruit come out. Beautiful dark fruit. Primary. The palate is still somewhat monolithic. Just needs a bunch of time.


Flight Three (highly successful vintage here)

2001 Rocks and Gravel

A reticent nose. Dark fruit. Primary. The palate shows AMAZING balance and freshness. Wow. This is so refreshing on the finish with a rush of minerality at the end. Early in life and very special.

2001 Syrah

A gorgeous nose. Primary darker syrah. Less concentration here. Excellent balance. This is satisfying and has a good finish. This doesn’t show the intensity of the other two nor the freshness to me. Still darn good!

2001 Bassetti

A fantastic nose. This screams “Northern Rhone” to me. Hermitage-like. Some olives too. Integrated and sexy. The palate is still needing some time to unwind. Fabulous complexity. This just needs deep freeze time.

Sounds like a great time. I opened a bottle of the '93 Syrah a few weeks ago and was blown away. It’s an amazing wine.

Nice tasting Dennis. I’d love to have tried a number of them side by side. Have one or two from 1997 and 1995 to drink and that’s it. We just went thru them as we got them. I wish there were more wines like his in CA.

How many of those were from Steve’s recent library release? Shame to hear about the 00 Wylie-F - have a bottle of that, may have to open sooner rather than later.

That 01 Rocks and Gravel sounds great - after reading some really positive notes on that, I’m glad to be sitting on a bunch right now.

Thanks guys.
Thanks for getting those great notes up Don.

Salil- The recent library wines were the '93, '95, and 2001 Bassetti (from Don’s buy) and the 1995 Durell (mine)
The other bottles, sans the '87, were from my cellar and sourced from various retailers over the past 5 years or so…

I was fortunate enough to be there as well - great notes above, the 87 Sauvage and 93 Syrah were indeed duking it out for WOTN. The 87 led with the nose, but the 93 came through in the finish. Close call. And, yeah, that 1993 Carillon Puligny Les Perrieres was rockin too.

Nothing like hooking us up with the wotn. That’s bringing it. Thanks again.

Some wines you would have enjoyed here, Dirty.
For sure.

awesome notes, thanks for these. really surprised the 95 was so young. only have 1 left and was thinking of opening soon.

Nice tasting! I picked up my library wines, including 2 btls of '00 W-F. Sure hope I have better results with mine!

Any of you purchase and taste '97 Fenaughty Syrah? I also got 2 of those. When I saw Steve yesterday, he didn’t have any idea as to how it might be. He couldn’t recall the last time he tried it.

I opened one in December…with a two hour decant it showed much better than this bottle Fri night which was pop and pour. FWIW.

Larry- That 2000 WF is a great wine when on.
I don’t think anyone in our crowd got the '97.
Be interested to see how that is showing.

Had the '01 Rocks and Gravel this evening. WOW!

(The 07 Old Black Magic wasn’t bad either…)