TN: 2007 Rudius Syrah Emerald Pool Alder Springs Vineyard

WINE TALK
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  • 2007 Rudius Syrah Emerald Pool Alder Springs Vineyard - USA, California, North Coast, Mendocino County (6/2/2012)
    14.1% alcohol. Interesting wine. Lacking the lushness you see in many Syrahs, this one is lean and austere. Very cool climate in character. Excellent tannic and acidic backbone. Well balanced with a lingering aftertaste. Very savory. I enjoyed this, but it should continue to evolve and improve with a few of more years in the bottle. (92 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

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I’ve been sitting on these since release and been wringing hands over all the CT notes. Fu made a note recently and got me curious. After tasting it, I was reminded of something Joey Tensley said to the effect that syrahs in their youth are like gangly teenagers, awkward, sometimes even offensive, but full of promise. This wine is certainly a lesson in that regard. I’ve been reading over all the CT notes again and they all make sense in one way or another based on what I tasted, they just came much too early. This wasn’t even all that good for me on day one, but decent, and then today we have ourselves some classic syrah. Going to give my other bottles more rest. Say 3-4 years.

  • 2007 Rudius Syrah Emerald Pool Alder Springs Vineyard - USA, California, North Coast, Mendocino County (7/14/2013)
    Finally getting round to noting this somewhat controversial wine after a little confidence boost from Fu. First thing I did was look for flaws. Nope, sound. As Fu said, showing painfully young. Lots of perfume to the fresh berry fruit, pretty high toned at the start but mellowed out after only 10-20 minutes and no longer shrill. Plenty of white pepper to go along with the tart fruit and meaty tones, but this is really showing pretty light and has a boatload of drying tannin on the finish. Textbook so far and I had a hunch so corked 1/2 and fridged it 24 hours. Day two- The acidity has integrated and the perfumed fruit is now juicy blackberries, tart cherries, more juicy fruits(!), with a midpalate that has fleshed out brilliantly with additional weight and spice notes. Now showing classic green olive, still strong structure, with a re-emergence of the perfume on the finish. This is outstanding with still decent length although still drying, needs some munchies. Sweet redemption, so relieving! (93 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

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I came across these notes while trying to decide if I wanted to open my lone bottle tonight. Decided to go ahead and pair it with grilled lamb chops. I’m not much for tasting notes but it seems there is a lot of uncertainty around this wine so I thought I’d add a data point.

Decanted for 4+ hours. Right away this showed a very pretty and apparent nose of red berries. Nothing on the nose the concerned me. Upon drinking it offered many qualities I look for in syrah - lots of meat and pepper. But it also had a strong green olive streak - something I don’t enjoy - that somewhat overwhelmed the wine. The tannins were dry and pretty well integrated and the wine was nicely acidic and well balanced. It was a good pairing with the lamb but the green olive was a big turn off for me. I think if you like these qualities in your syrah you’ll find this in a good place right now with quite a bit of life and some room to improve ahead of it. But not really the wine for me.

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I have a couple of these left in the cellar. back in 2012 when this was originally posted, i felt the wine was a bit backwards. i retasted this a couple of weeks ago and must say there quite a bit more harmony to the wine and heading in the right direction. i remember seeing jeff’s notes on this wine years ago saying that this particular vintage was going to need quite a bit of time to flesh out.