Hi WB’s!
Some of you were able to get the 3-pack of wine I sent out for Berserker Day and now I would like to put together a Virtual Tasting of one of the wines. I feel that the 2010 Buxom Syrah will be a good candidate for this and would like to invite everyone to join in. Some of you may have missed the WB Day deal and went ahead and purchased on-line or have even seen me in the cellar. You are invited also! If you don’t have the wine then I am sorry to say but you will have to wait until next year as this wine sold out a few weeks ago.
Let’s put the tasting together one week from today, April 21st. I will be on-line most of the day starting at 12:00pm until 5:00pm PST. I want everyone’s honest opinion as I am here to grow and learn just like most people on the boards. Don’t hold back! The Nicora Buxom is 95% Syrah & 5% Grenache from the La Vista vineyard here on the westside of Paso Robles. The La Vista vineyard is basically next door to Halter Ranch and I purchase fruit by the acre targeting 2-2.5 tons. Being 12 miles from the ocean this site has a cool climate aspect yet always gets ripe due to it being at 1950 ft elevation. The wine was bottle aged for 1 year prior to release.
Please decant at least 3 hours and serve it at around 62-64*F
94 Points Rhone Report
93 Points Wine Spectator
91 Points Tanzer
1 note on CT with 93-94pts given.
Feel free to ask questions at any time between now and next Sunday and thank you very much for this opportunity!
I’m in, will try to share a bottle with few other local palates, and look forward to sharing our thoughts. Thanks for organizing.
I am in as well. I am assuming 12 to 5 western time - looks like wine with lunch.
I’m hosting a Loire tasting at the same time 
Hi John and Ed!
Yes, Pacific Standard Time is when the show shall start and hopefully we can get a few more people on board. Spread the word and feel free to invite your friends to the party, everyone is welcome.
Ed: I don’t mind taking a back seat to your Loire Tasting but next time I hope to see you here! If this is a success maybe we can try it again with one of the other wines I sent out.
I’m afraid we won’t be turning to this until 3:00-ish (Pacific time) tomorrow, look forward to all the enticing previews that no doubt will await when logging on then.
JG
We are live!! Anyone had a chance to pour a glass yet?
Decanted 6 hours - My wife Emily and I tasting.
Emily - on the nose strong roasted coffee and dark cocoa powder. On the palate coffee with some dark fruit, a bit of heat and dark cocoa powder pronounced on the finish.
Myself - coffee and dark chocolate an underlying floral element. Coffee dominates the palate nice mouthfeel, a bit of heat, chinese five spice and dark fruit. Really nice mouthfeel well balaned and rounded. Continuously evolving through the midpalate to a nice substanial finish. Really outstanding stuff you can taste the coffee long after finishing a sip.
I am curious was there any whole clusters included?
Hi John & Emily,
What great tasting notes and I can see we have similar thoughts on the tasting notes. I did use a handful (15%) of whole clusters on this fermentation. I feel it adds a bit of spice and helps it fill out the mouthfeel from front to back.
Thanks for your input!
Late to the party but here we go:
Decanted at noon, having opened and left in the bottle earlier in the day. Served at about 65. Nose of coffee grounds and forest floor. Restrained on the palate, with vegetal notes of sweet tannins and a yeasty, and absolutely pleasant, spice and dark fruit. Definitely some heat on the finish. Will switch to a well aged Clos des Truffiers and revisit in a little while.
Thank you Jon for your thoughts and I hope the wine continues to open up a bit for you throughout the evening. These wines are made with little to no oxygen introduced during fermentation. I manually punch everything down by hand and incorporate no pump-over throughout the process. I feel this saves precious aromatics and does not per-maturely age the wine. With that said these wines do benefit greatly with a bit of air and served slightly chilled to help mask a bit of the alcohol.
It seems there is a distinct coffee flavor that we are all picking up in the glass and the general feeling is that everyone is enjoying it. I look forward to some more thoughts as the evening progresses. Day 2 is amazing also if you can save some but in my house that rarely happens. 
I am always striving to craft wines that are in balance and this sometimes means pushing the limit on when I pick. I am not a numbers person in the vineyard and chose to pick the fruit by how it tastes. Walking the vineyard 1-2 times a week and going down every few rows to taste what is on the vine. It truly does start in the vineyard and I couldn’t imagine it any other way. I do run some samples to see where the numbers are but at the end of the day the pick is called based off of my taste buds and preferred style of wine I am making. I feel this is much more enjoyable as opposed to stressing over Ph and Brix while I try to get precious sleep!
Cheers
Nick
Well, Nicolas, our Loire tasting was a smashing success…I really wish we could have tasted your wines instead. Next year if we can arrange shipping a little earlier I think we can do it.
More supple and generous now, with black cherries and a touch of blueberry. Still no mocha on this bottle, and plenty of heat. May have had it a bit too chilled at first. Really look forward to comparing it again in a year or so, and thanks much for the opportunity.
Ok, l’ll weigh in. We took the bottle to a favorite restaurant, gave tastes to several friends, our server and the bartender. I didn’t follow the decant recommendation, obviously. This was a pop and pour.
And the first thing that stuck out to me was the immediacy of the wine. I found it darkly aromatic and open from the start. For me, the strongest part of the wine was its mouthfeel. Creamy, mouth-coating, luscious. Dark fruit and a lingering finish. My better half gave it 2 smiley faces, a high mark indeed.
I had reservations about popping one so early, due to its scarcity, but this was eye-opening. Far better than I expected, and I’m a fan.
My last glass and last thoughts: the improving trajectory persisted throughout the evening, to where I now feel I have a beautifully integrated and balanced experience with a richness not previously present. I’ve enjoyed savoring the evolution, comparing it both to prior glasses as to the Languedoc I set beside it. Thank you for the encourgaement and support.