I opened a 2006 Rhys Alesia Syrah Fairview Ranch on NYE, and though I didn’t take a detailed note, described it as “bright brambly fruit but not too sweet with a little mint and pepper, it is evolving very slowly.”
Not dissimilar from the 2005 version in June 2015: Still very youthful, with brambly fruit and black olives, with substantial but ripe tannin. Very nice.
Two syrahs from the 1990s that have held up very well are the 1997 Ojai Roll Ranch and 1995 McDowell Valley Vineyards Estate.
At the risk of hijacking the thread, why wouldn’t CA Syrah age? Alcohol level? They certainly have the fruit and the extraction to develop.
Thoughts?
Please understand that by and large, syrah production in California is still in it’s toddler years. Prior to 1990 or so, there were less than ten California producers of syrah-among them Jade Mountain, Eberle, Qupe, Truchard, and perhaps Ojai. Take a look at this article from 2007; Home | Tablas Creek I posted in the “Unpopular Wine Opinion” thread and in Tom Hill’s “Three Novy Syrahs 00” thread my opinion that California syrah does not age well. I specified that my definition of “aging well” involves positive evolution with development of secondary and tertiary flavors. FWIW, there is nothing objectionable with quaternary and quinary flavors but we wine blokes seem to have accepted “secondary and tertiary” as sufficient. I further defined these desirable flavors as including but not limited to earthy, leafy, cigar-box, sweet compost, wet stone, brambly, and tobacco. I am happy to cite none other than Robert Parker as the progenitor of this definition of “aging ability”. Merely continuing to drink well does not equal good aging ability under this definition. Tom Hill and I are friends and I enjoy taking him to task once in a while. When I challenged him to come up with producers who have established a track record of producing syrahs that have evolved well under this definition-other than Edmunds St. John which I admitted was an exception-Tom came up with one other producer, Bob Lindquist of Qupe. Tom admitted that some big names including Alban and SQN do not meet this definition of aging ability and just seem to hang on for a long time much as they had when released. Tom admitted (and by the way, this is my take-Tom might very well disagree that he admitted to anything!) that the vast majority of Calif syrah producers make syrahs that don’t hang on as they were when released but instead lose their fruit and become hollow in the mid-palate with development of tangy metallic flavors. My thought is that for whatever reason, this is one of those “the Emperor has no clothes” situations that has gone on too long and it is time to accept reality. I believe that in ten or twenty years time, barring some unforeseeable and drastic change of climate, soil, and wine making, it will be commonly accepted that California syrah does not evolve and age well under this definition-not as well as cabernet, merlot, cabernet franc, zinfandel, grenache, and mouvedre. If I am wrong, I am wrong. I will be happy if I am proven wrong. I would love to one day purchase reasonably priced California syrahs that evolve positively over time.
There are Syrah plantings in very different places now than 10 or more years ago Mitch. I think we are going to be talking about different types of wines with different aging curves. Clearly the jury is still out, but Syrahs from places such as Griffin’s Lair and Armagh seem to be cut from very different cloth than the Syrahs of the prior 20+ years.
Well…as my Dad used to tell me…“never get into a battle of wits w/ an unarmed man”!!! We’ll leave it to others which one of us is “armed”.
I can’t believe you cite Calif Merlot as a good ager. But, then, I don’t drink a whole lot of them. As for Zinfandel, I find it a pretty erratic ager. The folklore is that Zin
does not age well. But both you & I know that’s not true. But I would contend that Syrah is a better ager, in general, than Zin.
As we develop more of a track record w/ these cold-climate Syrah vnyds (QueSyrah, PetalumaGap, Carneros, Extreme Sonoma Coast, Cambria, SantaRitaHills), I think
we’ll find a lot more of them are good agers, be it by Parker’s definition, or any other definition.
Tom
Great minds think alike.
Been quite a while since I posted on an older Dehlinger Syrah, surprised to have my name called. Geez, I sit in the back of the class so the teacher won’t see me and call on me!
Those earlier Dehlinger Syrahs (94, 95, 96, 97 are the ones I have more experience with) have tended to age wonderfully. I’ve had bottles of 94 and 96 in the past few years that were just inching along their aging curve, with another decade or two to go, easily (and showing the kind of positive development we look for). I do think that more recent vintages have become somewhat riper (and maybe use a little more oak? I’d be interested to hear from Fred Scherrer what the oak was in those early 90s wines). It will be interesting to see if Dehlinger Syrahs from the 2000s develop in the same way as their counterparts from the 90s. There’s a parallel discussion about aging going on in Tom’s thread TN: Three Novy Syrahs '00...(short/boring) - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers. Since this one seems to be more active, and Mitch is already over here, maybe I’ll repost something I wrote in that thread:
But to respond to your more general point, I’m not sure it’s possible to generalize to the point of saying that Syrah is the least interesting California variety when it comes to aging. Frankly, I think it’s not a variety thing, it’s a ripeness and winemaking thing. Whatever the variety, IMO, making wine from grapes that are much riper than they need to be for that variety is going to put a damper on long term development. A very ripe Alban (for example) may very well hold up nicely for many years if stored well, but it’s never going to develop into a 30 year old Chave. For me, this isn’t unique to Syrah, it’s true for any variety - Cabernet, Merlot, Chardonnay, etc. And it’s not unique to California. Plenty of French wines are made from overripe grapes in regions and vintages that aren’t optimum, and those see the same fate.
Maybe the reason you see California Syrah in this light is that it’s a relative newcomer in terms of plantings around the state; and, because that has coincided with the Parker impact via high scores for many of the riper wines, there has been a subtle pressure on growers to plant in regions that aren’t optimum for the grape. But there are now enough vineyards in more optimal areas that I believe are proving they can make outstanding Syrahs that do age and develop as those from N. Rhone have demonstrated they can.
Strongly coincidental, but I’ll be participating in a tasting that includes several older Dehlinger Syrahs later this week (93, 94, 95), along with a few other Syrahs from California and beyond. Will report back after that tasting.
Yep.
1992 ESJ, Durrell Vineyard is still on the way up.
Best, Jim
Although it, like many of the ESJ Durrell Syrahs, is a bottle by bottle phenomenon. Comes with being a 24+ year old wine, regardless of variety.
Next month, I’ll be getting together with Steve and other folks for a Durell dinner. Don’t know if we’ll do all these, but our options are '93-95 and '97. I’m bringing '94 so I know that will be included.
Add Halcón to the list of potential long lasters. I have a few mags of Paul’s and they’re sleeping in the back of the closet.
I have had varying experiences with the '95 ESJ Durrell over the last 2 years, but when it’s on…
I have a magnum of '95, but that’s not going anywhere (that is, the bottle ain’t getting opened) right now.
Thanks for the thoughtful response.
I believe this may be true, but I would not write off other Vineyards that might be a bit warmer as well. I believe it’s taken a while for wine makers to realize that this variety is different than others and needs to be treated differently from Vineyard to bottle.
When the variety exploded, if we can even use that term, a decade or so ago, the style the most wine makers made this variety into was a larger, more structured one, usually with higher ABVS but most of the time lacking acid.
For many producers, but not all, that was then and this is now. ‘Balance’ has swung in favor of slightly lower alcohol levels and higher acid levels for this variety, and you are finding fewer ‘cocktail wines’, though they still do exist.
In my neck of the woods, Vineyards that would not be considered ‘cool climate’ by most, including Larner, White Hawk and Thompson are correct time using to provide winemakers with grapes capable of producing wines that will age for decades. Of course, this depends upon when individual winemakers choose to pick and what they do with the grapes once off the vine 
Cheers.
While I’m not convinced about the statements in your last few sentences about the long-term prospects for California Syrah, I agree that ESJ and Qupé are among the very few that age in the manner you mentioned. I’ve been fortunate enough to be invited to a couple of ESJ / Qupé dinners that Tom Hill organized the past couple of years where Steve and Bob pulled out some wonderful older bottlings for us.
I came home from work just now on a rainy dismal day and decided to open a '00 Wylie-Fenaughty by ESJ.
The cork crumbled to pieces immediately. My best ah-so only butchered it. I had to decant.
Beautiful ruby, no signs of visible decline.
I am mindful of my bias having taken a position about ESJ but through the somewhat volatile etoh nose there are elements of sage, earth, and tobacco that I associate with secondary development. A chicken is roasting. I will add on later.
I still have a bottle of the Phelps 1976 Syrah. Haven’t decided what to do with it.
Well, Eric…don’t get your hopes up. That was the 3’rd Syrah made by WalterShug. Made like his Pinot and way too much Fr.oak.
I predict it’ll be pretty much dead&gone. But prove me wrong if you can. Let us know.
Tom
It’s funny, but if I was going to discuss aging ESJ Syrah, the '00 vintage is about the last one I would use to do it.
Well, like the cork and the sideways photo, this bottle proved to be off. The VA only got worse with time, banana esthers mixed with lavendar. The underlying fruit and flavors are there, and IMO it could have been a nice bottle but for the VA.