2009 Clos Saron Syrah “Heart of Stone”- USA, California, Sierra Foothills (12/15/2014)
From the first sip this is transformative wine. It’s not polished or glossy, it’s wine with an attitude. It has guts, and it has edges. It’s rustic, and yeah, probably has some amount of brett or other funky stuff. But with all that it has soul. It has character. It has life that surges from the depth of the glass. Yeah it has deep black fruit and olives and roasted meat and all those other things that go into Syrah tasting notes, but what really matters is the obvious life present in the wine. It commands attention because it is a living being. There’s no easy answers in a glass of this wine.
Honestly this Syrah asked for more than I had to give on a tired Monday night. Yet for all that I found joy in drinking each and every sip. I wanted to pay attention. I wanted to expend energy thinking about how this wine came to be. I wanted another glass, so that I could explore all the wine had to give.
That’s nice. For no good reason, I have never bought anything but the Pinot. I guess I am a moron for not buying the other wines when I love the PN and think it is one of the best American wines, barred none.
I have not had the Pinot. I have Syrah and Cinsault to experiment with, and will then go from there. My first bottle of Cinsault was way too young and grapey, so I am going to let them sit for a while. The Syrah is stunning now, though it has all the hallmarks of a wine that can age.
The Pinots are awesome. I was at his open house recently and some of the aged ones really twirled my propeller. They can be very pure and delightful young (and sometimes grumpy) yet with age they really transform.
Nice note on the Syrah. As you might suspect they age nicely as well.
I have a few each of the 06, 09 and 10 pinot but have never tried their pinot. The 09 is the controversial one that people think is spoiled, but Gideon says to trust it to make a comeback, so I’m keeping them cool and waiting. The 10 sounds good but young.
I just got the 06s in the last few weeks, so I’ll open one soon and post a TN.
Chris - I recently tried the 2006 and I thought it may have been a bad bottle because it had pretty significant VA but to my surprise it totally blew off after a short time in the glass. I had never seen anything like it.
I like some of them and some I’m not going to release. My main goal this year was to try lots of different vineyards and find out which ones produce naturally balanced wines that don’t need additions. I’ve narrowed down to four or five vineyards I’m going to get fruit from again. Thanks for asking.