Boy, this is good. Reminds me of the best Wind Gap from Pax, savory and full of aromatics and old world character. I just finished the last sip of this and wish I would have let up on the pours last night so I had more leftover tonight. I know that the Skyline syrah has come to an end but if Kevin and his team can keep making Horseshoe syrah like this, man, this is a style I really look for in my syrah these days and I will be thrilled. If my buying strategy for this year wasn’t a key goal, I’d bid on the rest of the bottle over on Wine Bid but I’ll leave those for someone else! This is just excellent syrah and for those who may be in the old world camp, find some or pull one from your cellar. Great stuff and I’ve got one left to enjoy in the next few years. Thanks for reading.
-
2009 Rhys Syrah Horseshoe Vineyard - USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains (4/7/2014)
3 years between bottles, which is a long stretch for me. I actually opened this y/day and immediately experienced the aromatics of this bottling. Wow, takes me to Rhone with all the spice and black pepper. It was tighter last night and has some of that same tension today, although most of it has lessened up to allow the cherry and plum to show through. There is black olive, sweet leather, acid and savory here, and all in, you could fool me for something out of Cornas here (Allemand?). At 12.8% alcohol, this is pleasing and absent any black or even blue fruit, this is more about an older world style that is really exciting to taste and enjoy. As to a drink window, there is residual structure here that the wine can wait another 2 years and ought to last another 7 more, so a total of 10 years, although drinking this tonight at room temp (low 70s), this wine is plenty accessible to me. Terrific!
Posted from CellarTracker