TN: Alban Syrah Reva '94...(short/boring)

Cracked this Monday night:

  1. AlbanVnyd Syrah Reva AlbanEstate/EdnaVlly (13%) 1994: Very dark color w/ no bricking; slight reduced/sewer gas/pungent strong smokey/pungent/charred/oak bit roasted/tarry slight Rhonish strong ripe/blackberry/boysenberry/Syrah/licorice intense some complex nose; rather tart fairly hard/tannic strong pungent/charred/oak/tarry/licorice some blackberry/Syrah/licorice/herbal some complex flavor; rather long fairly tart quite hard/tannic/structured pungent/charred/burnt/oak some licorice/blackberry/Syrah/boysenberry/herbal rosemary/thyme/spicy/pungent finish; bit reduced and interesting nose but very hard/tannic on the palate.

2.Next Night: Very dark color w/ no bricking; reduced/sewer gas aroma gone; more roasted/tarry some bretty strong blackberry/black cherry/cola/Syrah/licorice/pungent bit Rhonish rather complex nose; slightly tart much softer/smoother strong blackberry/black cherry/cola/Syrah/licorice light charred/toasty/burnt/oak slight Rhonish/pungent/smokey rather attractive flavor; long smooth/softer strong blackberry/black cherry/Syrah/licorice/pungent/tarry slight Rhonish/roasted quite smooth complex finish; much more attractive on the palate the 2’nd night.


A wee BloodyPulpit:

  1. Over the last few months, I’ve been trying some of my older Albans. Usually, I’ll put them into a tasting; where I have only one shot at the wine, then retry it several hrs later. The wines start out when released as huge/massive/extracted Syrahs. The kind that you just know will develop into great wines with sufficient age. I guess I’m not finding that to be necessarily so.
    When I cracked this Mon night; the cork pretty much disintegrated, so had to pass it thru my filter funnel. But there was no signs of browning or bricking to indicate the wine had been comprised by the cork.
    On tasting Mon night; I rather liked the nose, thought it pretty much in the classic Alban style. But on the palate, the wines was fiercely tannic and hard…a wine that didn’t seem as if it’d ever come together. Pretty typical of the Albans I’d been trying.
    So I was quite surprised when I tried it Tues night. It had smoothed out, softened, and became much more attractive on the palate. Contrary to wines I usually leave out overnight (this was left in the decanter, but not covered or anything). It had lost the reductive stink, but pretty much had the same aromatic and flavor profile of the night before. It still was a pretty massive/primary Syrah annd I didn’t see much development of the secondary character, the bottle bouquet, the complexity you get in some mature Calif Syrahs.
    This was a bit at odds w/ Buzz’s recent tasting of this wine, where it was the highlight of the Alban Syrah tasting. Different btls/different wines/different palates/different venues…couldn’t expect them to be the same.
    So I’m a bit perplexed about how John’s Syrahs are evolving. His first Syrah was the '93. It was much lighter and dominated by toasty/charred oak and not that much fruit. With this '94 vintage, John hit it outta the park w/ huge/massive/extracted fruit; which has been pretty much his style from then on out. Though many have been rather more alcoholic than this anemic 13% (assuming that figure is correct).
    So…as I taste back thru the older ones, I’m not finding they are developing that complexity I like in an older/mature Syrah. Like the EdmundsStJohn/Boheme/Failla/Jaffurs/Ojai; particularly the Qupe. They seem to soften the tannins on the palate, but they seem to stay pretty much classic Alban Syrahs. Which, I might add, is not a bad thing. But I’ve yet to have an older Alban Syrah that absolutely knocked my socks off. Maybe they just need more time than I’ve given them. This '94…I see no reason it’ll not still be going strong in another 10 yrs. Maybe then, it’ll develop that nuanced complexity I’m searching for, and find in other Calif Syrahs. Maybe it’ll just drop more fruit and the alcoholic character come to the forefront. As usual, I’m clueless.
    Tom

Tom,

Good notes and pulpit.

Do you think this age-ing concern applies to other ripe/large-scale Syrah makers like SQN and Saxum? (Jaffurs is pretty ripe/large isn’t it? And you like the way it ages?) Thanks.

No such thing as great old wines, only great old bottles.

Thanks Tom, for this yes short and yes boring tn [boredom.gif] JJ.
I still hold a few of these and find them quite intellectual bottles.
Cheers
Del

Thanks for the write up Tom! But I got you on something…first Syrah was 1992 not 1993! [wink.gif] Our '94 was a super bottle…totally different than the others imo. When tasting such a wide range of vintages as we did…you can really see what the age had brought to the table in those older bottles…and when you get to the 2000-2003’s…THAT’S when the extraction got really crazy!

One thing can be said for sure though…is there is true terroir in his fruit…from the whites to the reds…they are distinctive, and like no other imo.

Uhhhhhhh…I don’t think I better go there, Brady. Even though I raised a teenage daughter by myself…there’s only so much abuse I can take!!! [snort.gif]

But…to try to answer your question. One of the attractions of these big/ripe/extracted/large-scale Syrahs (and Cabs and Pinots and Zins) when you taste them upon
release is that you just know, because of their extraction level (and because we’ve been told by Monktown attourneys) , that they’ll age into something magnificent once the tannins start to subside.
I guess I’ve become a bit more skeptical about that idea over the yrs. Sometimes, those big/massive/extracted Syrahs evolve into big/massive/extracted old Syrahs, w/o a lot of charm and complexity.
Sometimes the alcohol just comes to the forefront as the fruit subsides.
I think for the ageibility that I like (the wow factor, the complexity, the evolution…not just the getting older), both the acidity and the (elusive) balance are what’s important. That said, you can have
balance at high levels of extraction and alcohol. That I think is where the Jaffurs do well. They can be alcoholic in some yrs, but they still seem to show some balance as well.
Dang…I’m still trying to figure out this aging think. I’d better get on the stick, as I (prolly) have only anuther 30 yrs left to do it.
Tom

Well…Buzz…you could very well be right. Sometimes I forget things…sometimes I just make stuff up!!! [snort.gif]
I just remember tasting John’s first Syrah (and Viognier) up at taste of Vail around '94…when he was a totally unknown goof-ball…and being
pretty underwhelmed by it…tons of toasty/charred oak and not a lot of Syrah fruit. But the next vintage, he got it figured out and the Syrah had much more
fruit and extraction.
I believe you’re right that it was in the early '00’s that he started to get crazy with the ripeness and extraction because of the tiny yields.
Having walked John’s vnyd several times, there’s no denying it has distinct terroir, mostly from the soils. It’ll be interesting to watch the evolution of the
fruit from BobLindquist’s Sawyer-Lindquist vnyd right across the road…but dramatically different (as I recall) soils.
One of the reason’s I still hold out hope for John’s wines (though I was dropped from the mailing list around '07) is that, even though they often have
high alcohol levels, they still have a lot of underlying acidity. And that may be what makes the difference in the long run.
Tom

Thanks Tom.