TNs: Non-Sequitur syrah blind tasting

WINE TALK
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the san diego hardcore tasters gathered at steve williams’ house to try his 2007 custom syrah, Non-Sequitur, along with a half-dozen other regional 07 CA syrahs blind. not a bad wine in the bunch…

bag #1 – earth nose with floral and tartness. wonderful texture with graphite and blue and black fruits. big flavors and full body all in balance. 2007 Linne Calodo Nemesis

bag #2 – fruitier nose than #1 with blueberries and black raspberries. thick in the mouth, darker with none of the flowers in #1. short finish that improved over a few hours. 2006 Carlisle James Berry

bag #3 – gorgeous nose of big black fruits and some licorice, bacon fat, pencil. black pepper, herbs and chili flakes in the mouth. wet grass on the finish that cut off too soon. 2007 Samsara Verna’s

bag #4 – white pepper and light oak nose. felt like a north coast pax-style thickness in the mouth. sauvage pork and blue fruits with more white pepper on the long, black finish. wow, my WoTN. 2006 Jaffurs Verna’s

bag #5 – ashes and citrus tartness on the nose. light oak and some earth in the mouth with more red fruits than the other wines. felt like there could be some grenache in the mix. fades in the finish compared to the first four wines. 2007 Non-Sequitur Stolpman

bag #6 – a lot like #5 in terms of the redness of the fruit, but lighter with more complexity and balance. the tannins in the finish pushed this back out in front after revisiting an hour later. 2007 Copain James Berry

bag #7 – completely different than the rest, a real nice mentholated nose with iodine and intriguing fruit that kept me smelling for a good while. some green notes in the mouth of creamed spinach and citrus (orange?) fruits. is this a syrah?? 2007 Sean Thackrey Orion Rossi


results (using steve’s super-secret tabulation formula):

1st place
2007 Linne Calodo Nemesis

2nd place:
2006 Jaffurs Verna’s

3rd place tie:
2006 Carlisle James Berry
2007 Copain James Berry
2007 Sean Thackrey Orion Rossi

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Ron - 1) welcome! 2) great notes! 3) do you have your view of the differences in '06 and '07 CA syrahs from this tasting?

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This was a lot of fun and good wines all around.

My impressions, as it was a long day for me and I didn’t write any notes:

Linne Calodo - I didn’t care for this wine, very sharp fruit, grenache dominant in the spicy nose.

Samsara - big earthy nose, a bit of brett, not typical of Verna’s in either nose or mouthfeel.

Jaffurs - I love this producer, and the vineyard. I didn’t get the pepper that Ron mentions.

Non-Sequitur - I got more of a eucalyptus thing on the nose, actually thought this was the Thackrey.

Copain - Initially, the nose was reticient, vigorous swirling released little, very tight on the palate. After 30 minutes, revisited. Smoky, beefy nose. Inviting, stony, dark pitted fruits. Last glass showed the best.

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  1. do you have your view of the differences in '06 and '07 CA syrahs from this tasting?

the 06s showed better, but not by much in my view. however, i thought the 07s showed more structure & tannins for cellaring.

interesting to me and mike (and now brian) is how the james berry entries really came on strong AFTER the results were in. these were all pop and pour (except for the jaffurs, interestingly) ,although if we decanted for at least an hour i’m afraid my rankings would have been different.

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