Big ol’ +1 on ESJ
Arcadian
Arnot Roberts (a little more hit or miss but when they’re on, they’re really on)
Bedrock (same as A-R)
Gramercy (same as BR & A-R)
Less serous but a whole lot o’ fun to drink frech and with a slight chill
Haarmeyer
Stirm (carbonic)
I know that’s more then 5 sorry for the party foul.
I also very much enjoyed Todd’s Syrah. If you haven’t tried it, check out the Matello/Goodfellow Deux Vert Syrah. IMO, best to hold at least 5 years, but a very nice wine, esp for the price.
I think Qupe (pre-sale) and Edmunds St John definitely belong on the short list. Both have demonstrated enormous capacity to improve with age, across most (if not all) vintages. Around 15 years out, they have surpassed most others, in my opinion. I’d also put Copain on there for the wines Wells made from 2007 on. I’ve been opening quite a few over the past couple of years, and many have been great. Cayuse is tough for me because they are so variable as they age. The best bottles are lights-out good, but many are too funky for me. I’ve even dumped a couple down the drain. So, I guess I have only 3 names on my list.
Bob Lindquist will continue to make Syrah etc under the Lindquist Family label.The new owners of Qupe will make wine at Laetitia, which they also bought.
A bit surprised not to see Colgin and Kongsgaard on there. They would be part of my top five domestics, alongside Ovid, Jonata and Donelan. Just missing would be Araujo. I haven’t tried my Tynan yet.
To put 5 on my list would require me to add a couple names with whom I have extremely limited experience (Wind Gap; Halcon; Cabot; Qupe; Ojai; Ramey, for example)
So many great Syrah’s out there. It’s hard to narrow to only five. I list the ones I have most experience with. I factor in value in my list.
Carlisle
Betz
Dehlinger
Lagier Meridith
Cayuse
As an aside I had a bottle of '05 Carlisle Sonoma a few weeks ago that was amazing. This was a $20 bottle that was way better than many wines 5 times the price.