Syrah, Babcock [link], 2003 Frying Pan [My Rating [Link], 9] Very good. An excellent Syrah. Rich and elegant. Big and bold with a strong taste of black cherries and cinders, finishing long with a lingering oakey and smoky taste that makes me think of the sun and the hard earth this wine came from.
Retail $50, Terrior Exclusive, Received Nov 05 Wine Club. Winemaker's notes:
Alisos Vineyard, Los Alamos Valley. At this point, the Alisos Vineyard is considered one of Santa Barbara County’s preeminent sources of fine Syrah. Being fairly close to the ocean in the Los Alamos Valley, it is slightly cooler as Syrah climates go. But within the property there is a small north-south running canyon, the direction and depth of which hides it from any prevailing breeze. It is one of my least favorite places to take cluster samples because anytime after 9:00 AM on a warm day, you get cooked as you traverse the canyon. Because of the way the vine rows are laid out, it makes no sense to walk all the way to the ends of the rows to turn into other sections of the vineyard. You have to poke your body and your bucket of grapes through the vine row. The sweat on your body always insures that you wear home a layer of dust. The soil is said by grower Loren Colahan to be a “shattered hardpan”, a marly looking chert hardpan to be precise. Our side of the canyon, where this wine comes from, faces west, drenching the perfectly stressed vines in sunshine all day. Its wines are epic. For its name I condensed the concepts of the canyon’s heat and its hardpan soil; FRYING PAN.
Technical Notes: VARIETAL COMPOSITION: 100% varietal VINEYARDS: Alisos Vineyard, Los Alamos Valley, Santa Barbara County FINISHED WINE: Residual Sugar: Dry, pH: 3.69, TA: 7.5 gm/L Alcohol: 14.8% TIME IN BARRELS: 18 months, 33% new French oak BOTTLING DATE: December 2004 TOTAL PRODUCTION: 132 cases 12/750 ML RELEASE DATE: November, 2005 SUGGESTED CA RETAIL PRICE: $50.00 per 750 ML
Technorati Tags: Wine Reviews, Steve Sloan, Babcock Winery, ssloansjca
No comments:
Post a Comment