Date Tasted: 1/26/13
Price: Suggested Retail is $30.00 (purchased for $22.00)
From The Winery: 14.1% Alcohol. 97% Syrah, 3% Viognier. Santa Ynez Valley AVA. 5000 cases produced.
Impressions/Notes: The 2010 Stolpman Estate Syrah is bright, pure, intense, and has bit of a wild side to it. It’s a very different wine from Stolpman’s hard-hitting 2009 Estate Syrah (think blackberry and barbecued meat deliciousness). Deep purple in color, the ’10 displays cranberry, plum, bacon fat, and graphite, with rustic aromas and flavors of juniper berries, sassafras, and leather. Balance is aplenty and the wine is very approachable despite it’s youth. Notably, Stolpman described this wine as “the most accessible Syrah that we’ve yet produced.” I don’t drink enough Central Coast Syrahs (or Central Coast wines in general), but Stolpman has quickly become a producer that I’m following with great interest.
Rating: Highly Recommended (90), 3.5/5 Value
Nick, seems that your referencing Syrah wines so well is giving us an ever greater sense of not only what’s out there, but of relative value; I look for them, but I finds so few!
I wonder, is “rustic” and “accessible” parallel, askew, or do they actually come together in a meaningful way? Being new at this, I’m still trying to get a handle on the concepts.
Dennis,
I have been buying a lot of Syrahs lately. Finding Syrahs like these is his or miss. I read that you found some Copain single-vineyard Syrahs in NH, but they’re impossible to find here. I’ve noticed that rustic takes on many different meanings in wine vocabulary. In this case, I was referring to the sassafras, leather, and juniper berry aspects, which I associate with aromas that would be picked up horseback riding in the Southwest. With accessible, I meant that it’s ready to drink now (but should still age well)–as compared to the ’09, which needed some serious time in the decanter first. I’m pretty new at this too!
Nick
Just realized that Stolpman used the word “accessible”, not me
. My take on that descriptor is that the wine has already begin it’s drinking window.