After my Ravenswood CookeVnyd Zin '90 fell short, I cracked last night:
1. RiverRunVintners Syrah VentanaVnyd/MontereyCnty (13%; 9 mo. in Nevers oak; <300 cs) 1988: Btl loaded w/ sediment along the side; Med.color w/ fair amount of browning; lovely/complex very Rhonish/roasted/espresso slight herbal rather metallic very interesting/complex nose; tart some herbal/roasted/espresso/Fr.Roast coffee/very Rhonish complex bit tangy flavor; long somewhat tangy/metallic quite charred/roasted/espresso/Fr.Roast coffee very Rhonish slight herbal finish w/ light tannins; somewhat on the downside but beautiful very Rhonish slight herbal character some like a CoteRotie from an underripe yr. Next morning: Quite murky/brown; lots of metallic some Rhonish/charred character on the nose and pretty shot/metallic on the palate.
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And a wee BloodyPulpit:
1. DougMeador started planting Syrah in his VentanaVnyd in 1981. Since Syrah is "known" to be a warm climate grape, most people thought him pretty stupid. He reasoned that the best Rhone Syrah comes from the North where they have this fierce mistral winds, not unlike what they get thru the SalinasVlly on a daily basis.
His first VentanaVnyd Syrah was rather on the herbal side, but it had a lot of interesting, somewhat Rhonish, character to it. Now, of course, some of Calif's most interesting Syrahs come from VentanaVnyd, now one of the oldest Syrah plantings in Calif.
DougMeador is a guy that sorta flies under most folks radar. Over the yrs, he's made some very/very interesting wines. He, of course, was responsible for popularizing the SauvBlanc Musque clone, which had lain undiscovered in the Davis library for yrs. He's made some outstanding CheninBlancs in the past. He is probably more responsible than anyone for improving the viticulture and farming techniques in the SalinasVlly (differentiating this from the ChaloneBenchlands and the SantaLuciaHighlands), an area that was mostly known for their herbaceous/vegetal red wines in the past. Truly a Calif pioneer.
RiverRunVintners is a wnry, located down near Watsonville, who has made some very interesting wines over the yrs; both w/ Syrah and Zinfandel. I've not tried anything recent from them and really should revisit them.
Tom