Blair brought a mystery wine last night from his archives:
14. Qupe Syrah CentralCoast TW 1987: Med.light color w/ some browning; some earthy/dusty quite cedary/pencilly/
tobaccoy/old Calif red bit herbal rather Rhonish/roasted/smokey old Hermitage-like very slight blackberry
very complex beautiful nose; fairly tart slight horsecollar/leathery very pencilly/cedary/tobaccoy/vanilla
light blackberry/Syrah old-Hermitage smooth/elegant beautiful complex flavor; very long/lingering strong
pencilly/cedary/tobaccoy/vanilla smokey/roasted/pungent slight blackberry/Syrah complex finish; very much like
an old Hermitage; still very much alive and no signs of drying out or becomming tired; a classic old Qupe Syrah;
amazingly good. Great value at $9.29.
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A wee BP:
1. According to BobLindquist, this wine came almost entirely from EstrellaRiverVnyd/PasoRobles, with one barrel of Ibarra-Young Mourvedre going into the blend. In '87, he also
took his first crop of Syrah from Ibarra-Young (then called LosOlivosVnyd) and BienNacidoVnyd/X-Block, which now is the oldest Syrah planting in Calif outside BillyCrawfords GibsonRanch/McDowellVlly. Those went into his first vnyd-designate Syrahs.
This wine was in amazingly good shape and very reminiscent of older Qupe Syrahs I've had. It reminded me of some 25-30 yr old Hermitages I've had. No signs of drying out and very smooth on the palate. An amazing wine from one of the real Syrah masters.
Tom