Tried these two over the last two days:
1. OjaiVnyd Syrah Calif (13%) 1995: Dark color bit cloudy w/ slight browning; strong smokey/toasty/Fr.oak slight blackberry/peppery/Syrah light dusty/earthy quite pungent/smokey bit Rhonish/Cornas/rustic rather complex nose; lightly tart bit tangy/metallic/drying quite smokey/toasty/Fr.oak/pungent slight oldRhonish/Cornas light earthy/dusty/rustic blackberry/Syrah flavor w/ light drying/astringent tannins; very long bit tart/tangy/metallic/drying out slight blackberry/Syrah pungent/toasty/Fr.oak complex finish w/ light astringent tannins; a bit on the tired/dried-out side but some interesting oldRhone/Cornas rustic character and still offering up some pleasure.
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2. OjaiVnyd Syrah RollRanchVnyd/Calif (13%) 1995: Med.color w/ some bricking; bit alcoholic rather bretty/unclean/barnyardy/horsecollar slight blackberry/Syrah/boysenberry/ripe/plummy bit complex/Rhonish nose; soft quite unclean/bretty/barnyardy/horsecollar little blackberry/Syrah some toasty/oak flavor w/ light drying tannins; med.long soft bit tired quite unclean/bretty/barnyardy slight blackberry/Syrah/plummy some toasty/oak finish w/ light drying tannins; tannins are pretty smoothed out but way too bretty/unclean to drink.
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. I left the Calif Syrah out on the counter, stoppered, overnight. The next day it had turned an ugly murky brown color but the drying tannins had smoothed out considerably and the wine was a real pleasure to drink as I wallowed in its Cornas-like rusticity. A rare case of breathing of a wine that it benefited from. Usually old wines like this become even more astringent & dried-out.
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2. I have, of course, followed AdamTolmach's Ojai from the very start...his '82 Calif Syrah which I recently found out was from his Ojai estate grapes, not EstrellaRiver grapes. This (along w/ the Qupe, the BonnyDoon, and the SierraVista, all '82, were the first truly great Syrahs produced in Calif.
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3. RollRanch: This is located in upper Ojai Vlly and probably the hottest Syrah Adam deals with. It generally is a ripe/rich/plummy Syrah at release but I don't find it ages quite as well as his other/cooler-climate Syrahs.
Tom