Broke into a case of older Rhones last night:
1. TerreRouge Syrah AmadorCnty (14.5%) 1992: Med.dark some browning color; rather cedary/pencilly/oldZin slight earthy/dusty slight old Rhonish faint blackberry/briary/floral complex some fragrant nose; soft rather tired/dried out cedary/pencilly/oldZin no fruit flavor w/ light tired/drying tannins; med.long tired/metallic/tangy rather cedary/pencilly/oldZin no fruit finish w/ light drying/astringent tannins; a rather interesting complex old Rhonish nose but pretty tired on the palate.
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2. EdmundsStJohn GrandHeritage Syrah Calif (13.5%; 58% DurellVnyd/SonomaVlly; 42% FenaughtyVnyd/ElDoradoCnty) Emeryville 1993: Med.dark color w/ slight browning; somewhat earthy/dusty some Rhonish/StJoseph bit floral/violets/Syrah/delicate light pencilly/smokey/oak/cedary light blackberry/Syrah complex nose; bit tart slightly dried out/metallic light blackberry/Syrah slight Rhonish/old StJoseph bit tired/cedary flavor w/ light gentle tannins; long some floral/violets/Syrah somewhat tired/cedary/oldZin slight blackberry/Syrah finish w/ light tangy/drying tannins; a rather interesting/complex old Cornas nose w/ a bit of floral Syrah peeking out but getting a bit tired on the palate.
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. I was expecting these two Syrahs to be a bit better than this. Both had pretty decent noses, but were rather tired on the palate. I really liked the EdStJ nose, but it wasn't oferring much pleasure on the palate. By the next morning, they were both pretty murkey brown and pretty much shot thru&thru. Also opened a Qupe CentralCoast Syrah '92 that was totally DOA. The extra btls went into my Strets of SantaFe box.
Tom