2013 Ramey Syrah Rodgers Creek Vineyard - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast (3/11/2021)
Three years ago I said wait four or five years until having another bottle. I cheated. It was worth it. This is integrated, aromatic, flavorful and keeps begging me to take another sip. I had planned to save some for tomorrow, but that's not going to happen. It's a bowl of ripe blackberries dusted with cracked white & black pepper, driven past a road construction crew that is laying pavement next to a fresh cut through a rocky hill. It's Syrah! When I first taste it I think that it's in a lusher style, but then about halfway the tannins kick in, and the acidity busts through and it says "how ya like me now!" I have not had many Ramey Syrahs, and so never really though of David Ramey as a Syrah winemaker, but this is compelling.