Printable Restaurant/Shelf Talker

REVIEWS
Wine Advocate (Jun. 2008)
Int'l Wine Review (June 2008)
Vinography.com (Jan. 2008)
Gang of Pour (Dec. 2007)
Tanzer's IWC (Nov. 2007)
Wine Advocate (Aug. 2007)

HOW IS IT DRINKING?
Vintage Chart

The 2005 Tablas Creek Vineyard Syrah is Tablas Creek's third national release of this classic Rhone varietal. The wine displays the character of the Syrah grape exuberantly and elegantly, with classic flavors of bacon fat, wood smoke, blackberry and mineral, and should reward time in bottle to mature.

We use most of our Syrah as a part of our Esprit de Beaucastel and Cotes de Tablas blends each year. However, we believe that Paso Robles is one of the world's great environments for Syrah, and in favorable vintages we try to reserve some particularly classic barrels of Syrah for a single-varietal bottling.

The 2005 vintage was one of nature's lucky breaks, with excellent quality and higher-than-normal yields. The wet winter of '04-'05 gave the grapevines ample groundwater, and a warm period in March got the vines off to an early May flowering. The summer was uniformly sunny but relatively cool, and harvest began (relatively late for us) in the 3rd week of September. The grapes spent nearly a month longer than normal on the vine, and the resulting wines were intensely mineral, with good structure and powerful aromatics. Our first lots of Syrah came in on September 29th, with harvest continuing over the next two weeks. The final Syrah lot was harvested October 11th.

As with all our wines, our Syrah grapes were grown on our 120-acre certified organic estate vineyard.

The Syrah grapes were destemmed and then fermented using native yeasts in small open-top stainless steel tanks. After three weeks, they were pressed, and moved to a balance of new and old french oak barrels to complete their fermentation. The red wines were assembled in June of 2006, and for the first time we added a little Grenache to the Syrah for its lush, open fruit and higher acidity. The wine was aged for an additional year in 1200-gallon foudres before being bottled in June 2007. The wine is unfined and unfiltered, and should be expected to throw a sediment over time.

The 2005 Syrah shows a classic Syrah nose of white pepper, blue and black fruits, bacon fat and mineral. It is juicy and full in the mouth, with ripe tannins, just a hint of sweet oak, and has a savory finish with lingering notes of dark spice. We expect this wine to drink well for a decade or more.