2015 Drew Family Cellars, Syrah, Valenti Ranch, Mendocino Ridge.
It’s hard to imagine anyone in California making a better set of wines in the last few vintages than Jason Drew at Drew Family Cellars, with his Pinot Noir and Syrah offerings being especially charming and thrilling wines, these are amazing wines that deserve your attention. Drew’s making wines with cool climate character and old world sensibilities with loads of mineral, spice and lower natural alcohols, but still showing fully ripe and detailed fruit. While his Pinots get all the headlines, Jason Drew’s Syrah is some of the best wine being made in California and the 2014 and 2015 vintages have taken them to that next level, they have classic Northern Rhone elements while still being true to their own terroir, these wines don’t just mimic the French, they take our own wine (California) to the equal plane, firmly showing our potential with Jason’s latest 2015 Valenti Ranch Mendocino Ridge Syrah reaching the rarified heights of top Cote-Rotie(s) delivering gorgeous layers of black and blue fruits along with a savory/earthy edge. This brilliant wine, 95% Syrah and 5% Viognier co-fermented with 50% whole cluster, all native yeast ferments all done in gentile cool fashion to allow super fresh flavors, while aged in large French cask with 50% in a new Puncheon, finishing up with 13.2% alcohol making for a brightly focused with a nice cut of acidity, but deeply complex and textured that will remind you of Cote-Rotie producers like Bernard Levet and Domaine Jamet and or Saint-Joseph’s Andre Perret! This seductive Syrah starts with a subtle perfume of violets, incense, creme de cassis, truffle and bacon fat, which leads to a medium weight (light footed) palate of loganberry, plum, blueberry and tangy black currant fruits along with a spicy core of peppercorns, cinnamon stick, dried lavender, flinty stones as well as hints of black olive, anise, kirsch, game and delicate wood notes. This Valenti Ranch is grown at about 1,350 feet above sea level on the Mendocino Ridge not far from the Anderson Valley, which is marine influence with cold ocean breezes, in fact this region is typically cooler on average than Ampuis, the French village near the famous Cote-Rotie, and this vineyard is planted to 50% Chave Selection Clone and Clone 1 Syrah, with maritime sedimentary soils all of which adds to the intensity and to the uniqueness of this beauty. This lively and alluring Syrah has satiny mouth feel, refined tannins that adds to the youthful hedonism and pleasure, but certainly there is even more to come in this wine’s future, it has the potential to aged decades, this is stunning juice!
($48 Est.) 94+ Points, grapelive
