2021 Parsonage Village Vineyard, Syrah, Monterey County.
A big, opaque purple/black and tannic Shiraz style Syrah from Parsonage with deep aromatics, a dusting of mixed spices and a core of ripe black fruits, making for a broad and gripping wine that absolutely needs a hearty protein rich meal to bring out its best quality. This wine, sourced from the Argyle Vineyard in the remote arid San Antonio Valley area of Monterey, which gets a lot more heat during the Summer and cool nights from the Pacific Ocean breezes leads to thick skins and biting tannic structure, which this 2021 Parsonage delivers with chewy intensity, a nervy and fiery version of this grape, rather than the more opulent and hedonistic that the estate examples of Parsonage show. The palate is full and powerful with dark berries, violets and subtle wood notes lead the way with a firm layering of blackberry, plum, currant and blueberry compote, along with a touch of mocha, peppercorn, anise, Tahitian vanilla, incense and gritty graphite notes. Best to decant and enjoy this with a prime rib, lamb and or a selection of Basque hard sheep cheeses, this is a wine for those that are looking for throwback version of forceful Syrah. There were no 2020s due to the fires within the region here and these 2021s so far are turning out to be thrilling wines that look like they might need some extra bottle age to soften, though this one I think will stay on the firmer side, it makes for an interesting contrast to Parsonage’s more luxurious and hedonistic estate wines.
As mentioned many times here with my reviews, Bill Parsons planted his estate with Syrah, a first for the Carmel Valley AVA, and Bordeaux varietals, with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and the rare Petit Verdot blocks back in 1998 and hit the ground running with his 2000 debut bottlings that garnered eye brow raising critical acclaim. The wines have impressed for their lush fruit driven quality, something that not many people thought possible here until Parsons brought these wines out, up until then most of the Carmel Valley reds were austere and needed tons of bottle age to be their best, like the wines that came from the historic Durney label, now known as the Massa Estate. If you’ve not had the Parsonage wines, now is a good time to start, in particular the estate grown bottlings of Syrah, like this Estate, the Cabernet Sauvignon and especially the single varietal Dario Reserve Merlot, which is also absolutely stunning in this stellar 2019, and the delicious 2018, vintages. The Parsonage wines are crafted by Frank Melicia, owner and founder Bill Parsons’ winemaker and son in law, who also makes the Silvestri wines, and that goes after richly flavored, ripe and textural wines that stand out, which has been a winning formula for this small label in Carmel Valley. As with all the Syrah efforts here, the grapes are 100% de-stemmed and vigorously sorted, seeing a lengthy maceration and daily punch-downs for full color and phenolic extraction and then they basket pressed to French oak barriques, mostly used and mature close to 18 months before bottling. I highly recommend chasing down the 2019s here at Parsonage for near term drinking and put these 2021s away for another couple of years.
($45 Est.) 91 Points, grapelive