2014 Piedrasassi, Syrah & Mourvedre, Harrison Clarke Vineyard, Ballard Canyon.
Sashi Moorman’s deeply hued and brooding Harrison Clarke Vineyard red, his first Mourvedre based red under his own Piedrasassi label is a unique and wonderfully textured wine that has a Crozes-Hermitage meets Bandol like feel and powerful intensity. The warm clay and limestone of the terroir allows ripe tannins and lush character to the de-stemmed Mourvedre to the earthy/spicy Syrah in this new bottling from Piedrasassi, it delivers an opulent fruit core, but with savory contrasts with a light iron/meaty edge showing dark cherry, blackberry, blueberry and damson plum fruits with snappy anise, camphor/embers, mineral notes and peppery cedar along with tobacco and loam. This wine builds up excitement in the glass and lingers with crushed violets, cassis and chalky saline rich stones. This is a big and full bodied effort that will certainly gain detail and finesse with a few more years in bottle, though not as edgy/racy as Sashi’s pure whole cluster Syrah wines, like his gorgeous Rim Rock, but it’s one that should reward the patient Rhone/Bandol lovers, I also want to note it offers plenty of thrills for the price, especially as there were only 180 cases made. This wine has oodles of potential and is loaded with density and vigor, this 2014 is quite remarkable, with tremendous presence and mouth feel, it’s a wine to search out, drink from 2018 to 2028.
($36 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive