2001 Qupe, Santa Maria Valley, Bien Nacido Hillside Estate syrah. Alc13.5%.

Tasted a lot of syrah over the years, but this one is a memory giver. Funny how this one tastes almost "old school" and so soon. This delicious bottle of juice sends me back into the Wine Emporium. I can almost see Bob's line-up for the day: Alban syrah, Vandale sangiovese, Whitcraft pinot, Fiddlehead pinot, Piedra Creek zinfandel, Jaffurs rousanne, new comers like Flying Goat, Point Conception and Silver sitting in boxes have now become some personal favourites.
None of the big jammy bloat fests here. Dry, yet malleable tanins skirt the lips and gums when the bottle is first opened. An hour later, the palate cleansing freshness is almost like a big bad pinot. I detect a little of the "b" word with relish (or is it the French oak I'm picking up? methinks Francois Freres - is that the pinot exoskeleton?), because now I want more. Parker's people may like the raspberry/cranberry combination and hope for some chocolate to reassure them they have spent their money wisely. Yes you have but not in the way you think. I suggest a graduation to at least a level of Johnson, purely because numbers don't do it justice.

Released in August 2003, I wanted to sit on this for a special occasion but with none coming up other than a respite between storms (we had about 6 inches of rain yesterday) and some choice correspondence (wish us luck, I'll mention it if it happens) it does seem like a good idea to open up the back cellar so to speak.

What's funny is the other memory of a tasting at Qupe open house last spring when the only wine I really enjoyed enough to go crazy about was the '01 Teroldego from Jim Clendenen's stable. Not that I've not enjoyed Qupe before or since, the Los Olivos Cuvee springs to mind immediately, but so too does a batch of badly stored '97 syrah, where the disappointment was palpable and the host was almost strung up.

Here instead is a wine that jumped the syrah queue, chose dinner, prompted me to turn off the BBC world service, throw some breast of lamb in the oven, and prompt a quiet mooch through www.sbwines.com. I found this by Bob Senn of what Bob Lindquist told him: "Even though winemakers always say every vintage is great, this one-2001-truly is. It is, because the weather has been ideal. Notwithstanding the current heat wave we've had, which accelerated the ripening of varietals which were on the verge of ripeness anyway, we had very good weather during flowering and set [in May and June], and the hottest June that I can ever remember. But then July was very cool which helped hold the acidity in the grapes. August was pretty much ideal-warm days, cool nights, allowing even veraison and ripening. It looked like it would be a fairly early vintage, but then September cooled back down, once again holding the acidity in the grapes, and allowing them to ripen slowly and evenly. About a week ago, we were saying we needed one of those Indian Summers, and sure enough, a few days ago, it came along." I find a lot of these comments describe the wine to a tee. This was the year Theo Lindquist was born too. A lot can happen in 5 years. I was in China when the berries were being picked for this vintage, I was studying longevity while the length of this wine was not even realised yet, I was sailing up the Yangtse while this was flowing into barrels, I was learning about the passion of salsa from an English lady while the spicy notes in the wine were still to be teased. The wine? It's starts off slow but has the power to outlast all long distance communication. What does that mean? I can taste the summer I spent in St. Tropez back in 1990 but that is another story, yet the Rhone definitely lingers deep in the bowels of the '01, a hail to Bastille Day fireworks on the Ramatuelle beach with a pretty young Dutch lady. I digress, this is my two Bob's worth. If you are drinking alone, you won't be for long.

Cheers


February 28 2006