2014 Booker Vineyard
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Tasting notes
Opaque ruby. Expressive, spice- and mineral-accented aromas of red and dark berry liqueur, incense and licorice pick up cola and rhubarb notes with aeration. Sweet and concentrated but also energetic and penetrating on the palate, offering intense black raspberry, spicecake and floral pastille flavors and a bracing suggestion of peppery spices and smoky minerals on the back half. Finishes sappy, sweet and impressively long, with resonating floral and spice notes and supple tannins build slowly, adding shape and gentle grip to the wine's juicy fruit.
Critic scores
Average Score
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate
Jeb Dunnuck
More reviews and scores
The 2014 Booker Vineyard is a blend of 68% Syrah and 32% Mourvèdre and has a deep garnet-purple color, displaying aromas of cassis, espresso, violets and dried herbs with suggestions of bacon fat, lavender and Sichuan pepper. Full-bodied, rich and with beautifully ripe, fine-grained tannins, it has a generous mid-palate of ripe, rich fruit and great length, giving up loads of spice notes. (Note that no 2015 Booker Vineyard was produced.)
Made from 68% Syrah and 32% Mourvèdre, the 2014 Booker Vineyard is more elegant than the 2013, yet has terrific intensity and depth. Loaded with notions of blackberries, chalky minerality, spring flowers and violets, it has sensational purity of fruit, full-bodied richness, and building tannin. It shows the suppler side to the 2014 vintage and is certainly approachable today, yet it will be at its best from 2019-2029+. I’ve raved so much about the wines from Saxum’s Justin Smith, I feel like a broken record every new vintage. Nevertheless, these latest vintages are all stellar, and certainly the move to the new cellar hasn’t affect or changed the quality here. The 2014s show the richer, more fleshy style of the vintage, yet still carry the slightly more streamlined/elegant style that Smith has chosen over the past few years. The 2015s play even more in that realm, which is very much the vintage, and are lively and elegant, with pretty, perfumed characters – and plenty of fruit. The 2015s share a lot of similarities to the 2011s (which shined for their aromatics), yet have more fruit and power. It’s worth noting that the majority had just been recently bottled, which makes these showings even more impressive. A vintage that really excites me is the 2016s, which appear to be a return to a more bombastic style, with beautiful fruit and texture.
The 2014 Booker Vineyard is a blend of 68% Syrah and 32% Mourvedre and has a deep garnet-purple color, displaying aromas of cassis, espresso, violets and dried herbs with suggestions of bacon fat, lavender and Sichuan pepper. Full-bodied, rich and with beautifully ripe, fine-grained tannins, it has a generous mid-palate of ripe, rich fruit and great length, giving up loads of spice notes. (Note that no 2015 Booker Vineyard was produced.) Sep 2017, www.robertparker.com
About the producer
Founded in 2002 by Justin and Heather Smith, Saxum Vineyards is a leading Paso Robles producer of Rhône-inspired wines. Limited to around 8,000 cases annually, the range includes Broken Stones, James Berry Vineyard, Bone Rock and Rocket Block.