2013 The Tribe Vineyard Syrah
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Tasting notes
This wine is aromatically brooding but precise, with notes of umami, black olive, smoked ham, crushed violets, funk and peat. The flavors are hefty and concentrated—with notes of fire pit and wet stone—while showing earth-shaking depth and intensity. The finish stretches out as long as you care to count. This is a complete knee buckler. — Sean P. Sullivan
Critic scores
Average Score
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
Jeb Dunnuck, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
Supple, complex, open-textured and refined, with bacon and black olive overtones to the plum and currant flavors, finishing with harmony and precision. Has depth and refinement.
(from vines planted 3,555 to the acre, next door to Christophe Baron's En Chamberlin vineyard). Highly nuanced aromas of cherry, raspberry, smoked meat, charcoal and black licorice. Tightly wound and showing little early sweetness, an extremely backward Syrah in a decidedly Côte Brune style, with savory mineral and steak tartare notes holding the upper hand over primary dark fruits in the early going. Finishes with dusty tannins and strong salinity. This wine has a pH of 4.1, according to Baron, but I would nevertheless describe it as very young. Still, will it ever show the sweetness of the 2012 version?
Just ever so slightly richer and more textured than the Sur Echalas Vineyard, the 2013 Syrah The Tribe Vineyard is a blockbuster effort that is up there with the crème de la crème of the vintage. Concentrated, full-bodied, sexy and layered on the palate, it has to-die-for notes of black cherries, currants, olives, steak tartare and Hermitage-like scorched earth characteristics. Like the other 2013s here, it needs 4-5 years of cellaring and will have two decades of longevity.