2016 High Contrast Vineyard Syrah
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Tasting notes
Grown from the 3-acre High Contrast Vineyard, which includes a blend of soil types with a lot of stones on one side and then siltier loam dominating on the other. It sits along the edge of the alluvial fan that created the subzone. Biodynamically farmed. There are clear notes of grapefruit pith and juice on the nose and a more powdery, fine-grained texture on the palate. The wine offers plenty of tension and energy. It is also less funky than other Syrahs of the region tend to be while still offering the grey salts and salted meats common to the area. The wine has a nice balance, lots of length, firm while fine-grained tannin and a mouth-watering presence. (ECB)
Critic scores
Average Score
Jancis Robinson MW
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
More reviews and scores
Fresh dark red. Complex scents of dark raspberry, boysenberry, musky herbs, dark chocolate, brown sugar and flinty minerality. Quite dense, thick and deep, particularly for very young vines, conveying a strong saline character to its flavors of black raspberry, cherry liqueur and minerals. This large-scaled, mouthfilling wine finishes ripely tannic and long, with a late note of chocolate-covered cherry. Ultimately a bit salty for my taste (the pH is a very high 4.1) but there's plenty of fruit too. Incidentally, Christophe Baron bought a total of 18 acres with his general manager Trevor Dorland. While all of the acreage technically lies within The Rocks, only half of it features the round stones typical of this district, according to Dorland. (this 3.4-acre parcel was planted in 2013 on an alluvial fan plain on the eastern edge of The Rocks; aged in neutral oak)
The 2016 Syrah High Contrast Vineyard initially wafts from the glass with a rocky dustiness, then reveals an elegant black and red-fruited core of aromas, oozing with seductively bright and focused black raspberry notes, followed by red and purple flowers, a line of stemminess and dried herbs de Provence on the lifted and aromatically complex nose. Medium-bodied on the palate, the wine is ethereal at first, then compounds in the mouth with a mineral tension, the fruit turning a touch tarter across the mid-palate, showing incredible precision and balance. The wine continues to evolve with a fantastic expression and long, drawn-out finish for this young vineyard that was just planted in 2013. Only 335 cases were produced. If you can afford it and you can find it, buy it!
The first release of this plot. This has brightness to the fruit with a very exuberant freshness, as well as abundant fragrance and a smooth, succulent and sheer feel to the tannins. Abundant, rich purple fruit here, yet thereâs real precision. This is a very, very specific wine. Holds long and is mouthwatering at the finish. There's great potential here. Try from 2022.