2017 Syrah Lorraine Vineyard

Reminding me of a great vintage of Guigal's Côte Rôtie La Mouline, the 2017 Syrah Lorraine is brilliant stuff that ranks with the finest Syrahs in the vintage. Dense purple-hued, with a kaleidoscope-like nose of red and black fruits, spring flowers, camphor, spice, and ground pepper, this beauty hits the palate with a full-bodied, multi-dimensional texture, a stacked mid-palate, ripe tannins, and a thrilling finish that keeps you (me, anyway) coming back to the glass. From a more challenging vintage for the Central Coast and all of California, this is a testament to the talent and genius of John Alban. Drink this spectacular Syrah any time over the coming 25-30 years. It’s always incredibly educational tasting through recent vintages with the Alban family, as well as one of the highlights of my year. John brings an incredible amount of knowledge and experience to the table. As with Guigal in the Northern Rhône, he favors a long, four-year élevage for his wines, and it’s such a treat to look at multiple vintages at the same time. Having said that, this estate is unique in its location, and while it does seem to track the overall vintage style of the Central Coast, that’s not always the case. Looking at the wines reviewed here, the 2017s were just bottled at the time of my visit, and I was able to taste them as pre-bottling samples at the estate and then later via shipped finished bottles in Colorado. While 2017 can be a challenging vintage throughout California due to heat, this estate handled the vintage beautifully, and the wines are rich, textured, and exotic. They’re already expressive and drinking nicely yet will benefit from just 2-4 years of bottle age to integrate some structure. They’ll be long lived and have broad drink windows. The 2018s come from a drought year, and the wines are concentrated, rich, and blockbuster styled, yet there’s a cooler, pure, fresh vibe in the aromatics, and I suspect these will need slightly more time in bottle. I was only able to taste a few 2019s and 2020s, so the majority of those reviews will wait until next year. As I’ve lamented in the past, it’s always been a mystery to me why no one else in the Edna Valley comes anywhere close to the quality that is routinely achieved by Alban.