2016 Halcon Syrah Alturas
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Tasting notes
Showing similar to earlier this year, the 2016 Syrah Alturas has lots of Northern Rhône characteristics in its gamey blue fruits, bay leaf, pine, and forest floor aromas and flavor. This medium-bodied, silky, elegant beauty has plenty of fruit, good acidity, and a balanced, pure style that’s going to be loved by old-school Syrah connoisseurs. It will keep for a decade or more.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jeb Dunnuck
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
More reviews and scores
The 2016 Alturas (Syrah) is polished, refined and sensual, with lovely energy backing up the blueberry, mint, lavender and black pepper notes. Medium in body and gracious, the Alturas is an exquisite Syrah that has so much to offer. All the best elements of the house style come through nicely. I very much like the precision here.
The 2016 Syrah Alturas is a wonderful wine, offering up a youthful but superb bouquet of violets, cracked pepper, grilled meat and crunchy cassis. On the palate, the wine is medium-bodied, concentrated and tensile, with fine-grained tannins, a deep core of crunchy fruit and a long, sapid finish. While this is already delicious, it's emphatically a young wine, and the real fireworks will begin when it has five years on the clock. Cropped at 1.25-tons per acre and fermented with 50% whole clusters, this lovely Syrah from Halcón wouldn't be out of place in a flight of great Cornas. It's also shockingly good value.