2003 Armada Vineyard Syrah
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Tasting notes
The first vintage from the vineyard and coming from third-leaf fruit, the 2003 Syrah Armada Vineyard is up with the crème de la crème of Syrah and turns the whole vine-age argument on its head. Full-bodied, decadent, massive and yet always seamless, layered and elegant, it has awesome flavor authority in its blackcurrants, plums, green olive and spice-laced aromas and flavors. This is a tour de force in Syrah and it’s one of those wines that I wish I could hand every reader a glass of. It’s an incredible wine.
Critic scores
Average Score
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
Jeb Dunnuck, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
(from a high-density 2000 planting next to the Cayuse winery; aged for two and a half years in 600-liter puncheons that came from Rene Rostaing) Saturated, deep ruby-red. Black plum, licorice, dried herbs and wild flowers on the captivating nose. Offers extraordinary intensity and power of fruit, but this is brooding, even brutal, today, and not yet showing the personality of Baron's more established syrah vineyards. The juicy finish is firmly tannic but not dry. Still, this is extremely hard to taste today. With aeration, though, this took on a pronounced chocolate mint character than reminded me of an Australian shiraz, and put on weight. Some tasters will rate this even higher than I have. Incidentally, Baron describes his 2004 syrahs as more rustic than usual due to their very high alcohol levels. (I tasted another lot of the same fruit, this one aged for 42 months in three new barriques While superconcentrated and massively structured, the wine was extremely oaky and tannic and took on a strong saline, chocolatey quality as it opened in the glass. It showed less obvious varietal character than the "regular" bottling. Baron has not yet named this wine, or, indeed, decided what he will do with it.)