From a vineyard site west of the Santa Rita Hills, Adam Tolmach produced the 2005 Syrah Presidio Vineyard. This backward effort displays notes of damp earth, tobacco leaf, and hints of sweet black cherries, blackberries, and forest floor. The wine’s substantial tannins are accompanied by beautiful purity and depth as well as a full-bodied style. It is one of the more elegant, French-structured Syrahs in this portfolio. Tasting through three vintages of Adam Tolmach’s Syrahs is an education in how different these three years were in Santa Ynez and Santa Barbara County. 2004 was a warm year, 2005 was a cool year with high yields and good acids, and 2006 was a challenging vintage that required substantial work in the vineyards as well as tremendous patience at the end when it appeared a freakish hot spell might ripen everything at once. 2005 is a very strong vintage at Ojai, and all of the single vineyard offerings were deeper and richer than their 2006 counterparts.Tel. (805) 649-1674

From a vineyard site west of the Santa Rita Hills, Adam Tolmach produced the 2005 Syrah Presidio Vineyard. This backward effort displays notes of damp earth, tobacco leaf, and hints of sweet black cherries, blackberries, and forest floor. The wine’s substantial tannins are accompanied by beautiful purity and depth as well as a full-bodied style. It is one of the more elegant, French-structured Syrahs in this portfolio. Tasting through three vintages of Adam Tolmach’s Syrahs is an education in how different these three years were in Santa Ynez and Santa Barbara County. 2004 was a warm year, 2005 was a cool year with high yields and good acids, and 2006 was a challenging vintage that required substantial work in the vineyards as well as tremendous patience at the end when it appeared a freakish hot spell might ripen everything at once. 2005 is a very strong vintage at Ojai, and all of the single vineyard offerings were deeper and richer than their 2006 counterparts. Tel. (805) 649-1674

Held back for five years, this interesting Syrah is developing bottle complexities. It’s soft and gentle, with firm tannins, and the fruit is changing from fresh and primary to ethereal and mushroomy. Quite a beautiful, elegant wine now, and it should continue to evolve over the next five years.——S.H.(2/1/2011)—— 94