The 2004 Syrah Thompson Vineyard offers attractive beefy, blackberry, currant, and damp earth characteristics, medium to full body, moderately high tannin, outstanding purity, and very good depth and texture. Consume it over the next 10-12+ years.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

The 2004 Syrah Thompson Vineyard offers attractive beefy, blackberry, currant, and damp earth characteristics, medium to full body, moderately high tannin, outstanding purity, and very good depth and texture. Consume it over the next 10-12+ years. 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

Here’s a big, rich, densely layered Syrah, the kind of wine that Cab or Merlot lovers who are looking for alternatives should discover. It’s full-bodied, dry and oaky, yet with its cherry, chocolate, fig and licorice flavors, offers a whole different flavor profile. Brilliiant with pork tenderloin with a fruity sauce or stuffing.——S.H.(5/1/2008)—— 93