Sean Thackrey, Orion Syrah, St. Helena

Tonight the Brett wasn’t overpowering for this palate. WOTN material, tannins kicked in heavily after an hour of air. RIP Sean!

Blind Syrahs at Chevalier (Chicago, IL) : Served blind. I really like this nose of savory, funky black fruit with game, blood and black pepper. Nicely layered and complex aromas. The palate however is light, thin and watery with a rustic quality that just doesn't work. 90+ point aromas, but not a complete wine.

Another Saturday at Chevalier...Mostly Blind (Chicago, IL) : Tasted double blind. Charming nose, ok flavors. Fully mature black cherry starts off with plenty of charm. Palate isn't perfectly balance with a tart finish. Moderate weight, length and complexity. More interesting than tasty.

A very good drinker at nearly 30 years of age. A dead ringer for a 10 year old CDP. Dark rustic fruit profile with black berry cheeriness. Nice leathery quality with black exotic spices. Well balanced and showing some brawn. Nice and still holding well.

Very much in line with the bottle of 12/23/12 - polished and suave with some basic old red wine qualities that ended up a framing for earthiness and a level of fruit above the bottles of last year. Had some funk on the backbeat and a lovely dry-down with fougere and citron kind of jag. I am not typically a fan of Syrah aging - and yes, that includes Rhone-y types - but this really wrapped up a nice package.

Restrained and polished. Nice depth, a bit of earth and funk. Very nice. (And none of the generic aged notes of earlier bottle.)

Unfortunately this wine and the '88 both tasted of generic old red wine. Pleasantly so, but lacking any differentiation.

The brett on this wine was so overwhelming that I had to mark it as flawed. There seemed to be loads of nice underlying material, but I just couldn't get past the brett. Pity. The 1989 version about five years ago was fantastic -- I'll look forward to trying my last bottle of that one.

Wines from Spring Break; 4/1/2010-4/6/2010 : Started off very nice. Precise, elegant with a red citrus quality and spices. Very quickly fell apart ending with a dominating (though not heavy) eucalyptus character which made is undrinkable.

1990s Guess the Red Blindtasting (Rich and Peggy's Home in Los Altos, CA) : Group's #3 (my #4) – 27 pts.; 3, 0, 0, 1 – dark ruby red color; floral, lavender, clove and graphite nose; tight, disjointed, sage and pepper palate with dry, puckery, medium finish

Drunk at Dad's 80th birthday dinner. Bottle condition was suspect for as long as I'd owned the bottle (six years)—damaged label didn't cause concern, but the overly loose capsule did. In retrospect, the wine was perfect and could even have benefitted from a brief decanting, as it developed beautifully in the glass. Outstanding aromatics of crushed berries and red meat, a sexy, plush texture that coated the palate from beginnig to end with raspberry and blackberry flavors. Moderate finish. The …

Very soft nose w/ good fruit and slight earthiness. Deep ruby colour. Upfront with pure cherry and frais de bois fruit. Very crystaline and clean. Rich acidity. Middle notes of earth and mushrooms. Clean finish with loamy notes and slowly receding fruit. Perfect balance. One of the absolute best wines I have had this year for its precision and balance. Lasted slightly over an hour before the onset of oxidized/furnace notes. Perfect pairing as well with steak-frîtes and Point Reyes …

Ruby-purple. Rich, concentrated fruit in the nose. On the palate, very deep, curranty, with licorice notes. Tannic and long. 5-11-15-7: 88/100.

With BLR at Singer & Foy survey of CA "Rhone clones." Nice dark ruby color. Substantial. Warm fermentation smells, and plenty of minty fruit. Great fruit in the mouth, delicate yet powerful and dense. I would drink it soon, though. Excellent wine. 5-11-16-8: 90/100.