Ramey Rodgers Creek Vineyard Syrah 2014
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Jeb Dunnuck
A step up, the 2014 Syrah Rodgers Creek Vineyard is a blockbuster effort that reminds me of a good vintage of the Côte Rôtie La Mouline from Guigal. Awesome notes of incense, lavender, bacon fat, and spring flowers gives way to a full-bodied, voluptuous Syrah that has a sexy, seamless texture, sweet tannin, and a big finish. This cuvée saw 10% Viognier and is an exotic, intense, superstar of a Syrah readers should snatch up.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: Over the years, I have found the Rodgers Creek Vineyard as a site that has produced many top-flight wines from different wineries. The 2014 Ramey Syrah offers a full regiment of excellent nuances. Pair its substantive aromas and flavors of dried earth, leather, and ripe fruits with an oven-baked and well-seasoned chuck roast. (Tasted: May 13, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
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Decanter
This vineyard is a unique site, 250 metres up on the cooler side of Sonoma Mountain. It lies in the new Petaluma Gap AVA, on rocky, volcanic soils. The vintage was early, with harvest in early October, but it was a good one. This wine includes 10% Viognier, grown in the same vineyard and co-fermented. The result is very northern Rhone-like, with complex white pepper, lavender, and mint aromas, a savoury, structured character, and a texture approaching silk.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Syrah Rodger's Creek Vineyard is medium garnet-purple in color and reveals a very pretty perfume of kirsch, chocolate-covered cherries and mulberries with hints of potpourri, Provence herbs and fungi. Medium to full-bodied, the palate has a beautiful velvety texture and wonderful freshness supporting the elegant perfumed layers, finishing on a compelling mineral note.
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Wine Enthusiast
From the cooler edge of the Petaluma Gap, this is coharvested and cofermented with 10% Viognier, which gives it a lift on the midpalate. Smoky char, baked raspberry, leather and pepper highlight a complex, thickly concentrated experience of powerful grace and silky texture.
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David Ramey is among a distinguished group of pioneering American vintners who revolutionized modern-day winemaking and elevated California to the forefront of the international wine community. Hailed as “Professor Chardonnay” by Wine Spectator, David’s groundbreaking work with indigenous yeasts, sur lies aging and malolactic and barrel fermentation yielded a new California Chardonnay style that was richer, more lush and silky smooth. Ramey Wine Cellars crafts exceptional expressions of Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, and Pinot Noir from top vineyards in Sonoma and Napa.
After earning a graduate degree at UC Davis, with his thesis on how aromas evolve in wine, David Ramey pursued a hands-on education in Old World winemaking traditions. He worked at Chateau Pétrus and would later apply these time-honored methods to California’s premier vineyards. In California, David led winemaking for Matanzas Creek, Chalk Hill, Dominus Estate and Rudd Estate. In 1996, David and his wife Carla founded Ramey Wine Cellars with the vision of crafting classically styled, elegant and balanced wines that age beautifully.
Still exclusively owned by the Rameys, the next generation, Claire and Alan Ramey, work at the winery as well. They have been training under their father and working in various roles across the winery, from vineyards to production to winemaking and more. Over the years, a team of highly talented colleagues have joined the winery where they continually push to make the best wines possible. Ramey Wine Cellars crafts exceptional expressions of Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, and Pinot Noir from top vineyards in Sonoma and Napa. Tastings are offered by appointment in Healdsburg, California.
Marked by an unmistakable deep purple hue and savory aromatics, Syrah makes an intense, powerful and often age-worthy red. Native to the Northern Rhône, Syrah achieves its maximum potential in the steep village of Hermitage and plays an important component in the Red Rhône Blends of the south, adding color and structure to Grenache and Mourvèdre. Syrah is the most widely planted grape of Australia and is important in California and Washington. Sommelier Secret—Such a synergy these three create together, the Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre trio often takes on the shorthand term, “GSM.”
A vast appellation covering Sonoma County’s Pacific coastline, the Sonoma Coast AVA runs all the way from the Mendocino County border, south to the San Pablo Bay. The region can actually be divided into two sections—the actual coastal vineyards, marked by marine soils, cool temperatures and saline ocean breezes—and the warmer, drier vineyards further inland, which are still heavily influenced by the Pacific but not quite with same intensity.
Contained within the appellation are the much smaller Fort Ross-Seaview and Petaluma Gap AVAs.
The Sonoma Coast is highly regarded for elegant Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and, increasingly, cool-climate Syrah. The wines have high acidity, moderate alcohol, firm tannin, and balanced ripeness.