Syrah

Look up at Hermitage Hill, one of the most iconic sites in the world of wine, where the most revered producers all have their family names displayed: Chapoutier. Guigal. And at the very top, Paul Jaboulet Aîné. Last year on our trip to the Northern Rhône, we were honored to visit Jaboulet, and today we’re…

Few names stand out in wine like Paul Jaboulet Aîné, the house that rules the Rhône as king of the hill. You can feel it standing by the little chapel, overlooking the stepped vines that make Jaboulet’s famed La Chapelle—this is the birthplace of one of the world’s greatest wines.  We first sipped the 2016…

“The Best Wines to Date from Stolpman” Last August, Robert Parker’s longtime California reviewer, Jeb Dunnuck, called the 2016 Stolpman Estate Syrah, “ripe, sexy and polished,” and among “the best wines to date from Stolpman Vineyards.” It’s no surprise, given the talent behind this bottle. The tag team of vineyard manager Ruben Solorzano — Wine…

Santa Barbara’s Original Syrah Vines rest this time of year. Pete Stolpman doesn’t. He is preparing to bottle ten different cuvées of Stolpman Vineyards wine between January and March, so we were lucky to catch him in between appointments to talk about the 2016 Stolpman Syrah Originals Ballard Canyon, a brooding, peppery, and graceful Syrah…

When we offered the ‘15 Villa Creek Cherry Newton Syrah a few months ago, it quickly became one of the most popular wines of the year. A quick sell-out, we were fielding scores of requests for more bottles with good reason—it was a dynamite red from a pair of Central Coast stars at a massive…

From the quintessential Northern Rhône producer Alain Graillot, this 2017 Crozes-Hermitage bottling has the savory power, dark fruit density, and pedigree to steal the spot as your new favorite Syrah. We have it at 20% off the list price, at a time when most other retailers are posting “out of stock” signs. It’s no exaggeration…

A few estates in Provence make red wines of such spectacular quality that you could forget this is the kingdom of rosé. The sensational 2017 Château Sainte Roseline Lampe de Meduse Rouge, which won 96 points at the Decanter World Wine Awards, is the best of both worlds: a coveted, hard-to-find release backed by some…

“So sublime that you have to resist taking its hand and running away to elope.” Perhaps one of the most memorable wine reviews we’ve yet read, critic Neal Martin’s Vinous review of a 35-year-old Voge Cornas Les Vieilles Vignes perfectly captures what Alain Voge’s wines have meant to red wine collectors (ourselves included) for decades. …

The time and place don’t matter: When we see E. Guigal’s Côte-Rôtie Brune et Blonde on a wine list, whether in a modest bistro in the Northern Rhône or a Michelin-starred restaurant in Napa or New York, we order it.  It’s not just that the savory, dense, and complex red is capable of carrying any…

The 2017 Guy Farge Saint-Joseph Terroir de Granit boasts the kind of generous red fruit, telltale cracked pepper, and unmistakable granite minerality that makes Hermitage and Côte-Rôtie reds some of the world’s most regal and cherished bottles. Yet Guy Farge manages to coax chart-topping flavor and complexity out of his Saint-Joseph terroir for half the…