"The 2009 Syrah Santa Lucia Highlands is a beautifully rich, powerful red graced with exquisite finesse and elegance. Sweet dark cherries, flowers, spices and game flow from this large-scaled, sleek Syrah. Varietal black pepper, spice and licorice wrap around the dark, muscular finish. The straight Santa Lucia Highlands bottling is superb. It is the equal of most, if not all, the vineyard designates, and also costs less. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2019.
Adam and Dianna Lee of Siduri make the Novy wines in partnership with Dianna’s family. Essentially the Lees use the Novy brand for all of their non-Pinot wines. The range is quite broad, and quality generally excellent although a few wines I tasted suggest the Lees may be stretching themselves too thin. After tasting virtually all of their wines, it seems like they might be better off focusing on fewer bottlings, but that is just one person’s opinion. The wines from the Santa Lucia Highlands are consistently much more interesting than the wines made from other appellations in the state." (WA)
"If you aren’t drinking California and Washington Syrah yet, you’re missing out on perhaps the best value in domestic red wine. The French made it popular hundreds of years ago and the Aussies more recently, but for some reason it just hasn’t blown up here… yet. There are some indications that it’s heading that way, so savvy consumers better hurry and stock up before it goes the way of the Pinot.
The Central Coast is a hot spot, or rather cool spot for California Syrah, producing polished, mineral influenced wines with plenty of backbone. Novy Family Wines produces a number of single vineyard designated wines, but Antonio Galloni of The Wine Advocate describes their Santa Lucia Highlands bottling as “equal of most, if not all, the vineyard designates”, but at a lower price. He awarded it 93 points.
This cool climate Syrah is exceptionally polished, focused and elegant while coming through as broad, rich and muscular on the palate. Blueberry combined with bright cherry creates an interesting profile that’s huge in flavor but not overly sweet or syrupy. This is what Syrah is all about.
At $25.95, this is a truly special wine for a price that puts most California Pinot and Cabernet QPRs (Quality Price Ratio) to shame. It’s a definite re-buy for me.
Buy Here: 2009 Novy Family Wines Syrah Santa Lucia Highlands $25.95" (Nickel & Dime) |
