Syrah Alturas, Halcon Vineyards 2017

The 2017 Alturas is another stellar wine in this range. Rich and deep in feel, the 2017 has a bit more body than is typical for the Halcón wines, and yet it retains all of the signatures of the house style. Firm tannins wrap around a core of red fruit, licorice, wild flowers, herbs and rose petal. The 2017 is pretty alluring today, but it will be even better in another few years' time, once all the elements have come together a bit more fully. 2022-2029

The 2017 Syrah “Alturas” from Halcón Vineyards includes three percent viognier this year, and again saw fifty percent whole clusters utilized. The wine is low octane this year, coming in at 12.7 percent and offering up a complex nose of dark berries, lavender, smoked meats, pepper, sweet stems, a beautifully complex base of soil, just a touch of cedar and a smoky topnote. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and tightly-knit, with a good core, great transparency, ripe, well-integrated tannins, superb balance and grip and a very long, youthful and promising finish. This is going to age into a beautiful middleweight style of syrah that reminds me very much of some of those great Côte-Rôties from vintages such as 1979, 1985 and 1988. Very refined juice. 2027-2060.

The 2017 Syrah Alturas checks in as the normal mix of 97% Syrah and 3% Viognier. Its ruby/plum color is followed by classic Syrah notes of blackberries, wildflowers, ground pepper, and damp earth. Reminding me of a Côte Rôtie from the southern part of the appellation, it has a rounded, elegant texture, fine tannins, and outstanding length. Give bottles 2-3 years. 2022 - 2032

The 2017 Syrah “Alturas” from Halcón Vineyards includes three percent viognier this year, and again saw fifty percent whole clusters utilized. The wine is low octane this year, coming in at 12.7 percent and offering up a complex nose of dark berries, lavender, smoked meats, pepper, sweet stems, a beautifully complex base of soil, just a touch of cedar and a smoky topnote. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and tightly-knit, with a good core, great transparency, ripe, well-integrated tannins, superb balance and grip and a very long, youthful and promising finish. This is going to age into a beautiful middleweight style of syrah that reminds me very much of some of those great Côte-Rôties from vintages such as 1979, 1985 and 1988. Very refined juice. 2027-2060.

The 2017 vintage at Halcón has a close analogy to 2014. Both had moderate yields, slightly low sugars and good acid spine. Compared to the last two vintages this version of Alturas is a slightly less savory but has very bright, forward red fruits. There is great complexity and lots of stony minerality. It is drinking well straight out of the gate. Jeb Dunnuck described a very early barrel sample as “deep ruby-colored and opaque, with notes of blackberries, green herbs, bay leaf, and pepper. It's exotic, sappy, and interesting.” This vintage of Alturasis a very worthy successor to the previous vintages. Bottled unfined and unfiltered. 270 cases.

Following a very typical mid-April budbreak and moderate temps during the spring and early summer, we experienced some very high temperatures over Labor Day weekend. The altitude of our vineyard tempered the highs (we never exceeded 100F) but the heat was enough to temporarily shut down the vines. Fortunately we had just completed veraison, giving the vines ample time to recover and continue fruit development. We picked very mature Syrah fruit on October 4th – the seeds very dark, the pulp had saturated color and there were highly lignified stems. All this at lower sugars, leading to a finish alcohol of 12.7% We again utilized 50% whole-cluster and aged in 90% neutral oak with just a single new French puncheon. 3% estate Viognier was co-fermented.