Our Wines  :  2005 Susan’s Vineyard Syrah

Last year’s Susan’s Hill Syrah may have been the Novy “hit of the vintage” as it garnered fantastic press from both the Wine Spectator and Robert Parker. In fact, the wine was so popular and sold out so quickly that many folks missed out on purchasing it. Well, here’s your chance with the 2005 vintage. Given the tiny quantity and the pent-up demand, we expect that it will sell out just as quickly as its predecessor. As you may recall, Susan’s Hills Vineyard is actually a particular portion of the famed Pisoni Vineyard. This section is named after Gary Pisoni’s sister, Susan, and is the steepest, most stressed part of the property. The resulting grapes are tiny and the clusters a bit less full (and more scraggly in appearance) than at our other Syrah vineyards. Undoubtedly, the dark color and superb weight of this wine begins with these tiny berries. This was only magnified by the cool 2005 growing season which helped the grapes maintain acidity and also helped regulate alcohol levels. This is especially true of the Susan’s Hill Syrah as it is a good point lower in alcohol than the 2004 version and also is a bit more backward at this early stage due to the good levels of natural acidity. One additional advantage of this cooler growing season was that it allowed the stems to fully ripen and thus we utilized some whole clusters in the fermentation of this wine. In retrospect, we wish we had used even more whole clusters but it took us until 2006 to make that change. The 2005 Susan’s Hill Syrah shows dark blackberry fruit along with a pepper and game like quality. The wine is both lush (particularly in the mid-palate) and tight with good tannins framing the long finish. This wine really opens up with a couple of hours in the decanter.