Ridge 2003 Syrah Lytton West Dry Creek Valley

WA 91pts. - According to the Wine Advocate: Winemaker Paul Draper’s 1,500 case blend of 91% Syrah and 9% Viognier is a sexy, opulently-styled, irresistible cuvee boasting a deep ruby/purple color as well as a glorious perfume of plums, cassis, blackberries, smoke, and earth. In the mouth, it is broad, expansive, sexy, and fleshy. Ridge has worked with grape varietals from the south of France for many years—among the first were grenache, carignane, and mourvedre (mataro). In 1995 we acquired the western half of Captain Litton's nineteenth-century holdings, inheriting a few blocks of syrah and some viognier. We have made small quantities of syrah—available only through the winery—since 1996. Having gradually added to the original plantings, in this vintage we are able to offer a limited national release. A wholeberry, floating-cap fermentation permitted gentle, rapid extraction; three of the nine small lots included viognier in cofermentation with the syrah. Aged for eighteen months in airdried american oak barrels, this fine syrah is appealing as a young wine, yet has the structure to develop further over the next ten or more years.