2002 Kongsgaard Syrah Hudson Vineyard
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Tasting notes
(15.7%; 3.9 pH with 6.8 total acidity): Bright red-ruby. The nose shows an almost roasted ripeness compared to the 2001, offering deep, primary dark fruits, black olive, saddle leather, spices and a hint of truffle. Plush, sweet and deep; by far the richest wine to this point. Horizontal, tactile and very ripe yet bone-dry. This is remarkably young, dark and brooding and still a bit aggressive with alcohol. Needs to lose some of its baby fat. "Now we're into new wines that don't yet show any tertiary character," noted Kongsgaard.
Critic scores
Average Score
Robert Parker
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
More reviews and scores
This wine was recommended, but no tasting note was given.
(bottled in June of 2004) Good medium ruby. Liqueur-like aromas of black cherry, black raspberry, dark chocolate, bacon fat and licorice; distinctly wild. A huge, seamless syrah with compelling liqueur-like sweetness and lushness of texture yet almost magically firm and fresh. This saturates the palate with flavor. A great California syrah with perfectly integrated tannic spine. The pH is around 4, but the wine has plenty of life: my sample was even more impressive with dinner 24 hours after I first tasted it.
Saturated ruby to the rim. Superripe, slightly high-toned aromas of roasted berries, spice cake and smoked meat. Hugely rich, chocolatey flavors of dark berries, anise and roasted herbs. Compellingly sweet, mouthfilling syrah that has not begun to assume its adult shape. The tannins are broad but not yet as fine as those of the 2001, very much in the 2002 style. The vines here are pruned to one cluster per shoot, yielding less than two tons per acre of fruit. Both the clusters and the individual berries were smaller in 2002 than in 2001, noted Kongsgaard.