2012 Petite Syrah Rattlesnake Ridge

(15.1% alcohol): Saturated ruby. Brooding aromas of blueberry, licorice pastille and bitter chocolate. Hugely rich but youthfully imploded, showing an almost candied ripeness to the inky black and blue fruit flavors. Tannins are huge but not dry. This remarkably dense wine will need several years to open in bottle and come into focus. The very high pH of 4.0 shows in the wine's exotic character but it does not lack for structure.

The 2012 Petite Syrah Rattlesnake Ridge is a powerful, inky, exotic effort that is super-dark and rich. Turley Wine Cellars has long been one of the more enviable wine operations in California. Larry Turley should, and does, receive enormous credit for nearly single-handedly preserving many of the heritage old vine Zinfandel sites that exist in northern California. Most of them were threatened with being torn up with what was believed to be more popular varietals such as Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir. This estate produces nearly thirty single vineyard Zinfandels and Petite Syrahs, all from organically farmed vineyards. Natural yeast fermentations have always been the rule, and the percentage of new oak used has dropped from a high of 30% to about half that. Their Zinfandels are never shy, but tasting through the 2012s, it appears they are not as extracted as they once were, but the alcohols remain in the 15% to 16% range because Zinfandel is rarely ripe at lower sugars. It appears that Larry Turley was destined to resuscitate these old vine vineyards as he worked for a quarter of a century as an emergency room doctor. He now works full time shaping wines from nearly three dozen old vine parcels. As he says, he’s never met an old vine vineyard he didn’t like. Turley’s long-time assistant winemaker, Ehren Jordan, has left to pursue his own project (Failla Wines), but Turley has the highly competent Tegan Passalacqua as his wingman. Virtually every one of these 2012 Zinfandels will be drinkable upon release in 2014, and should last for 6-8 years. Larry Turley was one of the first to exploit some of the old vine vineyards planted in sandy soils from the backwater areas of Lodi and Contra Costa. The two Contra Costa sites include the Duarte and Salvador, both ancient vineyards with the Salvador directly planted on its own roots in 1896. The Duarte was named after a prominent grower in Contra Costa. The Petite Syrahs are different animals altogether and most of them should keep for 30-40 years – at a minimum! Tel. (707) 963-0940

Turley's 2012 Petite Syrah Rattlesnake Ridge is firing on all cylinders today. Graphite, pencil shavings, licorice and menthol wrap around a core of dark fruit in an imposing, tannic hillside Petite bursting with personality. Once the mountain tannins kick in, its pretty evident the 2012 is going to need a few years to fully come together.