Deep garnet with bricking edges–almost no clear. Clean bright fruity nose–the only reason I underline this point is because there are several comparable vintages of different vineyards of this wine floating around several sites locally and while they are amazing to drink and ridiculous bargains, the tertiary is heavy on them, polished leather and supple patina at their PEAK and I expected this one to follow suit but No! It is fresh and fruity. I don’t think it is the vineyard. I think it is the provenance. I could be wrong. Maybe Stolpman somehow maintains fruit ahead of Alisos and Purisima. It is not my place to presume. I just report the news.

Clean bright fruity nose. A bit of glycerine and BBQ, taught briary structure visible, but with that 10-year pre-adolescence of sophistication. Big spice, polished and ready, alongside a stemmy companion.

In the mouth, thinner that expected. Clean and bright seems to be the order of the day with this one. Still and thin–ya know… I hate to make such a big point of ‘still and thin’ but you have to understand, here on the Central Coast, the Santa Barbara and Paso Robles Syrahs–ESPECIALLY the Paso–“still and thin” are NEVER something you encounter. Everything is formulated for maximum extraction and tourist-fellatio. This is the contrary. A bit alcoholic–burn creeps in mid-section and becomes crescendo by finish–but otherwise perfect fruit for the age, beautiful tapenade and raspberry on fresh asphalt and poivre blanc.

A near-perfect bottle of wine.

2005 ARCADIAN Syrah Stolpman Vineyard Santa Ynez Valley Santa Barbara 14.8

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