Ray Johnson on the Road
  • Home
  • Ray’s Blog
  • The Book
    • Reviews
  • Contact
Select Page

California Syrah

by Ray Johnson | Jul 28, 2010 | California, Santa Barbara County, Santa Ynez Valley, Syrah

JC Cellars, Santa Barbara County, Fess Parker’s Vineyard, Syrah 2007 Give this wine a bit of air, 10 minutes or so to blow off a bit of reductive character. Then the black fruit will emerge, wrapped in a jacket of leather. In the mouth there are notes of tar and...

Syrah from California and Cote-Rotie

by Ray Johnson | Apr 28, 2010 | California, Cote-Rotie, Russian River Valley, Santa Barbara County, Santa Ynez Valley, Sonoma County, Syrah

This flight of Syrah takes us from the freshness of new fruit in California, to the development of bottle bouquet in wines from 2003 – excellent all around, featuring different expressions of the same grape over time and over both sides of the Atlantic. Foxen,...

Foxen Williamson-Dore Syrah 2006

by Ray Johnson | Jul 30, 2009 | California, Santa Barbara County, Santa Ynez Valley, Syrah

Foxen, Santa Ynez Valley, Williamson-Dore Vineyard, Syrah 2006 This vintage exudes sweetness, like berry jam and raspberry liqueur. In the mouth it is supple and warm, oaky and smoky – a very rich and ripe style of red wine. The previous vintage was also a crowd...

Wine Regions & Grapes

Sampling of Wineries

Acorn Allegrini Atlas Peak Balletto Blandy's Blue Wing Cafe Bodega Navarro Correas Bollinger Bonterra Burgans Cantina Terlano d'Arenberg Domaine Carneros Domaine de la Mordoree Dow's Dr. Loosen Elena Walch Famega Fonseca Foppiano Foxen Glen Ellen Innocent Bystander J. Keverson Korbel Madeira Wine Company Martin Codax Masi Merryvale Mulderbosch Navarro Vineyards Noceto Plantagenet Redwood Creek Reynoso Roederer Estate Sbragia Shed Horn Shooting Star Sonoma State Wine Business Institute St. James Trione Vietti Wildhurst William Fevre