Mat Garretson is considered one of the main movers in the California Rhone varietal surge. He founded The Viognier Guild in 1989 and eventually morphed it into the
Hospice du Rhone Festival; the world's most important Rhone varietal event held every Spring in Paso Robles. His wines first captured my attention in 2003 where his 2001 Viognier
Table 62 was a Top 25 wine, followed by 2003 Roussanne,
The Taistelai, a Top 25 wine in 2004.
There are some wines from Mat that leave me scratching my head as to what they are supposed to be while others are rapturous overtures of wines that will be benchmarks for some time. One of those is the recently tasted
2004 Garretson Syrah Mon Amie (VF95, WA94). If you saw the first installment of the Top25 list of 2006, you already know how excellent this wine is.
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