2018 Terry Hoage Vineyard

The 2018 Terry Hoage Vineyard is the last version of this wine—the vineyard was ripped out due to red blotch. It's a blend of 52% Grenache and 48% Syrah, made with about 30% whole cluster and aged in 50% new puncheons and 50% concrete amphora. It has an opaque ruby-purple color and bursts with aromas of mint, blueberry and blackberry jam, garrigue and red fruit touches. Full-bodied, it offers wonderful juiciness and bright, spicy tricolored fruits with a firm, grainy frame and long finish.

Based on 52% Grenache and 48% Syrah, the 2018 Terry Hoage Vineyard was brought up in a mix of French oak and concrete tanks. The last release from this vineyard for a while, as the vines were replanted, it's a ripe, sexy wine that has notable purity in its ripe black fruits, spice box, licorice, and chocolate aromas and flavors. Rich, full-bodied, rounded, and beautifully textured, with soft tannins, it's already drinking nicely but will evolve beautifully for a decade.

The 2018 Terry Hoage Vineyard will be the last cuvée from this site for a few years, as the block used for this cuvée was replanted. It’s a medium to full-bodied, elegant, beautifully complex barrel sample that offers lots of floral, exotic aromatics, silky tannins, a great mid-palate, and a clean, beautiful finish. Saxum’s Justin Smith has hit a home run with these recent vintages, and his 2015s, 2016s, 2017s, and 2018s all have singular styles, with the quality remaining sky-high. The 2018s show the slightly more pure, fresh, yet concentrated style of the vintage nicely. While not yet bottled, these will offer pleasure in their youth as well as benefit from short term cellaring. The 2017s are more pretty, perfumed wines that don’t quite have the density of the 2016s yet certainly don’t lack for fruit. Most are already drinking nicely today, yet as with all great wines, they’re going to evolve gracefully. Lastly, the 2016s are some of the greatest wines I’ve tasted from this estate, and they offer massive, layered, yet impeccably balanced profiles that are a joy to drink today; they’ll also be a joy to drink in 10-15 years as well. As I’ve written more than once, there are few mailing lists worth being one, but without a doubt, this is one of them.