2019 Booker Vineyard

I also loved the 2019 Booker Vineyard, which reminds me of a great Hermitage with its smoky array of ripe red and black fruits, leather, game, and iron aromas and flavors. Rich, full-bodied, and powerful, it has flawless balance, that rare sense of richness without weight, ripe yet present tannins, and a great finish. It's another magical Syrah from this great vineyard located right off Highway 46, on the west side of Paso Robles. It's great today but will benefit from 2-3 years of bottle age and keep for 15-20 years with no issues. The blend is 71% Syrah and 29% Mourvèdre that saw 24% stems and spent 21 months in 74% new French oak. I was able to taste three vintages from Saxum, the late release 2019s from bottle, the majority of the 2020 lineup from barrel, and a handful of 2021 barrel samples. As I wrote last year, the 2019s are just brilliant, ripe, hedonistic, magical wines, and these late releases only reinforce that opinion. Looking at the 2020s, this is clearly a challenging vintage, with many wines having subtle smoky nuances and firmer yet still ripe tannins. Justin commented that the lab numbers regarding smoke taint were very low, so I think these are safe wines that will offer plenty of pleasure, although this is not a vintage to hide in the cellar. The 2021s that I was able to taste were terrific, and this will clearly be another terrific vintage here. In addition, they’ve planted a new vineyard located just four miles off the Pacific, the Cayucos Ridge Vineyard, and I expect we’ll see more releases from that site in the future.