The syrah and viognier were co-fermented and the wine was aged for 14 months in French oak, 36% new. Aromas of plum, blackberry, a note of boiled artichoke, and smoke repeat as flavors laced with fine, smooth tannin and finish medium-broad on the back half of the palate. - Colorado Wine News, October - December 2008
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3 STARS - "Fine nose, hearty, real character, creamy. Full, dense fruit, ripe tannins, powerful, youthful with spicy alcohol. High quality. Drink 2009-13." - Decanter, 2008
95 POINTS - "You don't think of Signorello as a Syrah house, but for years, they've been putting out serious Syrahs, and with the '05 vintage, they certify this tradition. This wine is, in a word, fabulous. It's enormously attractive in well-oaked cassis, plum, leather, cocoa and white pepper aromas and flavors, but that only begins to describe the complexity. The 4% Viognier seems responsible for the bright intrusion of citrusy acidity. As powerful as it is, the wine never loses sight of balance and elegance." - S.H., Wine Enthusiast (11/1/2007)
90 POINTS - "Beautiful, peppery,floral, blackberry, and cassis-scented Syrah with good acidity, medium to full body, outstanding purity, texture and length, this wine should be drunk over the next 4-5 years... but it's a beauty now." - Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate, Issue #174, December 28, 2007
"The 2005 Syrah, Napa Valley, $38, 319 cases, contains 4% viognier, and spent fourteen months in French oak, 36% new. It has an inviting nose of blackberry, black cherry, currant, and mocha. All repeat as very juicy but not sweet flavors laced with medium tannin. It finishes medium-broad and medium-long. A nice Syrah to pair with food. Well-balanced, structured, and integrated." - Colorado Wine News, October - December 2007
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91 POINTS – Straddles a fine line between ripe, plummy-blackberry flavors and a leathery, peppery side. You'll also like the plush, rich tannic structure. Best now. – S.H. “ Wine Enthusiast Magazine – June 2006 ”
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88 POINTS – This decidedly backward wine is slow to open in the nose and a little less outgoing than many in taste, but it gradually reveals fascinating glimpses of black plums, dried herbs and stony soil along its way. Strong and sinewy with a big rush of tannin at the end, it is plainly potent stuff but will need at least five years of cellaring before losing its gruffness and may well improve for twice that long. – "Connoisseurs' Guide To California Wine - March 2004"
94 POINTS – Just beautiful, a wine that's so rich and delicious, and yet so balanced. It oozes gorgeous flavors of cassis and blackberry pie, white chocolate truffle, Kahlua, and smoky spices, and the tannins are amazingly soft, sweet and complex. All this opulence drinks perfectly dry, with a good back-bone of acidity. – " S.H. Wine Enthusiast Magazine - May 2004 "
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92 POINTS - Veers from ripe blackberry jam to crackling bacon to freshly ground white pepper and back again, all encased in smoky oak. Pretty tannic at the moment, but very fine now with the richest possible meats, and a candidate for 3-5 years of cellaring. – " S.H. Wine Enthusiast Magazine - June 2003"
90 POINTS - 4% Viognier. Everything one could ask for in a Syrah aroma is gathered in this rich, complex-smelling wine from suggestions of game and smoke to blackberry fruit to peppery spice. Equally keenly focused in the mouth, the wine is ever so slightly lower on flash and depth than its nose suggests, but, truth be told it is still a very enjoyable and inviting Syrah from a producer that rarely puts a foot wrong. - "Connoisseurs' Guide to California Wine - February 2003"
***** (FIVE STARS) - Delicious Syrah. Full bodied, fleshly, intensely flavored (plum black peppercorn, smoky oak), and very long on the plate. One of the few California Syrahs that approaches the quality of top northern Rhones. 4% Viognier. Unfiltered. 109 cases. [2003-2004] 707.255.5990 - "Restaurant Wine Issue #92"
90 POINTS - With its deep color and massive, potent ripeness, this syrah is masked by tannin, blunt and closed. Behind the dark curtain, there's plenty of fruity in development, giving flavors of black licorice, funk and roasted meats. Give it time, and that fruit should come to fore. - Wine & Sprits the practical guide to wine "April 2003"