2008 Donelan Family Walker Vine Hill Vineyard Syrah

2008 Donelan Family Walker Vine Hill Vineyard Syrah

Dark opaque purple. Really pleasant nose. Wow. Very nice red fruit, a little bit of orange peel strangely. Just all kinds of pleasant. Attack of sweet ripe red fruit. Bigtime delicious factor for sure. Real good acidity, leaves me salivating like Pavlov's dog here. Finish of again red fruit with just tannins when the wine is long-gone. Having a little young again, but this one feels less like "too too young". Real nice wine with a delicious factor.

Tasting Tags: delicious fine-grained fruit red ripe tannins

2008 Donelan Family Cuvee Christine Syrah

2008 Donelan Family Cuvee Christine Syrah

Darker purple-ish color, still somewhat translucent so I'm feeling good so far. Nose is a whole lotta stinkbomb that opens up to some nice plummy fruit. Fun nose for sure. Medium-bodied attack of fairly ripe fruit, again a little of that Big League Chew action but really nice again. Chewy tannins, wow this is nice but again a little too young. Tannins have a very firm grip on the finish. Could use a few years in-bottle or at least a 2-hour decant. Rating it a 90 but this could easily be 93 in a few years.

Tasting Tags: chewy fruit funk red ripe tannins

2008 Donelan Family Cuvee Moriah

2008 Donelan Family Cuvee Moriah

Translucent red/purplish hue. Can clearly see fingers through the glass. A good deal of dirt/funk on the nose, underripe fruit. A little smokey in fact. Very interesting nose, I'll say that. On the palate, wow. Concentrated, light-to-medium bodied. A little "Big League Chew", some solid dark fruit. Nice finish of fine-grained tannins. I like this quite a bit and could see it pairing well with a lot of white meat. Noticeable acidity.

Tasting Tags: big chew dirt fruit funk league red

2008 Donelan Family Venus

2008 Donelan Family Venus

Light's not good in here, but it's a pale straw yellow. Very sweet and floral nose with a little bit of acidity on the "back-end" of the nose. A little hint of funk on the nose which is interesting. Light-bodied attack, flavors a little simple for my palate. An interesting oily mouthfeel. Good acidity on the back-end but a wee bit of a bitter finish. On subsequent sips I'm liking it more, but nothing mind-blowing for my palate.

2005 Gran Elias Mora Toro

2005 Gran Elias Mora Toro

Very impressive wine. Do not open unless you have many hours to decant, as its (ripe) tannins are a bit overbearing on open. But once you let it breathe for a long while, you get a fantastic nose heavy on the blackberry and other sweet essences. On the palate much the same story, with very satisfying ripe tannins on the finish. I paired it with lamb shank and it was wonderful. Will only get better with bottle age, but I'm not opening any of my remaining three for a few years.

Tasting Tags: blackberry lavender ripe tannins violets

2005 Ridge California Syrah Lytton West

2005 Ridge California Syrah Lytton West

Easily one of my favorite wines I've ever had (in my limited time trying wines). Wonderful expressive nose with some seriously floral red fruit and sweet spices. Much the same story on the palate. Liked it so much I bit the bullet and ordered a whole case to put away for a while. Decant for at least 3 hours.