2017 Kendric Vineyards Syrah, Petaluma Gap, Marin County
Tasting Notes
The 2017 Syrah “Petaluma Gap” from Kendric Vineyards is one of the most elegant examples of this varietal that I have tasted in years and years from California. The wines comes in at a classic 13.7 percent alcohol and offers up a pure and precise bouquet of cassis, black raspberries, pepper, black olive, smoked meats and a lovely base of soil tones. On the palate the wine is svelte, full-bodied and beautifully balanced, with a good core, fine-grained tannins and excellent length and grip on the light on its feet and complex finish. This is not a powerful example of syrah, but rather one of excellent complexity, intensity of flavor and budding complexity. First class juice! 2023-2055+. 92+."
-John Gilman’s “View from the Cellar”
Vintage and Winemaker’s Notes
This is my first vintage of syrah from my Marin vineyard. It’s a pretty cool site for syrah, and I’m hoping that shows through. This comes from a small portion of my vineyard grafted to syrah in 2016.
Winery: Kendric Vineyards
Owner: Stewart Johnson
Founded: 2001
Location: Marin, CA
Stewart Johnson farms the Kendric Johnson Vineyard on leased land at the boundary of the Marin County and Sonoma Coast appellations 8 miles west of the Pacific Coast. This 8.5-acre vineyard was planted in 2002 to clones 37, 115, 667, 777, 828, Pommard, and Martini. Yields are extremely low at this very cool site. Stewart graduated from University of California at Berkeley, obtained a doctorate in political science from Yale, and graduated with a law degree from Hastings. While interning at the Environmental Protection Agency, he was drawn to winegrowing and winemaking rather than being confined to an office practicing law. With his wife, who is a Marin native, he discovered the pastoral beauty of Marin County and ended up growing grapes there.
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IN, IA, KS, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
I really like a good Syrah. That dark magical purple liquid with its rich scent. It is almost like the wine’s aroma is making a pinky swear that you’ll love the taste, too. So, did this Syrah keeps its promise? Read on to find out! (but yes it did, this wine tells no lies)
2017 Syrah
Color: Deep Ruby
Primary Aromas: Black Cherry, Plum, Violets
Secondary Aroma: Buttery Pancakes
Tertiary Aromas: Vanilla, Burnt Sugar, Hint of Chocolate
Taste: Ripe Cherry, Plum, Butterscotch, Juicy Fruit
I’ll get right to it, this is a nice Syrah, very nice in my opinion. For being a 2017, it already has a little depth, but I would wager this could stay in the bottle for a few more years and be quite the great bottle of wine. I thoroughly enjoyed it as it is, so I may need to get a case, some for now and some for around 2022?
After letting it breathe for an hour, I had some on its own and tasted a juicy ripe cherry and plum flavor up front. It’s dry like a syrah should be, with this caramel-like sweetness in the background that reminded me of butterscotch. The aftertaste a couple minutes later was a lot like plum fruit, I could taste both the skin and the juice. It was tricking my tastebuds and had me almost believing I had eaten a plum a little while prior.
Then it was time to taste it with food, which tonight was an Italian seasoned meatloaf and some creamed spinach infused with caramelized onion. Wow. The Syrah almost completely changed from juicy fruits over to a rich caramelized fruit pie, with the onions from the creamed spinach reawakening on my taste buds and making it a truly savory experience. It is not often that I have had a wine present such different flavor profiles with and without food, so mark this one down as something you can experiment with all sorts of dishes to see how they play together.
As you can tell, I thoroughly enjoyed this Syrah, and I must congratulate Kendric Vineyards and Stewart Johnson on a job well done. I see on their website that this is the first Syrah from their Marin vineyard and I certainly hope it isn’t the last. I seriously do not need any more wine in the house right now, but this Syrah really has me trying to figure out where I would put it. I had decided $15 or less per bottle was how I would make the call, so I guess I know what the decision is…
Stew does good things.
detailed-organized-carbon
bottles available for those in SoCal
$23.32/btl per case lot direct, plus shipping.
Well done @winedavid49
2017 Syrah by Kendric Vineyards.
Nose is restrained with subtle notes of minerality, caramel/marshmallow and when it sits for a while a faint leather. Big, moderately acidic body exhibits good structure and minerality. The finish is where this wine hints at its youth. While the body makes a buttery transition to the finish, young tannic exuberance takes over and dominates the experience with a lasting grip well after the finish.
This wine indroduces itself as more mature than its vintage says otherwise. However the finish gives its youth away. It’s an interesting wine with good potential. Based on the price it could be a good bargain. It’s drinking well now but I suspect with a few more years it will be quite the pleaser.
I especially like that this wine is 13.7% ABV. In a time where all of California seems to have lost their minds with high ABV wines, this is refreshing. It renders it approachable. I opened it this afternoon and slowly sipped half of it. Then later this evening I followed up with to see how it progressed. It developed some pleasant fruit and caramel notes and is even more balanced.
It’s a good honest quality wine. You can’t go wrong with it. Get a case, enjoy half now and the other half over the next few years. Cheers!
Hey NE OH. I still have internet here in Uganda so I can see this offering. I’d take a few if someone wants to make the purchase. @chipgreen@boatman72@pjmartin
@mrn1 I’m in Boston and I’m siiting this out!! I have a lot of Wellington and other Syrah to drink up! @mrn1…Uganda…did you get highjacked or are you hiding from your wife for buying more wine?
Ahoy! This is Stew from Kendric Vineyards. I’m still trying to beat this harvest into submission and am pressing grapes today, but I’ll try to check in periodically in case there are any questions I might be able to field.
I poured this wine last week for a bunch of importers from the UK, and it drew admiring Oohs and Aahs and references to Cote Rotie. I might not ordinarily place much stock in such comparisons, but something about its delivery with a British accent made me entertain the notion that I might be onto something here.
@KendricPN Hi Stew! Great job on this Syrah! Something about that Brit accent certainly does increase the perceived reliability of the commentary. Maybe I’ll read the rattages on this site with that accent in my head from now on.
@KendricPN Keep up the good work Stew! Making honest quality enduring wines and keeping them accessible. There are folks out here who truly appreciate art in a bottle. Cheers!
@PatrickKarcher John does tend to take a pretty expansive view on drinking windows, doesn’t he? Honestly, I can’t even begin to formulate an opinion on that topic. I don’t think I’ve ever had a 35 year old wine, let alone followed the evolution of a wine over that sort of period.
I think the usable takeaway from those sorts of projections may go more to indicate a wine’s structure and style. Wines built on significant tannin and frames get longer windows than do softer ones. Wines that are all about primary fruit flavors tend toward nearer-term windows than those featuring more secondary flavors – earth, spice, savory notes – that tend to endure/improve. I guess there is also the writer’s gut feeling about the wine’s depth and the likelihood that there is more lurking under the surface that is apt to emerge over time. That’s how I tend to interpret drinking window guidelines since I tend to receive long ones and it comports with my aspirations for my wines. In any case, I don’t take it so literally that I’m marking drinking windows on my calendar.
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: Tax & Shipping not included in savings calculations)
2017 Kendric Vineyards Syrah - $25 = 12.81%
Well, I grew up in Marin County. I like Syrah, but mostly Washington State syrah. But really want to try this and support the effort.
/giphy paranoid-fuchsia-judge
I didn’t realize Petaluma Gap was a new AVA finalized Dec 2017. That’s why I never heard about it. (moved South to Silicon Valley first, then North to the great PNW). But I loved those West Marin roads and scenery.
@klezman Thanks; actually I discovered that tip accidentally on a previous discussion. I thought I could edit my text to make a comment about the giphy below, and to my surprise, the giphy changed so my comment on it was no longer valid. I didn’t know about the 5-minute rule, though.
Actually my feeling on these order giphys is the same as opening an older bottle of wine. Once it’s there you have to accept it for what it is even if it wasn’t what you expected.
Also a big Kendrick Pinot fan. And 125 cases? Sold. I’m overflowing (a relative term, I know!) but what’s a few more?
/giphy miraculously-eternal-music
I’m set to pick this year’s syrah Wed night. And that will mark the end of the actual picking part of crush for me. Of course, it’s not really over until everything gets tucked into barrels, but it means that the end starts to come into view. And I’m very ready to see the last berry move thru the winery, the pervasive stickiness start to diminish, the fruit flies start to die off and to sleep a couple consecutive nights in my own bed, rather than in the truck or on the winery couch. And to watch football. And to eat something other than drive-thru. Re-learn my kids’ names, etc. Normalcy looks pretty good, from this vantage point.
@KendricPN
May you get some rest soon! Thank you for the hard work! Looking forward to trying this wine. In for a case! Really enjoyed your Sangiovese I purchased here a while back. Thank you for the opportunity! Guess I need to try your PN as well! Cheers!
2017 Kendric Vineyards Syrah, Petaluma Gap, Marin County
Tasting Notes
The 2017 Syrah “Petaluma Gap” from Kendric Vineyards is one of the most elegant examples of this varietal that I have tasted in years and years from California. The wines comes in at a classic 13.7 percent alcohol and offers up a pure and precise bouquet of cassis, black raspberries, pepper, black olive, smoked meats and a lovely base of soil tones. On the palate the wine is svelte, full-bodied and beautifully balanced, with a good core, fine-grained tannins and excellent length and grip on the light on its feet and complex finish. This is not a powerful example of syrah, but rather one of excellent complexity, intensity of flavor and budding complexity. First class juice! 2023-2055+. 92+."
-John Gilman’s “View from the Cellar”
Vintage and Winemaker’s Notes
This is my first vintage of syrah from my Marin vineyard. It’s a pretty cool site for syrah, and I’m hoping that shows through. This comes from a small portion of my vineyard grafted to syrah in 2016.
Specifications
Included in the Box
Case:
4-bottles:
Price Comparison
$310.32 at Kendric Vineyards
About The Winery
Winery: Kendric Vineyards
Owner: Stewart Johnson
Founded: 2001
Location: Marin, CA
Stewart Johnson farms the Kendric Johnson Vineyard on leased land at the boundary of the Marin County and Sonoma Coast appellations 8 miles west of the Pacific Coast. This 8.5-acre vineyard was planted in 2002 to clones 37, 115, 667, 777, 828, Pommard, and Martini. Yields are extremely low at this very cool site. Stewart graduated from University of California at Berkeley, obtained a doctorate in political science from Yale, and graduated with a law degree from Hastings. While interning at the Environmental Protection Agency, he was drawn to winegrowing and winemaking rather than being confined to an office practicing law. With his wife, who is a Marin native, he discovered the pastoral beauty of Marin County and ended up growing grapes there.
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IN, IA, KS, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Estimated Delivery
Thursday, November 7th - Monday, November 11th
Kendric Vineyards Syrah
4 bottles for $64.99 $16.25/bottle + $2/bottle shipping
Case of 12 for $169.99 $14.17/bottle + $1/bottle shipping
2017 Kendric Vineyards Syrah
I really like a good Syrah. That dark magical purple liquid with its rich scent. It is almost like the wine’s aroma is making a pinky swear that you’ll love the taste, too. So, did this Syrah keeps its promise? Read on to find out! (but yes it did, this wine tells no lies)
2017 Syrah
Color: Deep Ruby
Primary Aromas: Black Cherry, Plum, Violets
Secondary Aroma: Buttery Pancakes
Tertiary Aromas: Vanilla, Burnt Sugar, Hint of Chocolate
Taste: Ripe Cherry, Plum, Butterscotch, Juicy Fruit
I’ll get right to it, this is a nice Syrah, very nice in my opinion. For being a 2017, it already has a little depth, but I would wager this could stay in the bottle for a few more years and be quite the great bottle of wine. I thoroughly enjoyed it as it is, so I may need to get a case, some for now and some for around 2022?
After letting it breathe for an hour, I had some on its own and tasted a juicy ripe cherry and plum flavor up front. It’s dry like a syrah should be, with this caramel-like sweetness in the background that reminded me of butterscotch. The aftertaste a couple minutes later was a lot like plum fruit, I could taste both the skin and the juice. It was tricking my tastebuds and had me almost believing I had eaten a plum a little while prior.
Then it was time to taste it with food, which tonight was an Italian seasoned meatloaf and some creamed spinach infused with caramelized onion. Wow. The Syrah almost completely changed from juicy fruits over to a rich caramelized fruit pie, with the onions from the creamed spinach reawakening on my taste buds and making it a truly savory experience. It is not often that I have had a wine present such different flavor profiles with and without food, so mark this one down as something you can experiment with all sorts of dishes to see how they play together.
As you can tell, I thoroughly enjoyed this Syrah, and I must congratulate Kendric Vineyards and Stewart Johnson on a job well done. I see on their website that this is the first Syrah from their Marin vineyard and I certainly hope it isn’t the last. I seriously do not need any more wine in the house right now, but this Syrah really has me trying to figure out where I would put it. I had decided $15 or less per bottle was how I would make the call, so I guess I know what the decision is…
Stew does good things.
detailed-organized-carbon
bottles available for those in SoCal
$23.32/btl per case lot direct, plus shipping.
Well done @winedavid49
@rjquillin I’ll take some off your hands. I love syrah. Three or four?
@radiolysis ss updated, 4 allocated.
Anyone else?
@rjquillin I would be interested in 4, or what’s left.
Today’s Rattage
2017 Syrah by Kendric Vineyards.
Nose is restrained with subtle notes of minerality, caramel/marshmallow and when it sits for a while a faint leather. Big, moderately acidic body exhibits good structure and minerality. The finish is where this wine hints at its youth. While the body makes a buttery transition to the finish, young tannic exuberance takes over and dominates the experience with a lasting grip well after the finish.
This wine indroduces itself as more mature than its vintage says otherwise. However the finish gives its youth away. It’s an interesting wine with good potential. Based on the price it could be a good bargain. It’s drinking well now but I suspect with a few more years it will be quite the pleaser.
I especially like that this wine is 13.7% ABV. In a time where all of California seems to have lost their minds with high ABV wines, this is refreshing. It renders it approachable. I opened it this afternoon and slowly sipped half of it. Then later this evening I followed up with to see how it progressed. It developed some pleasant fruit and caramel notes and is even more balanced.
It’s a good honest quality wine. You can’t go wrong with it. Get a case, enjoy half now and the other half over the next few years. Cheers!
@winesnob nice notes!
@CorTot thanks buddy. My pleasure. Cheers!
Great rattage!
@Winedavid49 thanks buddy. Always happy to lay my body on the line.
Hey NE OH. I still have internet here in Uganda so I can see this offering. I’d take a few if someone wants to make the purchase. @chipgreen @boatman72 @pjmartin
@mrn1 @chipgreen @boatman72 @marikar
Who else in NEOH is interested?
@Boatman72 @chipgreen @mrn1 @pjmartin I can take a few. Let me know if/when I need to do the heavy lifting.
@mrn1 I’m in Boston and I’m siiting this out!! I have a lot of Wellington and other Syrah to drink up! @mrn1…Uganda…did you get highjacked or are you hiding from your wife for buying more wine?
@Boatman72 @marikar @mrn1 @pjmartin
I could be talked into a couple if it helps round out a case.
/giphy respectable-drifting-spark
@Boatman72 @chipgreen @marikar @mrn1 That’s all I needed. Order in.
The Kendric pinot I got from Casemates last year was fantastic.
/giphy immaculate-incidental-custard
@wmhatch Man, I guess I gotta exercise more…
Ahoy! This is Stew from Kendric Vineyards. I’m still trying to beat this harvest into submission and am pressing grapes today, but I’ll try to check in periodically in case there are any questions I might be able to field.
I poured this wine last week for a bunch of importers from the UK, and it drew admiring Oohs and Aahs and references to Cote Rotie. I might not ordinarily place much stock in such comparisons, but something about its delivery with a British accent made me entertain the notion that I might be onto something here.
@KendricPN Hi Stew! Great job on this Syrah! Something about that Brit accent certainly does increase the perceived reliability of the commentary. Maybe I’ll read the rattages on this site with that accent in my head from now on.
@KendricPN Keep up the good work Stew! Making honest quality enduring wines and keeping them accessible. There are folks out here who truly appreciate art in a bottle. Cheers!
@KendricPN Nice audio note.
Thanks for hanging out with us, and supporting WD so we can consume your juice.
@KendricPN @rjquillin …“a blind man groping an elephant…” That’s Gold!
@KendricPN, what do you think of John Gilman suggesting this wine could last for over 35 years?
@PatrickKarcher John does tend to take a pretty expansive view on drinking windows, doesn’t he? Honestly, I can’t even begin to formulate an opinion on that topic. I don’t think I’ve ever had a 35 year old wine, let alone followed the evolution of a wine over that sort of period.
I think the usable takeaway from those sorts of projections may go more to indicate a wine’s structure and style. Wines built on significant tannin and frames get longer windows than do softer ones. Wines that are all about primary fruit flavors tend toward nearer-term windows than those featuring more secondary flavors – earth, spice, savory notes – that tend to endure/improve. I guess there is also the writer’s gut feeling about the wine’s depth and the likelihood that there is more lurking under the surface that is apt to emerge over time. That’s how I tend to interpret drinking window guidelines since I tend to receive long ones and it comports with my aspirations for my wines. In any case, I don’t take it so literally that I’m marking drinking windows on my calendar.
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: Tax & Shipping not included in savings calculations)
2017 Kendric Vineyards Syrah - $25 = 12.81%
Well, I grew up in Marin County. I like Syrah, but mostly Washington State syrah. But really want to try this and support the effort.
/giphy paranoid-fuchsia-judge
Sorry 'bout that image, kind-of disturbing. “What, me, paranoid? No, you? No. what are you looking at?” It’s whatever giphy gives us.
Here, have some wine, it will help you relax… on second thought, no, maybe better not.
So, back to the wine, 125 cases produced means about 5 barrels? I love small-production stuff.
I didn’t realize Petaluma Gap was a new AVA finalized Dec 2017. That’s why I never heard about it. (moved South to Silicon Valley first, then North to the great PNW). But I loved those West Marin roads and scenery.
https://www.sonomacounty.com/articles/petaluma-gap-wine-region-and-appellation
#71 on this Map
http://petalumagap.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Petaluma_Gap_Brochure_JUN16_Map_Only.pdf
@pmarin For the first five minutes you can click “edit” and then resubmit the comment. You’ll get a different giphy each time.
@klezman Thanks; actually I discovered that tip accidentally on a previous discussion. I thought I could edit my text to make a comment about the giphy below, and to my surprise, the giphy changed so my comment on it was no longer valid. I didn’t know about the 5-minute rule, though.
Actually my feeling on these order giphys is the same as opening an older bottle of wine. Once it’s there you have to accept it for what it is even if it wasn’t what you expected.
Also a big Kendrick Pinot fan. And 125 cases? Sold. I’m overflowing (a relative term, I know!) but what’s a few more?
/giphy miraculously-eternal-music
If any NOVA chums would like some of this (at case price), but need some help, I’d be in for 2-4 bottles.
@PatrickKarcher I’d take two (central MD here, w plans to attend bike races in NOV/DEC in VA) Reston and Haymarket are on our calendar.
@kls_in_MD Looks like not happening. It’s for the best. My wine budget is toast, and we’d have to sit on these a bit. Can’t get 'em all.
I’ve had the opportunity to chat with Stew in the past. Seems like a really great guy. In for 4. Cheers.
I’m set to pick this year’s syrah Wed night. And that will mark the end of the actual picking part of crush for me. Of course, it’s not really over until everything gets tucked into barrels, but it means that the end starts to come into view. And I’m very ready to see the last berry move thru the winery, the pervasive stickiness start to diminish, the fruit flies start to die off and to sleep a couple consecutive nights in my own bed, rather than in the truck or on the winery couch. And to watch football. And to eat something other than drive-thru. Re-learn my kids’ names, etc. Normalcy looks pretty good, from this vantage point.
@KendricPN
May you get some rest soon! Thank you for the hard work! Looking forward to trying this wine. In for a case! Really enjoyed your Sangiovese I purchased here a while back. Thank you for the opportunity! Guess I need to try your PN as well! Cheers!
How did this not sell out?
Last minute order… in before the bell.
GREAT rattage today!