2021 Stringer Cellars Syrah, Alder Springs Vineyard, Mendocino County
Tasting Notes
The 2021 Alder Springs Syrah promises both immediate enjoyment and the potential for graceful aging. A deep, nearly opaque dark garnet color, this Syrah beckons with a captivating nose. Cherry bark, boysenberry, red currant, and black raspberries harmonize with intriguing hints of tamari soy sauce, bergamot, and black tea. Earthy elements of cedar, porcini mushrooms, and pine resin add depth, while a touch of wild lingonberry rounds out the bouquet. The palate impresses with chewy tannins and a waxy, mouth-coating texture. Cocoa nib, dried goji berries, and wild blueberries mingle with fresh thyme and alpine strawberries, creating a dynamic flavor profile. Tangerine peel and pink peppercorn provide brightness and complexity, all heightened by an insanely mouthwatering acidity. This wine is vibrant, refreshing, and full of life.
Vineyard & Region
The famed Alder Springs Ranch located 12 miles east of the Pacific Ocean is perched above the small town of Laytonville. It spans over 6,000 acres with 140 acres of hillside vineyards planted at altitudes ranging from 1,750 – 2,700 feet above sea level. Warm days with bright sun, cold nights, and rocky soils provide near-perfect growing conditions for cool-climate grape varieties like Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Syrah. Alder Springs is widely considered one of the finest vineyards in North America. Our Syrah from Alder Springs comes from the very unique and picturesque “Spirit Rock” block.
Winemaking
Made from Syrah clone 470 sourced from the Spirit Rock block. These grapes are hand-picked, and fully destemmed, with 30% of the stems reintroduced during native fermentation. 3-day cold soak in an open-top tank, followed by three punch-downs each day to extract flavors. After a generous 19 days on the skins, the wine is aged in 50% new French oak barrels for a period of 15 months.
Our limited production, top-tier wines, the Single Vineyard Designates, are made exclusively from individual vineyards with highly distinctive, stand-alone characteristics. The 2021 Alder Springs Vineyard Syrah is one of these winery-exclusive Single Vineyard Designate wines. With only a limited number of cases produced, you are one of the lucky few to receive this wine. We hope you’ll enjoy it with your friends and family.
Stringer Cellars now makes their wine in Napa Valley and at the winery in the heart of Sonoma County. It’s a whole family affair: Casey serves as lead winemaker, Chip oversees operations, his brothers, Andrew and Tim, help with marketing and sales, and his wife, Brooke can often be found pouring tastings behind the bar. Their winemaking philosophy is simple: Use the finest grapes they can find from the best vineyard sites in California to make a small lot of wines you will not soon forget. Casey employs minimalist winemaking techniques, allowing the fruit and individual vineyards to shine through in each bottle.
At Stringer Cellars we believe that “wine is made in the vineyard.” To us the most important aspect of the quality of the finished wine is the initial quality of the grapes used to make it. Simply, you need great grapes to make great wine. To that end, we feel privileged to be working with fruit from some of the finest vineyards in America.
At Stringer Cellars we make wine that we want to drink. We embrace the highest winemaking standards along with traditional techniques to create wines that can be both powerful and elegant. This process is not the easiest way, but we feel it is the best way.
The wines made at Stringer Cellars are meant to be enjoyed around a table shared with friends and family, paired with laughter and great food.
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
2/7/2024 - Ben Christiansen wrote:
Tighly wound and quite fresh. Last vintage because there was allot of disease going on here. 30% whole cluster. A touch fruitier but still with savory violet notes to it. Good tension, very fine indeed.
Wonder if we’ll get any additional insight on that “last vintage” comment.
Hello again! I love Syrah, so i was super excited.
This bottle is nice. I usually don’t comment on packaging – i like the liquid more than the bottle – but this just has a nice heft, and the small wax dollop looked fancy.
The cork came out with a loud POP and a little wine flew out with it. This thing was filled tight!
With the cork removed, the air filled with winery / barrel room smell. The notes say 50% new oak, and i believe it. It’s… oaky.
Nose gave me raspberry, leather, wood, and quite a bit of alcohol burn. This is big and fruity, and scores zero points for the olivey/meaty side of the Syrah scale. This is full bore.
The taste is floral, and i’ll second that review RJQ posted. I wouldn’t say violet like that review, but it is flowers. Lots of flowers, lots of wood.
Now the downside – i came back to the glass about 30 minutes later and it had turned a little “dog” smelled. I asked my family if it was cardboardy, or funky in some other way, and both said simply “dog”. So i’m not sure if i got a barely bad bottle that took time to show off?
I ALWAYS very much appreciate Casemates letting me try new bottles. I’m not going to pull punches, but this wasn’t for me. Even before the off smells it wasn’t scratching my itch.
Once again, Alice has honored me with a tasting and I have once again answered the call. Ratting is so much fun and I really appreciate the opportunity to do so. So on to one of my classic “everyman I don’t know a ton about wine” reviews…
As stated above, pretty nice bottle. Fancy.
I got a little turned around with the cork, if I’m being honest. I also assumed this was a wax covering over the cork. It definitely looked cool, so please appreciate my hyper-birds-eye-view artsy photo of it.
The problem is that it is either NOT wax (plastic) or is the hardest wax I’ve ever encountered. So much so that it created an issue opening it resulting it cork damage as the opener kept sliding off to the side, rather than puncturing it in the middle as I would have preferred. In retrospect I just should have tried to lift it off first, but I had no idea I was dealing with a vintner’s chastity belt. A few cork shards in the bottle, but otherwise ready to go.
Once opened, it was lightly fragrant. Got floral notes and undertones of something more earthy. Tobacco maybe. And plum. It poured a deep red and more of those same odors came through in the glass.
I have not experienced many Syrahs. My go-to’s are Cabs, Malbec, and red blends, so it was nice to evaluate this on its own merits. I found my first taste to be sweet on top, a little tart and with a dry finish. Two glasses later, it held up, with a solid structure that pared well with some “fancier than takeout” Mexican food. The salt from the chips (and guac) was additive to the experience, as was the chocolate chip cookie which finished the meal.
This Stringer Syrah felt like an upscale experience to me all-around. I don’t know it would be a daily drinker… my palate is way to pedestrian for that. So, I’ll stick to my tried-and-true cabs and blends for now, but I did appreciate the complexity of this varietal and would consider it as a compliment to a “special occasion” dining experience.
Thanks for putting up with me (again) and for the opportunity to rat a bit with you all.
@ACraigL I do believe this is probably the first use of: vintner’s chastity belt
There have been a few others not quite like this, but dipped in some sort of armored polymer that is almost impossible to open without a Sawzall. Or risk of personal injury. Or both.
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: tax and shipping are not included in savings calculations.)
2021 Stringer Cellars Alder Springs Vineyard Syrah - $60 = 23.07%
2021 Stringer Cellars Syrah, Alder Springs Vineyard, Mendocino County
Tasting Notes
Vineyard & Region
Winemaking
Specs
What’s Included
3-bottles:
Case:
Price Comparison
$672/Case for 12x 2021 Stringer Cellars Syrah, Alder Springs Vineyard, Mendocino County at Stringer Cellars
About The Winery
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Estimated Delivery
Tuesday, Sep 3 - Wednesday, Sep 4
2021 Stringer Cellars Alder Springs Vineyard Syrah
3 bottles for $64.99 $21.66/bottle + $2.67/bottle shipping
Case of 12 for $199.99 $16.67/bottle + $1/bottle shipping
Interesting CT TN
2/7/2024 - Ben Christiansen wrote:
Tighly wound and quite fresh. Last vintage because there was allot of disease going on here. 30% whole cluster. A touch fruitier but still with savory violet notes to it. Good tension, very fine indeed.
Wonder if we’ll get any additional insight on that “last vintage” comment.
@rjquillin my Guess is that they had to replant that block or something.
Hello again! I love Syrah, so i was super excited.
This bottle is nice. I usually don’t comment on packaging – i like the liquid more than the bottle – but this just has a nice heft, and the small wax dollop looked fancy.
The cork came out with a loud POP and a little wine flew out with it. This thing was filled tight!
With the cork removed, the air filled with winery / barrel room smell. The notes say 50% new oak, and i believe it. It’s… oaky.
Nose gave me raspberry, leather, wood, and quite a bit of alcohol burn. This is big and fruity, and scores zero points for the olivey/meaty side of the Syrah scale. This is full bore.
The taste is floral, and i’ll second that review RJQ posted. I wouldn’t say violet like that review, but it is flowers. Lots of flowers, lots of wood.
Now the downside – i came back to the glass about 30 minutes later and it had turned a little “dog” smelled. I asked my family if it was cardboardy, or funky in some other way, and both said simply “dog”. So i’m not sure if i got a barely bad bottle that took time to show off?
I ALWAYS very much appreciate Casemates letting me try new bottles. I’m not going to pull punches, but this wasn’t for me. Even before the off smells it wasn’t scratching my itch.
Thanks all!!
@radiolysis you save enough for a day 2/3 note to see if the k-9 resolves?
@rjquillin I do in fact have the rest of the bottle in the fridge. Let me try a nip! For record keeping: delivered on Wednesday, opened yesterday.
DAY 2:
Still oaky, woody, grippy. A little less floral but still on that vein.
Once again, Alice has honored me with a tasting and I have once again answered the call. Ratting is so much fun and I really appreciate the opportunity to do so. So on to one of my classic “everyman I don’t know a ton about wine” reviews…
As stated above, pretty nice bottle. Fancy.
I got a little turned around with the cork, if I’m being honest. I also assumed this was a wax covering over the cork. It definitely looked cool, so please appreciate my hyper-birds-eye-view artsy photo of it.
The problem is that it is either NOT wax (plastic) or is the hardest wax I’ve ever encountered. So much so that it created an issue opening it resulting it cork damage as the opener kept sliding off to the side, rather than puncturing it in the middle as I would have preferred. In retrospect I just should have tried to lift it off first, but I had no idea I was dealing with a vintner’s chastity belt. A few cork shards in the bottle, but otherwise ready to go.
Once opened, it was lightly fragrant. Got floral notes and undertones of something more earthy. Tobacco maybe. And plum. It poured a deep red and more of those same odors came through in the glass.
I have not experienced many Syrahs. My go-to’s are Cabs, Malbec, and red blends, so it was nice to evaluate this on its own merits. I found my first taste to be sweet on top, a little tart and with a dry finish. Two glasses later, it held up, with a solid structure that pared well with some “fancier than takeout” Mexican food. The salt from the chips (and guac) was additive to the experience, as was the chocolate chip cookie which finished the meal.
This Stringer Syrah felt like an upscale experience to me all-around. I don’t know it would be a daily drinker… my palate is way to pedestrian for that. So, I’ll stick to my tried-and-true cabs and blends for now, but I did appreciate the complexity of this varietal and would consider it as a compliment to a “special occasion” dining experience.
Thanks for putting up with me (again) and for the opportunity to rat a bit with you all.
@ACraigL I do believe this is probably the first use of:
vintner’s chastity belt
There have been a few others not quite like this, but dipped in some sort of armored polymer that is almost impossible to open without a Sawzall. Or risk of personal injury. Or both.
Please just give me the screw-caps.
@ACraigL @pmarin … and no capsules
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: tax and shipping are not included in savings calculations.)
2021 Stringer Cellars Alder Springs Vineyard Syrah - $60 = 23.07%
Very peculiar that the abv has two decimal places and also it happens to be 1488.
@Ten9Eight it is weird, but the specific number seems like a coincidence. Here’s one at 14.85%
https://www.stringercellars.com/product/detail/2S21CSNAPA/