Dunnuck 96:
Another of Smith’s terroir-driven cuvées, the grapes sourced from 52% Thomasen’s Split Rail and 48% Lester, the 2024 Syrah Sandstone Terrace is all black fruit and black pepper, with high acidity. Savory and sweet spices complement a cool-climate core of tight tannins and 100% whole-cluster intrigue, with less angularity and more velvety texture, gamey underbelly, and coniferous complexion than other vintages yet so much more to say. This is still a baby. Let it hang a couple years and enjoy best 2028-2038.
And Vinous 95:
The 2024 Syrah Sandstone Terrace is a super-distinctive wine from two sites in the Santa Cruz Mountains: Split Rail and Lester. It’s a decidedly delicate, red-fruited interpretation of the variety, but it never lacks body, identity or palate presence. Salted raspberry, granite-like minerality, a lift of eucalyptus and a persistent peppery undercurrent meet in a crunchy yet serious framework that is at once both super complex and utterly crushable. The finish is drawn out and resonant. This is the standout wine in the range, by far.
Like all the Samuel Louis wines, very limited in production – and just utterly sublime.
And only 13.3% alcohol, too.
Savvy wine lovers (as well as critics, winemakers and somms) have long recognized Syrah as THE under-appreciated and thus underpriced California red wine varietal. And in distinctiveness, quality and value, this one is simply the best.
