Lot 71 2024 Napa Valley Syrah 750ml

Another Flagship offering, Lot 71 Napa Valley Syrah hails from the best Syrah blocks in the massive, legendary "vineyard that must not be named" that straddles Atlas Peak to Pritchard Hill....the same high-altitude, hillside vineyard as Lot 16 2023 Napa Valley Syrah, as well as the recently released Lot 75 2024 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. 

Quite frankly, from a drinking experience and quality perspective, Lot 71 Syrah is every bit as good as Lot 75 Cabernet Sauvignon but at way less than half the price!

In my release notes for Lot 16 I wrote the following:

Folks, this is Syrah turned up to 11. Now, don't take that the wrong way...this is not fat, overwrought, overdone shite. This fantastic Syrah is, indeed, pure dynamite but it is precision-built dynamite guided by one of Napa's premier consulting winemakers along with the wineries own rising star winemaker. Everything here is in proportion: massive structure, massive complexity, all chiseled from stone and perfectly balanced. Yummy and hedonistic yet, at the same time, restrained and elegant. I'm pretty sure this is the best Syrah they've ever produced and purely a function of the marketplace that any of it made its way into my hands. Trust me on this one Syrah-lovers!

So, does the 2024 hold a candle to the 2023? Absolutely. However, this is definitely a different animal from a much warmer vintage. Where the 2023 is tightly coiled with a decidedly cool-climate earthiness, Lot 71 2024 Syrah is richer, riper and more opulently-styled with an open-knit-yet-still-massive, rock-chiseled, palate-staining structure. Similar to the current 2023 vs 2024 Napa Valley Cabernet paradigm, Lot 71 2024 Syrah will drink waaay better in it's youth than the Lot 16 Syrah from the 2023 vintage. Will it attain the glorious depth that Lot 16 will eventually unfold over the next 10-20+ years? Nope, but it will drink gloriously over the next decade, not to mention a couple of months after bottling!

Squid ink in the glass with dark purple rim. The bouquet is immediately ripe and effusive violets, purple fruit like plums and boysenberry, clove and leather notes. As it opens, the fruit turns a bit more purple with boysenberry syrup and huckleberry jam notes underpinned with dark chocolate, iodine and black pepper and a bit of tar/scorched earth as it opens up. Powerful on entry with black and purple fruit, rock, cinnamon, and black pepper over massive mountain tannins unfurling waves of rock, blackberry and huckleberry fruit and pepper in an epic finish. Ripe and voluptuous but with massive, palate-staining structure and huge length. The extra elevation and diurnal swing of 1500-1700 feet of elevation served this wine well as it combines richness, depth, and an already open-knit complexity that will make it immediately appealing.

95% Syrah (single-vineyard) plus 5% Napa Carneros GSM we blended in (a component we held back from Lot 42 bottling)
80% new French oak
15.5 % alc.