Wine Recommendation
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Wine Recommendation

Bighorn Cellars 2003 Syrah, Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyard (Napa Valley)

Bighorn Cellars

2003 Syrah, Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyard
(Napa Valley)



This is a big wine in every way. Its aromas are bold with warm berries, its flavors are brooding with delicious black fruit, and the alcohol, listed at 15.2 percent, will give you a whopping good glow. But in the end, the wine shows a wonderful roundness with lots of baking spices such as cinnamon and bittersweet cocoa powder.

But here’s the thing: You just have to let it sit in the glass or decant it for an hour before you drink it, and it’ll settle down, smooth out, and give you great pleasure. Better still, if you can be even more patient, hold onto it for a couple of years and then drink it over the ensuing 10 years.

The Sugarloaf Mountain vineyard – full of alluvial deposits and volcanic rock – sits at the southeastern tip of the city of Napa, in the Vaca Hills. The wine was fermented in French oak barrels, all of which were two years or older. There were but 340 cases produced.

Reviewed October 19, 2006 by Alan Goldfarb.

The Wine

Winery: Bighorn Cellars
Vineyard: Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyard
Vintage: 2003
Wine: Syrah
Appellation: Napa Valley
Grape: Syrah / Shiraz
Price: 750ml $28.00

Review Date: 10/19/2006

The Reviewer

Alan Goldfarb

Alan Goldfarb has been writing about and reviewing wine for 17 years. His reviews have been published in the St. Helena Star, San Jose Mercury, San Francisco Examiner, Decanter, and Wine Enthusiast, among others. Not once has he used a point system, star system, or an iconic symbol to quantify a wine. What counts in Mr. Goldfarb’s criteria when judging a wine is: how it tastes in the glass; is it well-constructed; its food compatibility; and presence of redeeming regional attributes.