Horsepower Syrah High Contrast Vineyard 2016 | 750 ml.

JD100 Jeb Dunnuck April 11, 2019

"From a vineyard planted in 2013, the 2016 Syrah High Contrast saw loads of stems and mostly neutral barrels. This thrilling wine has a Chave Hermitage-like purity and class as well as gorgeous notes of cassis, black raspberries, smoked earth, and graphite. It’s deep, pure and layered, incredibly layered, pure, and long, with a finish that won’t quit. This isn’t for those looking for an inky, massive wine, but it’s pure class, complete, amazingly long, and elegant. Give bottles a few years in the cellar and it’s going to shine for 15–20 years. (Jeb Dunnuck)" (100 pts.)

RP96 Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate 30th Dec 2019

"The 2016 Syrah High Contrast Vineyard initially wafts from the glass with a rocky dustiness, then reveals an elegant black and red-fruited core of aromas, oozing with seductively bright and focused black raspberry notes, followed by red and purple flowers, a line of stemminess and dried herbs de Provence on the lifted and aromatically complex nose. Medium-bodied on the palate, the wine is ethereal at first, then compounds in the mouth with a mineral tension, the fruit turning a touch tarter across the mid-palate, showing incredible precision and balance. The wine continues to evolve with a fantastic expression and long, drawn-out finish for this young vineyard that was just planted in 2013. Only 335 cases were produced. If you can afford it and you can find it, buy it!" (96 pts.)

VN92 Vinous Dec 2019

"Fresh dark red. Complex scents of dark raspberry, boysenberry, musky herbs, dark chocolate, brown sugar and flinty minerality. Quite dense, thick and deep, particularly for very young vines, conveying a strong saline character to its flavors of black raspberry, cherry liqueur and minerals. This large-scaled, mouthfilling wine finishes ripely tannic and long, with a late note of chocolate-covered cherry. Ultimately a bit salty for my taste (the pH is a very high 4.1) but there’s plenty of fruit too. Incidentally, Christophe Baron bought a total of 18 acres with his general manager Trevor Dorland. While all of the acreage technically lies within The Rocks, only half of it features the round stones typical of this district, according to Dorland." (92 pts.)