2002 Syrah Lorraine Alban Estate

.When John Alban purchased his property in EdnaValley, just over a ridge from the Arroyo Grande appellation, the locals told him the cool climate and acidic volcanic soils were best suited to making white wines, and of course back then most of the local whites were chardonnay.They warned him that he'd never be able to produce deeply colored red wines, and red at the time meant pinot noir.In short order, Alban began making some of California's best wines from syrah, grenache and roussanne, thanks in large part to the high quality of his clonal material.Today, Alban has mostly roussanne on the volcanic clay and gravel soils at the bottom of the property.Grenache and syrah are planted on chalk, which is especially prevalent at the top of his property, about 600 feet above sea level and exposed to cooling sea breezes (but warmer during the evenings because of the inversion layer).Alban told me that the 2003s show more hot-year character than the 2004s; he considers the latter vintage to be more aromatic.In 2004, he was able to pick well after an extended heat spike at the beginning of September, but in 2003 a burst of heat occurred at the end of September and beginning of October, making the harvest trickier.But the 2003s are highly concentrated, thanks to very low crop levels. I tasted the very strong 2003s shortly before bottling, as well as the 2004 reds from barrel.The newest crop of wines promises to be extraordinary, with the Reva and Seymour's holding out the potential for scores in the mid-90s, and the grenache and Lorrainecuvees barely a step behind.