2011 Syrah Timbervine Ranch Russian River Valley

Alex Davis compared 2012 on California's North Coast to 2010 in Burgundy "because there's great quality from top to bottom with both whites and reds."It's one of those rare vintages where if you screwed it up you really need to find another job, he added.Yields in '12 were double those of 2011 "and it's the same thing in '13, with the same quality as '12," so these are heady days for Davis and his colleagues.Speaking of 2011, Davis told me that he actually prefers the savory, wild character of his '11 syrah to its '12 sibling, which is "more civilized, yes, but we're talking about syrah here."As for his current focus, he told me that at this stage he has the winemaking pretty much where he wants it so he is able to devote even more time to his vines.For example, his old-vines Hillside vineyard, which his father George planted in 12-foot-wide rows, "needed to be tightened up," but instead of replanting it he decided simply to plant new vines in between the existing ones, thus literally doubling density without suffering the lost years associated with ripping out and replanting vines.

"If you had hillside vineyards you were far better able to get away from most of the problems" of the June and early October rains in 2011, Alex Davis told me.The heavier soil-dominated vineyards in the area, especially those with younger vines that had been irrigated through the summer, were the most at risk for rot, "which meant that you were dropping moldy grapes from what was already a low crop because of the lousy flowering and cold spring."It's not a vintage for people who desire "brooding dark-fruited pinot" he said, "but that doesn't mean that the wines lack concentration.The berries were really small and we got great phenolics so it's wrong to dismiss the wines based simply on the weather."