2009 Syrah Terra Alta Vineyard Santa Barbara County

Joey Tensley's wines represent some of the most intense expressions of Rhône varieties – Syrah in particular – in the Central Coast. The wines are aged for about 11 months on their lees, with an addition of SO2 just prior to bottling. Tensley uses around one-third whole clusters and mostly neutral oak, which allows the unique qualities of these sites to come through. Tensley's 2009s are big wines. A spring frost lowered yields by about 15%. Temperatures rarely climbed above 90 degrees and the evenings, especially around harvest, saw temperatures dip into the 40s. Rainfall was lower than normal, which contributes to the richness and concentration of the vintage. Today the 2010s are far more approachable than the stacked and packed 2009s. I would prefer to drink the younger vintage first. The 2010s are the product of a cooler year and have 1% lower alcohol across the board. It was not an easy year, as a brutal heat spike arrived three weeks before harvest. Unfortunately, I was not able to taste the 2010 OMG and BMT, but I hope to do so next year.

Joey Tensley looks like a big kid but he has been making wine under his own label since 1998. He told me that he's a big fan of clone 99 syrah "because it gives the spicy character and blend of power and finesse that makes syrah so interesting." It also does well in the cool, high-altitude vineyards that Tensley prefers; in fact, the Terra Alta bottling is made entirely from clone 99. Pricing here is very fair and Tensley pointed out that his prices haven't changed in five years. After we tasted through his 2009s, Tensley showed me his 2010 Turner and Colson Canyon syrahs, which had just been bottled. I'll formally review them next year but based on how they showed in September (the Turner vibrant and complex and the Colson Canyon massive and loaded with blue fruit) I'd have no hesitation jumping on them when they are released. We also tried a bottle of his 2002 Thompson syrah, which was sweet, smoky, silky and complex; while fully mature, it isn't in any danger of flying off the cliff any time soon and shows only the vaguest hint of drying out.