2009 Syrah Reva Alban Estate

The exposition and limestone-rich soils of John Alban's vineyards ensure healthy acidity levels in the grapes regardless of vintage in this mostly hot region, he told me this fall.He pointed out that the east-west valley in which his estate sits pulls cold air and fog in from the Pacific Ocean, and that much of the soil on which his vines are planted is heavily chalky old seabed, not unlike that on the west side of Paso Robles."That's why you can get that interplay of ripeness from the constant sun and daytime temperatures with a strong undercarriage of acidity and structure," he added.And Alban's wines have never been shy about their ripeness and power, a fact that he shrugged off by pointing out that "to try to hold them back is a form of intervention."He added that he doesn't have to worry nearly as much as most growers about acid loss leading up to the harvest, "so the harvest can happen when the fruit is truly ripe but still fresh."

John Alban's 2009s are just as beautiful from bottle as they were from barrel. Overall, the wines are relatively open, succulent and accessible, although the most structured wines in this range will clearly benefit from further time in bottle. Alban fans will also want to check out the Forsythe The Mason (Mourvedre) as well as two new wines being made under the North label, all listed separately in this issue.

This is a fabulous set of wines from John and Lorraine Alban. Quite simply, I was blown away by what I tasted. As I noted last year, the whites are increasingly made in a more energetic style, not a bad thing as the fruit is already so expressive from the start. Over the years, a similar evolution has taken place with the reds. The inky, black color of the Syrahs is now gone. Today, Alban favors lengthy barrel aging for his top reds, a technique he compares to “braising” in cooking, which requires softer and gentler fermentations at the outset. Beginning around 2006, Alban started doing fewer pump overs and in general encourages longer, slower fermentations. The wines used to go into barrel with some sugar still left to ferment, while today they go in drier than in the past. Over the years, new oak levels have also come down. Most of the current releases are 2008s, a vintage Alban describes as characterized by a spring frost, drought and cloudy days with less heat and sunlight than is typically the case. Readers may want to check out my video interview with John Alban for more on current and upcoming vintages.

My visit with John and Lorraine Alban and winemaker Glenn Skrabanik was a highlight of the ten days I spent in the Central Coast. I tasted all of the 2008s and 2009 reds from barrel, plus the 2007s from bottle. Those lucky enough to visit the winery won't see barrels ordered by conventional numbers, rather each series of barrels carries the names of thematic categories such as Kentucky Derby winners, Academy Award winners, etc. It is fair to say no one has done more for the Rh?ne Ranger movement in this country than John Alban. First and foremost, the Alban wines have led the way in terms of quality for many years. A founder of the hugely successful Hospice du Rh?ne, Alban has also planted and developed a number of clones that bear his name and that are used widely throughout California. For most of his early years Alban was forced to sell fruit from his property and rent out portions of his winery as a custom crush facility to make ends meet. Amazingly, after all these years 2011 is the first vintage in which Alban is not selling fruit and is vinifying only his own wines. Readers will find no shortage of compelling wines in vintages The 2007s are big, powerful wines that show the opulence and weight of the year. Vintage 2007 was the first of three drought years that followed the generous 2005 and 2006 harvests. Alban gave his three top Syrahs a whopping 44 months in 100% new oak barrels. The 2008s are the product of a season marked by a spring frost. A blast of heat followed over Memorial Day, but the rest of the summer was relatively cool, with little sunlight because of the forest fires that year. As great as the 2007s are, I found myself equally drawn to the 2008s for their greater delineation and complex, multi-dimensional personalities. The 2009s are warm, radiant wines with silky, forward fruit and highly expressive aromatics. The 2008s and 2009s are still in barrel, though, so there is plenty of time to follow their evolution. The 2010 Viognier shows one of the newer directions Alban is moving towards. In 2010 Alban did one irrigation in July to keep the canopy more robust and less deleafing than in the past, plus no batonnage on this wine.