2008 Syrah Garys' Vineyard Santa Lucia Highlands

In addition to the new 2008 syrahs I also tasted two 2007 syrahs that were too out of whack to evaluate last year. Both of these wines show impressive depth of fruit, with Copain's now-typical lighter touch, and plenty of aromatic complexity, but will reward at least another four to five years of patience. In light of smoke damage in 2008 to the AndersonValley and greater Mendocino vineyards that Wells Guthrie works with, he has opted not to make any vineyard-designated pinots or syrahs from those regions. He sold off everything, but what he could salvage of the pinot noir was bottled as a straight AndersonValley wine. This was a painful economic decision for a small, relatively new winery but Guthrie said that "the grapes were wrecked" and that there was nothing that he could do, or wanted to do, to avoid reality.