2009 Claret

Wine Details
Producer

Ramey

Place of Origin

United States

North Coast

Sonoma

Color

Red

Grape/Blend

Bordeaux Blend

Reviews & Tasting Notes

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As David Ramey's winery continues to expand he has outgrown his downtown Healdsburg facility and recently set up another one, not far away and on the south side of town. Ramey mused about the market's (and wine critics') obsession with single-site bottlings, saying that it "detracts from and diminishes the fact that plenty of blended, appellation wines are made from incredibly high-quality fruit from the best sites in the region." The perceived exclusivity and assumed rarity of single-vineyard wines blind people to the virtues of the so-called little wines in the range, which Ramey believes is unfair. He told me that the longer he works with syrah, the more he realizes that it needs to be treated like pinot, not cabernet, which is how he used to look at the variety. "Cabernet is mostly about working with the tannins but syrah really needs a lighter hand to show its best."

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Drinking Window

2014 - 2024

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David Ramey is one of the few California winemakers who thinks in terms of structure, not just flavor, something that sets him apart from many of his peers. All of the wines I tasted at Ramey's cellar just outside Healdsburg were terrific. I also sampled a number of older wines, all of which have held up very well. Best of all, most of the wines remain very fairly priced considering the quality of what is in the bottle. My visit ended with the 2001 Cabernet Jericho Canyon Road, which was stunning. At age 10 it remains an infant. I only wish I owned it. The next best thing is Ramey's new Annum bottling from 2009 forward, the vintage in which the main vineyard source switched to Shartsis, a parcel in Rutherford close to Dana Estates's Helms vineyard. The Pedregal, from a vineyard in Oakville is perhaps even better, but it also costs twice as much.

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"Five to seven years old is the sweet spot for my chardonnays but they plateau for a while after that," David Ramey told me in March. To make the point we tasted bottles of his 2001 Russian River Valley and Hudson bottlings, both of which were still eneregtic and mineral-driven, with serious heft. "Chardonnay is the red wine of whites if it's made right," he said. "There's a texture that it can achieve that's sometimes more serious than pinot noir, and it can handle the richest foods." We talked about the ongoing debate over alcohol levels and what he called "the narrow obsession with that particular number. Why not talk about pH instead?" he asked. "That's even more important for the impression the wine gives when you drink it. Alcohol has always been the bogeyman in the U.S. and this is just another manifestation of that obsession."