2009 Syrah Rodgers Creek Vineyard

Once again, I tasted an amazing range of wines with David Ramey. The Chardonnays capture a beautiful middle ground of ripe, California fruit but treated to a long, Burgundy-inspired elevage that relies in natural yeasts and no filtration, among other choices, to bring out the personality of each of the sites Ramey works with. To me, the Ramey Chardonnays have a Chassagne-like richness that is quite appealing, yet they remain laid back in style by California standards. The Cabernets run the gamut price-wise, but I find a lot to like across the entire range. The Syrahs are in some ways the outliers, because they are made by a winemaker with a very Cabernet-influenced palate. As good as Ramey's Syrahs are, it is impossible not to notice a house style that emphasizes an overt expression of fruit over what might be termed more varietal character, especially in the regular bottling. As for the reds, the 2011 Cabernets are quite strong for the year. In 2011, Ramey bottled a far greater percentage of his juice into the entry-level Claret than normal, and saved only the best lots for the Cabernets, a decision that has paid off handsomely. The 2010s are just as fabulous as they were last year. At the end of the day, though, that is a relatively small critique for a winemaker who excels in so many ways. In my mind, Ramey is one of the top wineries in the United States. Readers who aren't familiar with these wines owe to themselves the check them out.

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."

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.

"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."