A new wine for us, this vineyard was planted to our specifications in 2002. Situated at 800 feet on the southwest face of Sonoma Mountain, it faces Petaluma and the Pacific and thus is quite cool—consistently the last vineyard we harvest. This exaggerates the Syrah character of smoked meat, white pepper and green olive.

Highlighted Reviews: 2005 Vintage

92  Steven Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar May/June 07
Deep ruby. Intensely aromatic nose offers potent cassis, blackberry, licorice and floral notes. Sexy and impressively pure, with bright red and dark berry flavors underscored by zesty mineral and pepper notes. There’s more than a suggestion of the Northern Rhone here. Shows great energy and punch on the finish, which boasts outstanding persistence and a very sexy combination of fruits and spices.

92-95  Robert M. Parker Jr.'s The Wine Advocate December 2007
David Ramey has started to make some very impressive Syrahs although admittedly they are very limited in production. A new cuvee, the 2005 Syrah Rodgers Creek (92-95) is another Sonoma Coast bottling of 340 cases. This is also co-fermented with 3% Viognier, but no stems were utilized. The wine is peppery in addition to notes of black olives, blackberry, chocolate, and pepper. Smoked meat notes are also present in this wine, which give it that undeniable animalistic Syrah appeal. This wine should drink well for a decade or more.