Description
Jelly Roll, “Rim Rock” Syrah
For round two of our Syrah Showdown, we head to San Luis Obispo for Jelly Roll’s gobsmackingly savory 2013 Syrah. The bullet points are similar to Petrichor’s: impeccable site, legendary team, small production, and insane value. The difference is terroir.
This more southerly location is California’s goldilocks zone for Rhône varieties, a place whose siren call has lured in some of the hottest winemaking names. Because, it’s here where Syrah reaches its most glorious, Rhône-like heights. If Sonoma’s Petrichor was analogous to the filigreed elegance of Saint-Joseph, in San Luis Obispo we enter into Syrah’s most feral, peppery, brooding depths. Lovers of aged Cornas, take note: Jelly Roll’s Syrah bellows with wild olive, pepper, and smoky power followed by a chorus of Central Coast freshness. Fast approaching a decade of age, Jelly Roll is fully primed, every deep and brambly facet unlocked and expanded for your current drinking pleasure. This is a rare opportunity indeed to experience California Syrah at its apex, at yet another incredible price!
Jelly Roll is the project of two California lifers, Jim Knight and Peter Hunken. If you wanted to make world-class Syrah, you’d want your resumé to look like Peter’s. He started at the legendary Stolpman vineyards, where he was assistant winemaker until 2006. Then, he began a Syrah-focused project called Holus Bolus with the Central Coast’s most famous winemaker, Sashi Moorman. Sashi has since gone on to focus exclusively on his Piedrasassi label—which Peter was also involved with—and Peter has taken the reigns at Holus Bolus. This is a man who knows every secret of Central Coast Syrah, and he brings this unbelievable skill to full fruition with Jelly Roll.
San Luis Obispo is a sweeping county that counts Paso Robles as one of its subregions. While some wineries in Paso still coast on the region’s reputation for boozy Cabernet and Zinfandel, it’s Rhône varieties that excel most here. Need proof? This is where the Perrin family, owners of Châteauneuf-du-Pape’s venerated Château de Beaucastel set up their American winemaking operations. But even amidst this vaunted landscape, the “Rim Rock” vineyard from which Jelly Roll is sourced stands out. Own-rooted Syrah vines here, now entering their fourth decade, plunge deep into acidic soils. They’re constantly buffeted by coastal breezes, slowing ripening and balancing the deep sun-derived power of the fruit with invigorating acidity. And yields here are naturally low, offering up a minuscule 1.3 tons per acre of incredibly concentrated berries. Amongst the cadre of Rhône variety diehards in SLO, Rim Rock is the Syrah Grand Cru.
Jelly Roll’s 2013 “Rim Rock” Syrah is the sort of wine you can smell across the room when served just above cellar temperature in Bordeaux stems. It pours a vivid ruby-purple with hints of pink on the rim and the nose explodes with blackberry preserves, blackcurrant, dried violets, black olives, damp herbs, tobacco, roasted meat, green peppercorns, juniper, and smoke. The palate is wild, full, lush, booming with more inky black fruits while maintaining incredible lift and tension. This is a brilliant marriage of elegance and savory intensity, a wine firing on all cylinders with more promising years of pleasure yet. With barely 200 cases produced for the entire country, I suggest you grab what little remains!
