Samuel Louis Smith Syrah Sandstone Terrace Santa Cruz Mts. 2024
96 Points, Jeb Dunnuck – 95 Points, Vinous
This is a gorgeous, gorgeous wine from the 2024 vintage that already has received its just due from critics: 96 points from Jeb Dunnuck and 95 from Antonio Galloni at Vinous. Vinous didn’t mince words when they called it “the standout wine in the range, by far.” That’s pretty darn impressive when you consider all the great California Syrahs in this range.
I loved this wine. It is delicate yet there is so much going on. The purity of fruit is incredible, the red fruit mixed with herbal and floral notes, all slowly unwinding in the glass. It’s elegant and hauntingly beautiful – so much so that I’m not even sure I’d recommend it with food. It’s a show on its own. A whole cluster marvel that knocks it out of the park in this 2024 vintage.
Original price was: $45.00.$39.99Current price is: $39.99.
Availability: In stock
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96 Points, Jeb Dunnuck
Another of Smith’s terroir-driven cuvées, the grapes sourced from 52% Thomasen’s Split Rail and 48% Lester, the 2024 Syrah Sandstone Terrace is all black fruit and black pepper, with high acidity. Savory and sweet spices complement a cool-climate core of tight tannins and 100% whole-cluster intrigue, with less angularity and more velvety texture, gamey underbelly, and coniferous complexion than other vintages yet so much more to say. This is still a baby. Let it hang a couple years and enjoy best 2028-2038.
95 Points, Vinous
The 2024 Syrah Sandstone Terrace is a super-distinctive wine from two sites in the Santa Cruz Mountains: Splint Rail and Lester. It’s a decidely delicate, red-fruited interpretation of the variety, but it never lacks body, identity or palate presence. Salted raspberry, granite-lite minerality, a lift of eucalyptus and a persistent peppery undercurrent meet in a crunchy yet serious framework that is at once both super complex and utterly crushable. The finish is drawn out and resonant. This is the standout wine in the range, by far.
Samuel Louis Smith Wines is a boutique micro-négociant based in Santa Cruz. Sam makes several different wines, but the total annual production is strictly limited to 1,300 cases per year. Sam is obsessive about terroir: “I’m really looking for high elevation terroir, cool climate, and organic farming…Mountainous terroir and organic farming are the tenets of the Samuel Louis Smith Wines brand.”
He picked that up from his mentor, François Villard, from the time he spent in the Northern Rhone. Clearly Sta. Cruz Mountains is the right fit, because every wine I tried from that man was truly outstanding – especially with a little time in the glass.
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