TN: Rhys Alesia - 2005 Fairview Ranch Syrah (Reductive)

Todd_Laubach · December 18, 2011, 6:44pm

I popped one of these on Friday night and it was almost undrinkable due to a very reductive nose that smelled like burnt rubber. Has anyone else experienced this with this particular wine? The wine had a great mouth feel and finish but I could not get past the reductive smell. The wine reminded me of 2004 Chileno which was completely undrinkable.

I put the remainder of the bottle in the refrigerator overnight and it never blew off and was still very pungent 24 hours later.

I have had many great Alesia/Rhys wines and you can’t hit a home run on every wine.

Todd_Laubach · December 21, 2011, 3:00pm

Anyone have any similar experience? Thoughts?

Kevin_Harvey · December 21, 2011, 3:21pm

Todd,
I haven’t tried one recently but will. Meanwhile I haven’t heard other reports of burnt rubber but it is possible for reduction to vary by bottle.

Henry_Willmore · December 21, 2011, 3:45pm

I had one last week. No reduction as far as I could tell. Here is my note:

Quite a nice nose. Dark-fruited, briny, a hint of smoke. The palate is less giving, with some rustic tannins. But the overall sense of austerity ameliorates with aeration and food. The strong metallic notes remain, but are less prominent than the last bottle I had three years ago. Overall, much better integrated than that previous bottle.

Cris_Whetstone · December 22, 2011, 4:18am

I’ve had this wine several times and have never run into that much reduction in it. It is a very nice wine that for a while was selling for a song on WineBid.

Todd_Laubach · December 22, 2011, 2:07pm

Thanks. This is my second bottle out of 5 and I did not detect this in the first bottle. As always, Rhys has excellent customer service. Kevin emailed me to let me know that if the wine was flawed that they would replace it.

I look forward to trying the next 3 bottles and have high hopes that this was just an off bottle.

Reese_Ferry · December 22, 2011, 3:26pm

I had a bottle of this wine last week and I didn’t get any reduction. While I didn’t take formal notes I rather enjoyed it over the course of three nights.

Jason_Hagen · December 22, 2011, 5:25pm

Certainly bottle variation on these. I have had some that were undrinkable. Even after leaving open for days there would be no change. Others that were very nice. To me Fairview Ranch has a certain stinky element so I have always noticed that.

Jason

Chris_Seiber · December 22, 2011, 6:04pm

The two I had were both really extreme in their funkiness and weirdness. I could see how a small subset of wine geeks might find it interesting, but this is defintely out there.

This was my last tasting note from earlier this year:

2005 Rhys Alesia Syrah Fairview Ranch, Santa Lucia Highlands. Group 5.4 (8th) / my 87 (7th): A pretty extreme wine. Despite opening the bottle to slow ox 12 hrs before the tasting, there was still a huge nose of barnyard, sweat and cheddar cheese. Wild, but in a better way, on the palate. A dark and dense wine, featuring black fruit, olive, soy sauce and hint of black pepper. The group received this better than I expected overall, but it’s not a wine for most people. 14.2% alcohol.