On October 22, our friends invited us along with Benyamin Cantz, proprietor of Four Gates Wine, and a few other friends for a Friday Night meal that would be accompanied by a vertical tasting of all currently released Four Gates Syrah(s). A vertical tasting is what it sounds like; vintages of a similar wine from a single winery. A horizontal tasting is common wines and varietals from multiple wineries and vintages.

We had the wonderful opportunity to taste the 2003, 2004, and 2005 Four Gates Syrah in the same sitting. The meal started off with a tasting of the 2004 Four gates Chardonnay. I have had two different tasting notes about this wine, one with toasted oak and butterscotch, and one being oaky and fruity. This time the wine showed off its toasty oak, butterscotch, ripe fruit, and lemon/citrus fruit, another hit.

I want to thank our friends for hosting the wine vertical. The meal was awesome and one that paired extremely well with the wines being served.

The wine notes follow below in the order they were enjoyed:

2004 Four Gates Chardonnay – Score: A- (no change from last tasting other than color being darker)
The nose on this electric gold colored wine is filled with heavy and luscious toasted oak, a whiff of burnt oak, lemon, melon, peach, toasted almond, spice, Crème brûlée, and butterscotch. The mouth on this full bodied wine is spicy with Crème brûlée, layers of concentrated toasty oak, along with butterscotch, melon, and a hint of almonds. The mid palate is packed with more oak, lemon, and bright acidity. The finish is long and spicy, with tasty oak, butterscotch, and lemon. The oak calms down a bit with time, but the flavors are still there with tight concentration and brightness.

2005 Four Gates Syrah – Score: A-
The nose on this purple to black colored wine filled with tar, chocolate, black pepper, licorice, alcohol, oak, black plum, blackberry, and thyme.  The mouth of this full bodied and layered wine is filled with mouth coating tannins, black plum, blackberry, and tar.  The mid palate plays off the mouth coating palate with more tannin, acidity, oak, and chocolate. The finish is long and smoky, with tar, black pepper, plum, and acidity.  Quite a nice wine that has a few more years left in it.

2004 Four Gates Syrah – Score: A- to A
The nose on this deep to brooding purple to black colored wine is screaming with inky black ripe fruit, cassis, blackberry, raspberry, plum, chocolate, tar, black pepper, and oak.  The mouth on this full bodied and velvety wine is inky and dense, along with waves of cassis, blackberry, and plum.  The mid palate of this wonderfully complex wine has integrating tannin, oak, acid, and tar.  The finish is long with tar, oak, chocolate, cassis, plum, and black pepper.

2003 Four Gates Syrah, Special Reserve, Santa Clara Valley (same as the last tasting) – Score: A
WOW! This is a killer wine. The first thing that hits you when you open this bottle of wine and peer into its purple-black stare is the ripe blueberry notes that come screaming out at you, along with blackberry, cassis, plum, tobacco, chocolate, tar, and rick oak. The mouth on this full bodied, mouth filling, concentrated, and structured wine comes at you in layers with fruit that follows the nose, ripe blackberry, plum, blueberry, tar, and oak. The mid palate is balanced with acid, oak, tobacco, and chocolate. The finish is super long, black, and spicy, with rich oak, chocolate, tobacco, tar, leather, and blackberry. This is a truly wonderful wine that is highly structured with lovely tannins and a wine that still has a few years left under its belt. The nose is killer with the lovely ripe blueberry and blackberry, along with the oak, tar, chocolate. It follows through with the mouth till its tantalizing finish. Quite a powerful that has its sea legs beneath it and bright horizon ahead.