Vertical Tasting of Purisima Red Wine

Over the past 23 years that we have been pro­duc­ing wines from our Purisi­ma Moun­tain Vine­yard, we have bot­tled 14 Purisi­ma Red Wines. The idea behind the Purisi­ma Red wine was to pro­duce a lim­it­ed bot­tling (around 2 bar­rels) of our best blocks only from excep­tion­al vin­tages. The ini­tial bot­tling of a Purisi­ma Red occurred in 2001, and we have bot­tled this wine in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.

In August 2023, we host­ed a ver­ti­cal wine tast­ing of our Purisi­ma Red Wines, tast­ing only eight of the 14 wines due to a lack of inven­to­ry of every vin­tage. The first Grenache/​Syrah blend wines are ter­rif­ic and have aged excep­tion­al­ly well, but the final 100% Syrah wines in the flight were eye open­ing. Their qual­i­ty was ridicu­lous­ly out­stand­ing: dark, pow­er­ful, ele­gant, struc­tured, com­plex Syrah wines with an amaz­ing abil­i­ty to age.

For those who could­n’t attend this spe­cial tast­ing event, I’ve com­piled my tast­ing notes for each of these wines below.

2001 | 60% Grenache 40% Syrah

From a leg­endary vin­tage in San­ta Bar­bara, the 2001 is a bit tired on the nose, but the ripeness still comes through on the palette where the fruit is still sweet and plump and the acid­i­ty still lingers across the palette. This wine is past its prime although a bot­tle with a bet­ter cork would have shown a bit bet­ter. The 2001 vin­tage was amaz­ing and you can still expe­ri­ence what made it so spe­cial, ripe, gen­er­ous fruit and great bal­anc­ing acidity.

2005 | 60% Grenache 40% Syrah

From a cool, wet, late har­vest, the 2005 was always pow­er­ful in its struc­ture and tan­nins. The 18 or so years of age­ing have real­ly helped this wine to shine and find bet­ter bal­ance. Toasty oak, stewed fruits and hints of grilled herbs on the nose lead to a plush, round mid palette where more red and black fruits and spices emerge, fin­ish­ing long with big, present tan­nins that car­ry the fla­vor on the back end. The tan­nins are firm but not dry­ing and still frame the fruit and fla­vors beau­ti­ful­ly. Drink this vin­tage now and over the next few years.

2009 | 53% Grenache 47% Syrah

Fas­ci­nat­ing aro­mas of game, dried aged beef and stewy red fruits, this wine is peak­ing right now. Creamy, round and lush on the palette with ful­ly resolved tan­nins, this big, rich vin­tage of Purisi­ma is a stand out. Fine struc­ture and good acid­i­ty car­ry the fruit on the long fin­ish which shows more Grenache fruit than Syrah at this time. Drink­ing beau­ti­ful­ly now this spe­cial vin­tage will age beau­ti­ful­ly for the next decade or more.

2012 | 53% Grenache 47% Syrah

Bright red fruits, toasty oak, vanil­la, bak­ing spices, pep­per, and gar­rigue aro­mas fill the glass of this vin­tage of Purisi­ma Red Wine. The fla­vors are up front where the wine is soft and round­ed upon entry. The mouth is filled with com­plex fla­vors of dark and red fruits, pep­per, vanil­la and spice, show­ing a round­ed mid palette and a firm fin­ish where the tan­nins remain present yet are almost ful­ly resolved. This comes across as youth­ful still and just com­ing into its peak drink­ing win­dow over the next 10 – 12 years.

2013 | 59% Grenache 41% Syrah

A sim­i­lar vin­tage to 2012, the 2013 shows sim­i­lar com­plex­i­ty of fla­vors and aro­mas, bright fruits, vanil­la, spice and a touch of gami­ness. The palette is soft and round yet built towards the back end of the wine when com­pared to the 2012 which is more upfront. The tan­nins are soft yet firm on the back end of the wine where the fla­vors fin­ish long with nice acid­i­ty and beau­ti­ful lift. This is on the younger side and should con­tin­ue to age nice­ly for the next 12 – 15 years.

2016 | 100% Syrah

The biggest wine of the flight, the 2016 is big, bold, dark and intense. Game, roast, black­ber­ry, plum, choco­late and pep­per weave their way through the aro­mas and fla­vors of this wine. Big and round­ed on the mid-palette, the wine firms up on the fin­ish where the tan­nins and pow­er­ful struc­ture help the bold fla­vors to linger on the mas­sive fin­ish. Still young, yet total­ly deli­cious right now, the 2016 will con­tin­ue to evolve as the tan­nins con­tin­ue to inte­grate into the wine. Should age for 20+ years or more.

2018 | 100% Syrah

From the leg­endary 2018 vin­tage, this com­bo of Block Six and Clone 1 Syrah aged in 100% New French oak bar­rels is stun­ning. Not as pow­er­ful as the 2016, the 18 bal­ances its depth and pow­er with ele­gance. The con­di­tions dur­ing har­vest were ide­al and this wine epit­o­mizes the Beck­men Syrah style. Bacon fat, roast­ed game, plum, choco­late and black­ber­ry aro­mas are out­go­ing and con­cen­trat­ed. The mouth is filled with more dark fruit, game, pep­per and choco­late fla­vors that glide effort­less­ly across the palette. Bal­anced and juicy on the fin­ish the wine shows the great acid­i­ty of the vin­tage. A stun­ning wine, it should age beau­ti­ful­ly for the next 20 years.

2019 | 100% Syrah

The 2019 vin­tage was very sim­i­lar to the 2018 vin­tage in terms of weath­er. It was anoth­er beau­ti­ful sea­son that pro­duced fan­tas­tic wines, high­light­ed by this release. Like all the wines in the flight, there is seri­ous inten­tion in craft­ing this wine. A clean, pure expres­sion of PMV Syrah, the 2019 shows its savory side a bit more than the 18. Woodsy spice, pep­per, cured meats, black­ber­ry and choco­late aro­mas and fla­vors are abun­dant. The wine is round and ele­gant in the mouth but shows some nice ten­sion on the mid-palette fin­ish­ing very long with smooth, fine tan­nins and great acid­i­ty. A young wine that is drink­ing great today, the 2019 should age nice­ly for 20+ years.

These wines are available to purchase. Please contact taylor@​beckmenvineyards.​com for pricing and availability.