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Tasting Notes: Effusive aromatics of ripe blackberry and blueberry fruit are entwined with touches of graphite and smoky game. The exotic berry aromas are bolstered by an impressive dense and rich palate. Incredibly supple tannins draw out an exceptionally long, dark and sexy finish.
 James Laube, Wine Spectator: 95 pts
2006 Rockpile Vineyard Syrah Haley's Reserve
Intense and vibrant, with rich, full-bodied blackberry, wild berry and blueberry fruit that's deep and concentrated, focused and pure, ending with a long, persistent finish that gushes with fruit and is supported by ripe tannins. Drink now through 2015. --J.L.
 Robb Report 21st Annual Best of the Best
2006 Rockpile Vineyard Syrah Haley's Reserve
Leisure • Domestic Red Wine
Jeff Cohn, the former winemaker at Rosenblum Cellars—a producer of particularly fine vineyard-designate Zinfandels—stepped out on his own in 2006 to devote his full energies to JC Cellars. His modus operandi resembles that of his former employer, Kent Rosenblum: Establish relationships with the finest growers across the state to produce modest quantities of immodestly great wine. Although Cohn produces more than 20 different Rhône-style wines in his Oakland, Calif., warehouse-cum-winery, the Syrahs he has sourced from the Rockpile Vineyard—a rugged scrap of terrain situated on a peak above Lake Sonoma—are his masterpieces. The JC Cellars 2006 Rockpile Vineyard Haley's Reserve Syrah is as intense and generous as the vineyard is spartan and bleak. The scent of wildflowers greets the nose, while unctuous brambleberry juice and concentrated black-cherry liqueur wash over a deep core of ripe tannins. —B.A.
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