Esca 2004 Napa Valley Syrah
- Overall rating 
Queue price $22.99
From the Winery
The 2004 Esca Syrah was made from 100% Napa Valley grapes from the Mount Veeder and Oakville AVAs. The wine was aged for 18 months in 100% French oak barrels and was bottled in April 2006.
Esca means "allurement or "bait" in Italian. Just as the nectar of the Hibiscus flower attracts the bee on the label, these wines entice the enophile.
Tasting Notes
This Syrah is ripe and unctuous. It offers aromas of black cherry, espresso and bittersweet cocoa. The wine has mouth coating tannins and a long finish.
| Composition | 100% Syrah |
| Appellation | Mount Veeder, Napa Oakville, Napa |
| Aged for | 18 months |
| Aged in | 100% French oak |
| Bottled | April 2006 |
| Production | 450 cases |
Member Reviews
On the nose I found vanilla, chocolate, anise, ...
Sonadora
September 4
On the nose I found vanilla, chocolate, anise, plums, blackberries and spice. I should really sit around smelling my spice rack as I'm not so great at picking out exactly what spice I find in a wine. I can usually get cloves, cinnamon, and a few others, but the rest I just describe as "spice." In the mouth the wine was full of plums, with fresh blackberries, very dark cherries, and anise rounding out the flavors.
The wine is very smooth and fruity up front with a slight spice and some tannins in the back of the palate, but it's drinking beautifully now.
Read my full review in my blog post, Bzzzzzz.
The wine is very smooth and fruity up front with a slight spice and some tannins in the back of the palate, but it's drinking beautifully now.
Read my full review in my blog post, Bzzzzzz.
jonasblank
August 8
Blast of alcohol on the nose, very tannic as other reviewers have noted. Fruit-forward style. The alcohol and tannin make it very unbalanced.
Do you like oak?
winehiker
Oct 16, 2007, 5:26 PM
This wine seemed a bit bitter at first taste. While I enjoyed its full-bodied blackberry, herb and spice flavors, the oak tannins gripped my palate a little tightly. I came back to it the following evening, and the wine had softened considerably. However it still seemed unbalanced - not sweet enough - without food. I paired it with leftover lamb roast and peppered gravy, which seemed to work well.
eljefe
Oct 12, 2007, 1:36 PM
This is a nice Syrah but I wouldn't call it a super long finish. It's very smooth and drinkable now, especially with the "easy access" twist off closure! And I hesitate to call it "flabby"... but it didn't have the level of acidity that I prefer in a Syrah.
