Antonio Galloni’s 2017 Vinous Reviews

Anto­nio Gal­loni, the founder of the online wine pub­li­ca­tion Vinous, tastes our wines every spring and shares his thoughts in his Sep­tem­ber review. We are thrilled with the scores we received on all of our wines, espe­cial­ly our Syrah wine program.

“Steve Beckmen’s 2015 Syrahs – The wines are rich, ample and strik­ing­ly beau­ti­ful.” – Anto­nio Galloni 

2015 Purisima Mountain Vineyard Syrah Clone #1

Rat­ing: 94
Drink Date: 2018 – 2025
Date Tast­ed: Sep­tem­ber 2017
The 2015 Syrah Clone #1 Purisi­ma Moun­tain Vine­yard presents a dark­er fruit pro­file than the straight Purisi­ma Syrah, with more of an unc­tu­ous, inky feel as well. This is in a decid­ed­ly overt, flam­boy­ant style, and yet all the ele­ments are won­der­ful­ly fused together.

2015 Purisima Mountain Vineyard Syrah

Rat­ing: 94
Drink Date: 2018 – 2024
Date Tast­ed: Sep­tem­ber 2017
The 2015 Syrah Purisi­ma Moun­tain Vine­yard is a wine of real dis­tinc­tion. Pow­er­ful and deep, but not over­done in any way, the 2015 cap­tures the styl­is­tic mid­dle ground of intense fruit and savori­ness that is the sin­gle most dis­tin­guish­ing char­ac­ter­is­tic of Bal­lard Canyon Syrahs. The 2015 is not an espe­cial­ly big wine for the appel­la­tion, but rather a Syrah of impec­ca­ble bal­ance and class. I loved it. Anoth­er year or two in bot­tle will only help the wine come togeth­er even more fully.

2015 TLB

Rat­ing: 93
Drink Date: 2017 – 2023
Date Tast­ed: Sep­tem­ber 2017
The 2015 TLB Estate Cuvée, Beckmen’s Caber­net Sauvignon/​Syrah blend from vine­yards in Los Olivos, is anoth­er suc­cess. Blue­ber­ry jam, laven­der, spice, tobac­co and men­thol infuse a super-expres­sive wine that is brim­ming with per­son­al­i­ty and class. More­over, with its pun­gent fla­vors and feel, the TLB is a clas­sic Los Olivos wine.

2014 Purisima Mountain Vineyard Syrah Block Six

Rat­ing: 93
Drink Date: 2017 – 2024
Date Tast­ed: Sep­tem­ber 2017
The 2014 Syrah Block Six Purisi­ma Moun­tain Vine­yard emerges from the very top of the vine­yard. Today, the Block Six is quite ripe and pow­er­ful, with the slight­ly roast­ed char­ac­ter that is the sig­na­ture of the year. Even so, the 2014 will drink well with min­i­mal cel­lar­ing, espe­cial­ly at the din­ner table, where the for­mi­da­ble tan­nins will stand up to even the hearti­est of foods.

2015 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon

Rat­ing: 91
Drink Date: 2017 – 2023
Date Tast­ed: Sep­tem­ber 2017
The 2015 Caber­net Sauvi­gnon Estate is very appeal­ing. Blue­ber­ry jam, dried herbs, black olives and leather, along with the bold fla­vor pro­file that is typ­i­cal of Los Olivos Caber­nets, all devel­op in the glass. This is in an espe­cial­ly exu­ber­ant style, but it works, and nicely.

2016 Purisima Mountain Vineyard Viognier

Rat­ing: 90
Drink Date: 2017 – 2020
Date Tast­ed: Sep­tem­ber 2017
The 2016 Viog­nier Purisi­ma Moun­tain Vine­yard is fresh, per­fumed and invit­ing. Aging in steel and neu­tral oak keeps the fla­vors pre­cise and nuanced. Good vari­etal char­ac­ter in an under­rat­ed style. This is a ter­rif­ic showing.

2015 Cuvee le Bec

Rat­ing: 90
Drink Date: 2017 – 2020
Date Tast­ed: Sep­tem­ber 2017
The 2015 Cuvée Le Bec, Steve Beckmen’s entry-lev­el red, is quite tasty. In this vin­tage, Grenache set was more gen­er­ous than the Syrah, where yields were dec­i­mat­ed. The ripeness of the year comes through nice­ly in the intense dark cher­ry fruit, tobac­co and licorice flavors.