Novy

Wine Enthusiast rated the Novy Family Wines Santa Lucia Highlands Syrah in the mid-90's a couple of issues ago. I rarely find a 95 available in PA, so I was surprised to see this one in stock at the Waterworks store. I put a couple in the cellar, and we tried one recently. I don't know about 95, but it was close. A really nice Syrah, good color, nose and fruit, and a nice finish. I replaced the bottle the next day.

They also have a more generic Novy Syrah, the Sonoma County, for about $10 less. Not as good, but also worth the price.

The Santa Lucia Highlands is sourced in the Central Coast area, where the winery is also located, I believe (Santa Rosa?). We have been to that area, our son lives in Bakersfield, and the central coast wineries are about three hours drive. There is some interesting stuff going on there: Turley has there winery in Paso Robles, and a tight end from Penn State started Eberle, also in Paso Robles. Both worh the visit. We will try to look up Novy during our next trip...

WS just came out with a 94 rating on the Syrah Santa Lucia Highlands Susan's Hill Vineyard 2006, and the standard Sonoma County 2006 bottling got a 90. Note these ratings are for the '06s while the LCB is currently stocking the '05s, but clearly they're doing good things

Mark

I don't possess the olifactory gifts to distinguish the subtleties that get the extra points above 90 but this was certainly a bump above. It was one of those that just felt good in your mouth. It's accessible enough to just drink and held up to our steak just fine. I also thought the 95 might be easier to understand if we opened in 2010 or 2011.