Into Neck

Adam Tolmach, The Ojai Winemaker

So what makes the 2000 Thompson Special Bottling special–besides the wooden box it comes in if you buy six bottles? Well, we think Thompson is special every year, but, in 2000, the wine is extraordinary.

At Thompson, things looked like usual near harvest. Our spot at the top of the hill was ripening up more quickly than the rest of the vineyard, which is typical. Then we had an incredible hot spell that propelled the grapes from near ripe to over-the-top. I chose not to water down the grapes to normal sugar levels when they came into the winery, a decision that caused about 20 months of worry. The wine did not finish its fermentation, and, after it was put in barrel, it continued to bubble along. Wines that fizz along in the barrel are all right, but the problem is that they have the potential for turning quickly into vinegar. So basically we had to bite our fingernails continuously for almost two years. All that worrying must have protected the wine from harm, because, in the spring of 2002, it finally finished fermenting without any problems developing. The result of all of this is a wine that is super-sized, if that is not an oxymoron, because Thompson is always huge. That coffee-like chocolatey character, the cardamom spice, the tannins, –everything is amplified. The wine has been in the bottle for a year, and is just coming around now. Earlier, it was impossible to taste, and it still begs for cellaring. We have been making Thompson since 1997, and it is always an “extreme wine”, this one is just more so.

94 CellarTracker

Beautiful black fruit leaving a hint of black olive on the finish. A good amount of acidity. Dark, almost black in the glass. The nose is full of olive and roast meat. When comparing this note to a 3-4 year old bottle of Ojai syrah, it would look the same. The difference is 20 years of bottle age give this wine a subtlety because the initial force of alcohol does not need to blow off here. If this is what aged syrah is, I want more of it! 1/8/2022

94 CellarTracker

This wine was delicious. Deep purple color and full bodied on the mid palate. There were notes of coffee, chocolate and blackberry. A great Syrah. Sorry I don't have any more.  12/24/2021