2016 Kongsgaard Hudson Vineyard Syrah Napa Valley 750 ml

Cabernet Sauvignon rules Napa Valley. But if there’s one bottle that could ever take down the king, I’d bet on the Kongsgaard Hudson Vineyard Syrah.  

Lauded by critics and coveted by collectors, Kongsgaard’s benchmark Syrah occupies a place in the Napa Valley consciousness usually reserved for cult Cabernets. Robert Parker has called it “one of the most provocative and individualistic Syrahs made in California,” and the 2016 is one of the greatest of all time, earning 98+ points from Parker’s Wine Advocate and 99 from Antonio Galloni of Vinous, who called it a “dramatic, statuesque Syrah” that’s “simply magnificent.”

This Syrah is one of the great wines of the world, bar none. It’s a collector’s piece that Robert Parker has called a “dead ringer for a great Côte-Rotie from Guigal,” and it’s made in tiny amounts by a master whose name evokes reverence, admiration, and perhaps even a little jealousy (in winemakers, that is). This Syrah sells out every year to a fervent mailing list, and I’m exhilarated to bring it to you today. I sincerely hope you take advantage of this chance to add this showpiece to your collection—I’m definitely cellaring a few myself. 

The 2016 Kongsgaard Hudson Vineyard Syrah is nothing short of a sensory experience: A deeply pigmented midnight purple hue in the glass, it absolutely envelopes you with its heady blend of black cherry, blueberry, blackberry, cocoa nibs, flint, charcuterie, coriander, violet, and lavender—aromas that all harmonize as the wine opens. It’s full-bodied and robust, but with tightly strung, sinewy-textured tannins that make for a meaty palate. With mulberry, cherry, cracked pepper, smoked meat, and mocha notes intertwining and evolving into a long, lingering finish, this Syrah is sumptuous now, but will reveal further depth and complexity to those patient enough to let it evolve, which it will do for decades. 

John Kongsgaard is a fifth-generation Napan who planned on being a literature professor—until 19 years of age, when he ran an errand to the Stony Hill winery near St. Helena. John went to pick up wine for his father, a connoisseur and respected judge, and found Stony Hill proprietor Fred McCrea chatting with customers while leaning on his fireplace mantel, glass of wine in hand. 

The moment permanently changed John’s ambition. From then on, his goal was to be a winemaker. So after earning his English degree at Colorado State and spending a stretch of time in Europe, John enrolled at Napa Valley College, with an eye toward UC Davis’s graduate program in Viticulture and Enology.  

After finishing the master’s degree, John learned from two eminent mentors, André Tchelistcheff of Beaulieu Vineyard and Nathan Fay, who farmed the Fay Vineyard made famous by the Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars single-vineyard Cabernet bottling. After his first job in Sonoma, John took a job at Newton, experimenting with Old World techniques and bottling Napa Valley’s first unfiltered Chardonnay. In the subsequent years, his professional path crossed with more wine-world luminaries than we can name: He collaborated with Fritz Hatton, gleaned wisdom first-hand from Michel Rolland, and trained Aaron Pott and Andy Erickson.

In 1995, John and his wife Maggy made the first vintage of Kongsgaard, and since then, Kongsgaard’s The Judge Chardonnay, which is sourced from low-yielding vines at the family’s Stonecrest Vineyard, has become perhaps California’s most sought-after white wine. The Hudson Syrah, made in equally small amounts, is no less coveted and no less magical.

Kongsgaard’s two-acre plot of Syrah at the Hudson Ranch in Carneros—which was founded by John’s Texas-born Davis classmate Lee Hudson in 1981—consists solely of volcanic soils, and was planted to John’s specifications. He ferments the Syrah on native yeasts, ages it for two years in 40% new French oak, and bottles it unfiltered. What results is the product of passion, patience, and restraint: a wine of stirring depth, incredible power, and endless nuance. Just 200 cases of the 2016 Kongsgaard Syrah Hudson Vineyard exist. 

The advice John has heeded from mentors has not only applied in the cellar: Two of his influences, Warren Winiarski of Stag’s Leap and Peter Newton, counseled him to achieve a level of production he could live with, then resist expansion. And resist. And resist. And that’s exactly what John Kongsgaard has done.

This is one of Napa Valley’s must-try wines, and we’re grateful to have it. Claim a bottle or two today, and you’ll be grateful as well—ten, twenty, and even thirty years down the road.