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Jeb Dunnuck - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
"The 2013 Syrah Reva Alban Estate Vineyard is the largest production Syrah of the three vineyard designates. It's another beautiful looking 2013 that has tons of upfront appeal, full-bodied richness, incredible purity and a building, yet sweet, sweet tannin. It picks up more and more smoked meat characteristics with time in the glass, and like all of John's 2013s, will offer tons of pleasure in its youth, yet also evolve gracefully."
96 Lisa Perrotti-Brown - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
"Very deep purple-black colored, the 2013 Syrah Reva Alban Estate Vineyard reveals a drop-dead beautiful nose of violets, potpourri and black forest cake over a core of preserved plums, mulberries and creme de cassis plus a waft of star anise. Full-bodied, rich and flamboyant in the mouth, the seductively ripe, generous fruit is well-framed by satin-textured tannins and just enough freshness, finishing very long and perfumed."
94 Wine Spectator
"#79 WS Top 100 Wines of 2017!
Refined yet dynamic, with a structured and balanced core of acidity and tannins framed by formidable black raspberry, smoky meat, licorice and orange zest flavors that build momentum toward polished tannins. Drink now through 2026. 2,000 cases made."
94 Josh Raynolds - Vinous Media
"Youthful purple. Expressive, mineral-accented aromas of black and blue fruit liqueur, licorice and incense, given spicy lift by a peppery quality. Plush and expansive on the palate, offering sweet cassis, blueberry and fruitcake flavors that show excellent depth and a suave floral pastille flourish. Delivers an impressive blend of richness and vivacity and closes sappy, smooth and very long, featuring slow-building tannins and a lingering mineral note."
"In the earliest years of Alban Vineyards, I lived in a rented green house propagating cuttings. When I wasn’t making vines, I was busy looking for the future home for all the vines in my nursery. I spent 7 years looking at possible vineyard sites all over the Central Coast of California. Whenever I found a promising site, I negotiated a due diligence period during which I could do soil and site analysis. While mapping out the last piece I’d ever evaluate (because it was the one that turned into Alban Vineyards) I happened to name a little ridge on one part of the ranch ‘Reva’s Ridge’. It was a play on words incorporating the name of a Kentucky Derby winner: Riva’s Ridge, and my mother’s name which is Reva. Clearly I’d been in the sun too long and I will admit that I am a total ‘mama’s boy’. Years later, after calling the vineyard Reva and tagging the first barrel as Reva, I embraced the obvious: I named the wine Reva.
The grapes that go into Reva (97-100% Syrah with the balance Viognier) are from neutral sandy soils and portions of ranch that are chalky and quite alkaline. This combination makes for a wine with dark color, concentrated flavors of black fruits, fennel, and graphite. Perhaps the most distinguishing note of Reva is a unique iodine and oyster shell aromatic that is unlike anything in our other Syrahs. The wine is aged 3.5 years in barrels before bottling unfined and unfiltered." -Winery
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