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Northern Rhone Syrah Vines

Four Syrahs in seven days…. I tried for seven Syrahs, but new world Syrah (second only to Malbec) is one of my least favorite types of wine so I find four to be both an overwhelming number and an admirable effort. The thing about New World Syrah is that each one seems to be imitating an Old World blue print, but imitating it poorly and without replacing what’s lacking with anything new.

How did the personal challenge turn out? Well, I didn’t get any “I <3 Syrah” tattoos, and I didn’t throw any of the bottles out the window onto the street (as I expected to do) so I’d consider it a smashing success! Here’s the rundown:

Quinta de Viluco Reserva Especial Syrah from the Maipo Valley, Chile 2005: $20… Dark fruit, dark chocolate, and a enormous body. Really, truly fun to taste. Between three people trying it, we finished the bottle, and I bought two more to pour at dinner parties. It was obviously working at being a Crozes-Hermitage, but failing at having any complexity.

The Wolftrap Syrah from the Western Cape of South Africa 2009: $15… Wow, this is ripe! Fruity, fruity, and fruitier, BUT it’s also smoky. Mostly, it’s really burnt apricot pits… and what is this? It has some Viognier (and Mourvedre) in it!? Ah, that explains the smoke even more than the South African heritage.  The Cote-Rotie in the northern Rhone of France is mostly Syrah with often just a little bit of Viognier in it. The name translates roughly as “The Roasted Coast” and the Viognier adds a little hint of citrus so the burnt apricot pits coming through in the Wolftrap make perfect sense in this context. I can’t say the Wolftrap was a good bottle, but I liked it- probably just because of the Viognier’s ability to add some finesse and make the wine fun to taste.  Two people, some quite sarcastic conversation, and most of the bottle finished.

Coriole Vineyard’s Redstone Shiraz from the Mclaren Vale of Australia 2005: $20… This wine was supposed to be a Cornas… again, a Northern Cotes-du-Rhone version of Syrah that has a very jammy, red fruit and spice quality to it. Of course, it’s not a Cornas; it is a quick-finishing Australian.  I didn’t like it, but I think that was mostly because I’m prejudiced against Australia.  It was easy, red, and boring… it actually tasted a lot like the movie Avatar (yes, I know my roommate and I are the only two people in the world who didn’t like it).

Barrister’s Syrah from the Columbia Valley of Washington 2004: $25… Hermitage is the flagship Syrah of the Northern Rhone. It was loved by Russians Tzars. The complete AOC produces fewer bottles than many highly sought after American brands of wine. More importantly, Hermitage tastes like coffee, leather, and chocolate, and it finishes (when aged correctly, i.e., 10+ years… even 50 years if you’re doing it right) like velvet. The Barrister tastes exactly like a Hermitage, but finishes with the finesse of a cup of cold bodega decaf.

The better question is why do I keep doing this to myself?

Australia, Chile, France, New World, South Africa, Syrah, Wine Reviews | No Comments

the #1 thing I look for is having it be so very, very varietally/terroir expressive that it makes me feel the same way I felt the first time I really “got” the taste/aroma of a type of wine. Much like Summer Roberts, I started my wine career with a very high academic aptitude, but no intrinsically gifted palate, so a wine needs to evoke a very specific taste and memory to get three stars from me… a few examples:

- Dry Alsatian whites need to smell like petroleum… I learned this while watching the first five minutes of the 3rd episode of The Wire… I hated the first two sips of the wine (SO OILY!) and the first two episodes of the show (NOTHING HAPPENS… it’s like trying to start Anna Karenina in media res at the mushroom picking scene and without the whole “Happy Families are all alike” thing. argh!) When the show came together though, my palate followed suit … the third sip is the charm! Tropical fruit and petroleum is a beautiful flavor marriage!

- Cabernet… no matter where it’s grown… needs to smell like cassis… red or black, ripe or unripe… Cabernet needs to smell like cassis for me. Why? Because, I really “got” Cabernet the first time when I was tasting with Jane (who worked for the James Beard foundation for years and started the most perfect little wine shops in the world) and a rep poured us a Paso Robles Cab that had 0% terroir but was 100% varietally expressive, and she said, “wow, that’s a lot of cassis… at least, it’s obviously Cab.” From then on, I was able to spot a good cab in a blind tasting from a mile away.

- Gevrey-Chambertin must have a distinct aroma of Robitussin… which is probably why I don’t like Gevrey-Chambertin… yes, it’s Pinot Noir, and I love Pinot Noir (not true, I love funky Pinot Noir), but no matter what euphamisms people use for Robitussin (e.g., Juniper Berries, Licorice, Wormswood, etc.) it still smells like Robitussin when it’s done correctly.

Alsace, Cabernet Sauvignon, Old World, Pinot Noir, Red Burgundy, Wine Questions Answered | No Comments

and the best ones for the price were from New Zealand. I did this at the Michael Skurnik Pinot/Germany/Austria/Champagne tasting on Monday. I want to say I was surprised, but that would be a lie; New Zealand has so few vines growing compared the rest of the world that there is still more community-based quality control than almost any other country in the world. Seeing your neighbor grow bad grapes is much like seeing your neighbor littering- i.e., UNACCEPTABLE.

For $20, you can get a VERY good New Zealand Pinot Noir that’s the equivalent of a $40 run of the mill 1er Cru Burgundy, and for $40 you can get a Pinot Noir that is the equivalent of a $70 bottle of 1er Cru Burgundy. I’m really not sure how or why people are paying more for other Pinot for boring bottles from California.

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Ok, so it’s only halfway through January, but nonetheless Mocali’s Brunello di Montalcino might is the best wine I’ve had all year. I split it with three friends, and that makes it $10 a piece with the discount I give myself… for a full price bottle, it would be $11 a glass for someone else to do the same.

Why are we paying  $10, $12, and $15 for a glass of “pretty good” wine at restaurants all over town, when you can split a bottle of UNBELIEVABLY GOOD wine with a couple friends for the same price at home…Why do people not do this more often? Is it that our apartments are too tiny to fit four people in them? Is it that we just love the 2am train ride home? Is it that we just love ordering waitstaff/bartenders around being served?

The last Chianti I had in a restaurant was $10 for glass, and it tasted like sour cherries and cedar. Mocali’s Brunello though (Brunello is basically Chianti on steroids), tastes like sour cherries, strawberry sherbert, wet cedar, cinnamon, peppercorns, and a stick you caught on fire in a fireplace but just ran under cold water and is still steaming.

Next time when you’re meeting people at a bar suggest that you just pick up a $40 bottle of wine and head to the nearest living room available… you’ll have the same conversation, taste amazing wine together, and save $100.

Brunello di Montalcino, Italy, Old World, Sangiovese, Wine Reviews | No Comments

Some people may know I’m in a fight with myself to figure out if I should become an Alsatian, South African, or New Zealand expert. Right now, New Zealand is winning. I’ve spent $30 this week on tasting New Zealand wine, and it has delivered more in flavor than any other area. Yes, Alsace pairs with the cool “fusion” foods of the moment. Yes, South Africa is obvious in blind tastings (do you like smoke? then you like South Africa!). Yet, New Zealand is making wine taste new again.

Other than a few select areas I can’t afford to pop just for “education,” (Condrieu, I’m looking at YOU), New Zealand wines give me more terroir driven notes than any other place… AND it’s small enough overall that I might one day taste every wine made there.

How do you say no to that?

ps. Specifically, their Riesling and Pinot is amazing in the $14 range… Their cab is tops in the $25. Please, don’t buy Sauvignon Blanc from them though… it’s just too awesome to be interesting there right now (oxymoron much?)!

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