Wine Focus September 2023 - Benchmarks of Syrah

[David M. Bueker]

Northern Rhone anyone? Hermitage? Cote Rotie? Maybe the "humble" St Joseph or Crozes-Hermitage?

Syrah is one of those grapes that gets little respect, yet produces some stunning wines. As with everything it can be misused, and produce some pretty scary wines as well. The Shiraz boom of the late 1990s may very well have permanently tainted one of the most noble grapes in the entire world of wine.

To borrow from a less polite wine industry joke: What would you rather have? Syrah or pneumonia? At least you can get rid of pneumonia.

Syrah is one of those grapes that gets little respect......

Really?? The market doesn't seem to agree. I have a small handful of bottles from N. Rhône which, according to CT, have auction values around €500 and they don't include any LaLa which is probably worth much more. At that level, I am more likely to take them to an auctioneer rather than drink them. Of course, as a terroirist, I should say that that the market is valuing Côte Rôtie, Hermitage and specific producers rather than Syrah/Shiraz.

I hope to participate better this month. The last fortnight has been blighted by a course of antibiotics which have kept me off booze.

[Robin Garr]

I hope to participate better this month. The last fortnight has been blighted by a course of antibiotics which have kept me off booze.

Feel better soon, Tim!

I hope to participate better this month. The last fortnight has been blighted by a course of antibiotics which have kept me off booze.

Feel better soon, Tim!

Thanks Robin. Dinner without wine is quite boring. This evening, I took a small glass of a quite nice Syrah, Grenache, Mourvèdre blend from Languedoc to get back into the swing after finishing the medication yesterday.

Back in the 1980s Northern Rhones were relatively cheap and widely available at wine stores in the greater Boston area. Then they got Parkerized, prices went into the stratosphere, and shops stopped carrying them. I still have a few Hermitages from both Chaves (J. L. and Bernard) and some Vernay Cote-Rotie kicking around. But I haven't bought any Northern Rhone wine in years.

I once asked a wine merchant for six bottles of Auguste Clape's Cornas. He said, "Only six bottles? You mean you don't want a case of the Clape?"

-Paul W.

Various Okanagan wineries are promoting their Syrahs. I was fortunate to try a couple in the Cawston/Keremeos region. Highlight for me was the 2019 Courcelettes Syrah. Stone and gravel soils dominate. Blueberry, black pepper, lovely fruit balance, one for the cellar for sure. Lamb would fit nicely.

[Jenise]

Bob, I have four or five Okanagan syrahs in the cellar. Nota Bene, Le Vieux Pin, Nichol and Orofino, off the top of my head, the last of which is from the area you speak of.

On Saturday night I opened a 2018 Bedrock Syrah to go with green chile burgers. I did not take notes, but it's evolving nicely and was a great choice for the meal.

[David M. Bueker]

Love those basic Bedrock Syrahs. They punch way above their weight/cost.

Just opened a 2009 Eric Texier Côtes du Rhône Saint-Julien-en-Saint-Alban Vieille Serine Domaine de Pergaud, and it is just singing even on pop and pour. No rush - there's plenty of runway, but damn it's good right now.

[Jenise]

Yes, the Bedrocks are fine stuff. My brother and his partner (the major fan of Cougar chards I spoke of elsewhere) loved it. I really can't get a grip on John's preferences. Despite the fact that he'll drink almost anything and for himself he lives on tropical boxed Cal Chard, he really enjoys the more dialed-back style of wines I serve. This Bedrock syrah fits neatly between our two worlds.

[David M. Bueker]

• 2009 Eric Texier Côtes du Rhône Saint-Julien-en-Saint-Alban Vieille Serine Domaine de Pergaud - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côtes du Rhône Saint-Julien-en-Saint-Alban (9/4/2023)
  Sometimes wines just settle into a groove. Tonight’s bottle has done that. Where five years ago it was still disparate elements, it has now knitted into a whole picture. The classic meat, earth, tar and floral elements of Syrah are all there, and merged together to form one piece, a picture that obeys the rule of thirds with each element in the proper place of the entire composition. The finish trails off into the distance, inviting me to enter the picture.

[Jenise]

Last week I opened three bottles of Washington syrah from producers most of you have never heard of. Still, this is my world these days, and I persist.

Took the first two to a friend's home for a fried chicken dinner.

2014 Buty Rockgarden Estate Walla Walla Valley Red Rhone Blend
Bright and polished with lively, happy red and black fruits and some black olive, but very lowkey on the meat and tapenade notes one might wish for. A very modern style and even a little crunchy though almost a decade old, especially next to a Gramercy Lagniappe which is old school all the way.

2017 Gramercy Cellars Syrah Lagniappe Columbia Valley
Meant to grab a '12 but took this by mistake to a friend's where decanting wasn't possible. Drank okay but in a no-man's-land between the lusher fruit of childhood I experienced at the winery in 4/21 when I bought it and the better place it's on its way to. Leave them alone for now.


Took to a neighborhood tasting last Friday night where the theme was "Any Wine That Starts With 'S'" (horrible theme, not my idea). Grape variety, winery name or place of origin were all eligible. I chose this four-banger (count 'em: saviah, syrah, stones, speak) just to be funny, even though it's a more serious wine that this particular occasion demanded. Already included it in another TN but since I'm adding to the syrah thread, here we go again.

2013 Saviah Cellars The Stones Speak Estate Syrah Walla Walla Valley
PnP'd with good results. A little gritty but had splendid Rocks syrah substance and character; tastes expensive. More air time would have relaxed it nicely. I have no track record beyond this vintage for aging these wines and am not sure how it will age well from here, but it's delightful right now.

[David M. Bueker]

I am familiar with Grammercy Cellars!

Notes on the Arcadian I opened coming tomorrow.

This wine is a Syrah dominated blend from Languedoc. Some purists consider that Syrah is an interloper in Languedoc, which is taking over the place which should rightfully belong to Carignan. Nevertheless it is present in force in a large number of cuvées. It rarely shows here the bright cherry, tapenade and bacon flavours or the elegance prevalent in the N.Rhône valley, with some distinguished exceptions such as Peyre Rose and the former Alquier estate whose wines combine some of these features with Mediterranean warmth.

2020 J.M. Aujoux Terrasses du Larzac L'Estrade - France, Languedoc Roussillon, Languedoc, Terrasses du Larzac (11/09/2023)
This wine, picked up at a Foire aux Vins, is a fairly typical Languedoc blend of Syrah 70%, Grenache 20% and Mourvèdre 10%. It is a quite powerful wine showing dark fruit with touches of herbs, pepper and liquorice, a polished texture, decent acidity and a finish with firm tannins whose effect is strengthened by 15% alcohol but it remains quite well balanced. This would be very good with a rich autumn stew. Good wine and I feel tempted to buy more bottles at the Foire price of <€8.
Posted from CellarTracker

[David M. Bueker]

• 2005 Arcadian Syrah Purisima Mountain Vineyard - USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Ynez Valley (9/11/2023)
  Effortless - that's the first word that came to mind. It was followed by integrated. All the pieces in the right places, and so a completely harmonious wine. The red fruits are still there, complemented by floral and subtle smoky notes. It seems largely resolved, though there is a hint of tannic grip on the finish - feels like this is about the perfect time to drink up and enjoy. The texture and integration of the wine made it special for me - as if the wine had been painstakingly sculpted from a single grape vine.

[Robin Garr]

E. Guigal 2018 Crozes-Hermitage ($32.99)

Shades of black rise from this dark reddish-purple Northern Rhône Syrah. E. Guigal Crozes-Hermitage shows deep and brooding scents of blackberries and black cherries, with back notes of black pepper and black olives singing harmony. Full-bodied flavors follow the nose, shaped by fresh, gripping acidity; tannic astringency is present but seems to be resolving in this impressive five-year-old wine. 14.6% alcohol. U.S. importer: Vintus LLC, NYC. (Sept. 14, 2023)

FOOD MATCH: Beef and lamb are the obvious companions with this full-bodied wine. We enjoyed it with Marcella Hazan's thin pan-broiled steaks with tomatoes and black olives, using Beyond Steak Seared Tips as a plant-based alternative.

WHEN TO DRINK: It's drinking very well now, and the importer suggests that it will reward aging under good cellar conditions for 10 years after the vintage.

VALUE:
It's a fair value at Wine-Searcher.com's $32 average U.S. retail, but it's available deeply discounted at some retailers, so look around if you're a bargain hunter.

WEB LINK:
Here's the producer's info sheet in English. For more detailed information, here's a detailed info page from importer Vintus, as well as this PDF tech sheet.

FIND THIS WINE ONLINE:
Check prices and find vendors for E. Guigal Crozes-Hermitage on Wine-Searcher.com.

Learn about E. Guigal and find other wines from its portfolio at this Wine-Searcher link.

Follow this Wine-Searcher link to discover Crozes-Hermitage and browse other wines from the region.

I opened a 1990 J-L Chave Hermitage last night and just posted a review. Now that's a benchmark for syrah if ever there was one.

-Paul W.

2020 François Villard Crozes-Hermitage Certitude - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Crozes-Hermitage (9/15/2023)
Decanted for four hours. Bordeaux colour, quite dense, nice legs. Nose of olives, black berries and black currant. On the palate olives again, leather, some sweaty notes and the blood and iron we love in Northern Rhone syrahs. Firm acidic structure, medium finish. Still quite young. 89+ for today. Very good with gamey rack of lamb and green beans.

Posted from CellarTracker

[David M. Bueker]

Had a glass of 2020 Holus Bolus Presquile Vineyard Syrah (Santa Maria Valley) tonight, and was super impressed by the depth of savory/umami character in the wine.

[Jenise]

So here is the most inadvertent syrah tasting note ever.

Here's what I thought I'd opened for sipping out on the patio after a long day, one of the last two 70F degree days we'll see until next Spring. We have been drinking a lot less lately and I hadn't even planned to open wine, but Bob requested it. So I gave him a choice of "Big red, white, or somewhere in between." He chose the last one so I opened a pinot noir I'd placed in the drinking queue a few weeks ago. Here's the wine, and what I said about it during that first glass:

2019 Big Table Farm Pinot Noir, Oregon
Great nose. Floral, aromatic. Has a very slight cloudiness, though I thought BTF wines were filtered. On the palate, vibrant red fruits with some salinity, reminds me more like Sonoma Coast pinot than Willamette, and there's just a touch of black olive there, but only a touch. Overall it's a pretty, medium-bodied wine, and delicious but probably just over the crest of its peak drinking window.

We then decided to finish the bottle vs. limit ourselves to one glass each as I'd planned because it likely wouldn't hold up for finishing another day. Bob went into the house to get the rest of the bottle. Came out a few minutes later because he couldn't find it. Big Table Farm!, I said, should be on the prep counter. Pig on the label. He said oh I found that one, and he held up the bottle, "but it's not open. This one (he held up a different bottle in the other hand), however, is."

Well shit howdy. Not only not the BTF, but a syrah. From the Sonoma Coast, which explains a few things. So here's the revised tasting note on the wine we actually had:

2016 Radio-Coteau Syrah Las Colinas Sonoma Coast
PnP'd. Floral, aromatic. Red fruit on the palate with salinity and a hint of black olive, but only a hint. Medium bodied and absent most of syrah's usual clues--no bacon, no pepper--it drinks more like pinot than a syrah. But a good one. At or slightly past peak. No rush, but I'd drink not hold.

[David M. Bueker]

Accidental blind tasting!

[Jenise]

Indeed. But truly, I can't imagine another syrah I've had in ages that could pass for a pinot. Let alone one from California. (This was my first ever Radio Coteau.)

[David M. Bueker]

• 2020 Holus Bolus Presquile Vineyard Syrah - USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Maria Valley (9/22/2023)
  Consumed over two nights, this was 100% savory the entire time. Tapenade, soy, smoke, leather, crispy roasted meat edges, there was no umami left out. Somewhere in the vortex was a core of dark red fruit, but it barely peeked out past the edges, like a reduced fruit sauce left behind in the kitchen when dinner was served - brought out to grace the last few bites of the main course. The depth and breadth on the palate was impressive, with the California sunshine converted to an amplifier of the savory notes, rather than just adding more fruit. Structure is there, but hidden for the most part. Impressive and intellectually interesting wine.

1990 Hermitage Rouge "La Chapelle", Paul Jaboulet Ainé

Dark brick-red color. Intense, textbook smoky syrah aromas and fruit on the aroma and palate. Perfect balance and a long finish. No hurry at all to drink it up, but it's hard to imagine it could get any better over time. Wines such as this are why Hermitage is so famous. Gerard Jaboulet, alas, is no longer with us and the Jaboulet wines are not what they once were, but this is from when the domaine was at the top of its game. Triple Curly with an extra Woo! Woo!

-Paul W.

[David M. Bueker]

It's also from back when that wine did not cost $200.