Friday morning, I pulled a 2004 Kosta Brown Amber Ridge Syrah from my cellar to take to Bill's monthly lunch. However, I opened the bottle to ensure it was worthy. What I tasted was sappy and sweet plummy fruit with a raw oak edge. "Porty," I thought with dismay, and then went: "PORT! OHMYGOD, I'm supposed to bring a port this month!" So the KB got recorked and was served to dinner guests that evening. It hadn't changed much since morning: plum and raspberry fruit, sappy and heavy in the mouth, a little spice and a good amount of wood. An obviously well made wine if you're a fan of the style--and my guests adore California zin for it's sweet heat so it all worked out quite well--but nonetheless it is pretty much a poster child for why I don't buy California syrah.
Then yesterday I learned that my father passed away. Please, no sympathy, we were estranged and hadn't spoken since the 1990's, but nonetheless I spent the day quite blue about all that should have been but couldn't be and went into the wine cellar in search of something special to close the day with. I chose a Washington wine, a 1999 Betz Pere de Famille. I bought half a dozen of these second hand about six years ago and was disappointed with the early bottles. At age ten, they were still way too tight and short, making me wonder if the wine would/could ever come around. Washington wines just don't do that. But oh my, had it finally come around: an astonishingly sweet and attractive nose of blackberry fruit and blue flowers. Color: very dark purple. On the palate, more blackberry with cedar, black cherry, licorice, minerals and a streak of red bell pepper in the finish. Concentrated and yet silky, the wine is uncommonly full of stylish character and structure. Parker once described another Washington wine, DeLille's Chaleur, as Washington's Lafite. Well, I'll play that game and call this Washington's Leoville Las Cases. One of the best Washington wines I've had, and a great example of what's possible here.