Tried this last night at BBB:
1. Arnot-Roberts Syrah NorthCoast (13%) 2009: Very dark color; fairly strong green olive/graphite/slight peppery light blackberry/cranberry/Syrah slight licorice/tarry interesting nose; rather tart somewhat lean/hard/tannic green olive/tarry/licorice/graphite light cranberry/blackberry/Syrah flavor; med.long light cranberry/blackberry/Syrah/green olive some tarry/graphite pretty hard/tannic/angular finish; clearly a less-ripe style of Syrah with not a lot of lush fruit but a lot of very interesting things therein; clearly needs age. $35.00
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. The A-R wines are part of a new wave of Calif wines being made that are seeking more restraint/old-world style/lower alcohol/picking earlier.....YadaYadaYada. Wines that show more "balance" and are designed to appeal to the AFWE. At a paltry 13% alcohol, did this wine show "balance"?? No...not to my mind...unless you use the term "balance" as a code-word for lower alcohol. But I would not use "balance" to describe this (obviously) young wine in the sense of a young Ridge Geyserville. The tannins were pretty hard on the palate; the acidity level was pretty high. Was it a NorthernRhone style of Syrah (often used as a definition of "balance" in Syrah? Nope....not in the sense of the roasted/espresso character that I often get in the A-R Syrahs. It was Rhonish in style in that it reminded me for all the world of an EricTexier Syrah. That is, to my mind, high praise for this Syrah.
Did I like this Syrah?? Well...yes and no....mostly yes. It is not a pleasant Syrah to taste at this point in its life. With food, I think it would offer up a lot more pleasure (Larry asserted, I think, that it was a much better wine w/ the chorizo salami. I thought the salami made the wine taste different..but not that it particularly lifted the wine to a higher level). I did like it in the sense there were a lot of interesting things in there and it was not just another ho-hum Calif Syrah. But, like many of Eric's Syrahs, I think that, down the road w/ some age, because of its structure and acidity, it will be a very interesting wine and...yes...a wine of "balance".
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2. Read a few weeks ago (SteveHeimhof blog I think) a very interesting statistic from a poll on what context people drink wine. I was certainly in the minority with the group, 2.498% in number, that drank wine to hit up the chicks. But I was squarely in the group of 17% who drank wine while cooking. That is often the mode in which I have wine...I get home from fencing, immediately crack open a btl to try w/ dinner, then start rummaging thru the fridge & pantry for items with which to construct a meal, sampling the wine from time-to-time as I cook. This A-R Syrah would not have worked well in that mode.
Tom