Notes from a tasting featuring any wine with significant syrah content.
2004 Alain Voge St. Peray 'Fleur de Crussol’ – I’ve enjoyed this wine several times and this was no different. 100% Marsanne, barrel aged, it has significant colour now, and a nice nose of peach and lemon. Tons of flavour, long and tasty finish.
1993 Chapoutier Hermitage La Sizeraine – now showing significant lightening of colour, a mature nose of rather claretty fruit with slight antiseptic quality and soft smooth midpalate. Good length. I think RP tasted this from barrel and went on a rave that wasn’t warranted by the bottled wine, but nonetheless, a nice wine on plateau now. That’s OK, I think he also over rated the 1990….
2003 Sandhill Phantom Creek Syrah – without doubt the finest BC syrah I’ve met up with. Sweet fruit and hints of blood (iron) in the nose, lots of stuffing, very good length. I have some of this and of the 2005 I haven’t been into yet.
1995 E&E Black Pepper Shiraz (Barossa) – sweet nose of blackberry and black pepper (who knew?) and a nicely balanced wine. Absence of mint on this one.
2003 Eben Sadie Columella – this syrah/Mourvedre blend from an oddball South African wine maker was excellent, showing a black olive and spice nose, lots of tannin left, but softening since my last tasting of this and very high quality. No rush on this one. Not common and not cheap.
2000 Tablas Creek Esprit de Beaucastel – reasonably dark, basically no detectable nose, just good levels of fruit and decent length. Pretty hard to get a reading on it when the nose was totally mute.
1999 Fox Creek JSM (Mclaren Vale) – some may not know that the initials in the name are not those of grape varietals (they must struggle over the ‘J’…) but the initials of the winemaker’s children. In fact it is a blend of cab sauv, shiraz and cab franc. Minty eucalyptus nose defined the origin long before it touched out tongues, and it proved to be sweet in the mouth, medium long and the tannins fairly well resolved. Primarily shiraz. I find this vintage less compelling than the 1998.
2003 Saxenburg Private Collection Syrah – cherry and blackberry in the nose, and a bit of Burgundian funk. Sweet entry, sweet on palate and sweet at the end. A bit one note for me – expect this sort of thing from Australia, but not from the Cape.
1999 Guigal Hermitage – killer instantly recognizable Northern Rhone nose, a bit of a relief after the unremitting parade of sweet syrahs. Berries and meat aromas plus leather hints, and well balanced ending with good lingering after taste. Very good.
1994 Henschke Mt. Edelstone – after bitching about the lack of pure typical syrah, what do I do but haul this out (first one I’ve opened and I thought it might be time to take a reading for future drinking window). Quite dark with minty sweet nose, with chocolate and blackberry. Some heat in the mouth and some mintiness, really nice flavour concentration, and a long, long sweet finish. This is what I look for in Aussie wines!
1989 Schloss Schonborn Erbacher Marcobrunner Auslese – quite a lot of colour in this wine, with reddish highlights, good Riesling nose with dried apricots, fairly decent length, but not, I felt, showing as well as I’d have expected. May have been better a few years ago, but pleasant now.
