Open Mike Syrah.

Its cold, windy, unpleasant up here! Guess it`s Syrah time so anyone ready to crack a recent purchase or something ready-to-go in the cellar? Something from the Rhone (a blend) would be good, or maybe a California recent release? Stay tuned!!

Not a Syrah, but a similar hefty wine for this weather was consumed here last night. Popped and drank an '03 Laural Glen Reds ($9.99 NH Liq Store). Alcohol level: 14.5%. This vintage made from Zinfandel, Carignane, and Petite Sirah. Gives a good shot of dark, dark fruit on the nose and upfront. More inky fruit, spice, and earthy complexity courses through the palate, and the finish is delightfully long.

Good winery, excellent wine for this kinda day up here!! Guess all you folks down south still sitting on the patio drinking Chardonnay.

Its Ok to post on a PS too..."Que Syrah Sirah".

Bob
Spectacular timing, as I'd written these notes up from a tasting at a friends last saturday. No idea how much syrah makes it into the gigondas, but it's in here anyway (I think in the order they were tasted).

• 1992 M. Chapoutier Côte-Rôtie - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie (10/29/2006)
  Quite a deep red-purple colour for Cote-Rotie of this age.
  The nose starts earthy / mushroomy, but then clearly moves to more perfumed aromas. The precision of this change was interesting.
  Relatively "big" at this stage, but the finish is quite subdued and there's a little bit of a metallic edge to it. Tannins have softened and overall a well-made wine, with just a fraction less complexity than the others on show.
• 1993 Domaine Jasmin Côte-Rôtie - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie (10/29/2006)
  Youngest of the Cote-Roties on tasting.
  Quite a pale red though with a bright sheen.
  On the nose, there's savoury fruit and farmyard aromas. The initial sensation is earthiness with some spice, brisk acidity. The red fruit dominated finish has decent length and quite fragrant. 1 hour later it's opened out well, but the barnyard aromas are heightened.
• 1991 Rene Rostaing Côte-Rôtie Cuvée Classique - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie (10/29/2006)
  Rich red colour with a very warm farmyardy nose, supported by the fruit.
  The palate is well-balanced with nicely supporting acidity, no tannins to speak of and a decent length finish. There's plenty of background complexity, but it does need a little teasing out. An hour later the nose had become much more mushroomy.
• 1983 Sichel Côte-Rôtie - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie (10/29/2006)
  Red-maroon with some browning at the rim. Not the oldest at the tasting, but clearly the most mature. Decanted due to crumbling cork.
  The subtle nose offers red fruits and with a little swirling sweeter fruit notes emerge.
  It offers subtle black fruit pastilles on the balanced palate which still retains a little soft tannin. Acidity supports it well, though there's a noticeably dry finish, albeit with significant complexity. An hour later it's definitely fading and whilst still drinkable has lost much of it's appeal. Drink up!
• 1982 Domaine Jasmin Côte-Rôtie - France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie (10/29/2006)
  Medium deep red colour, pretty good for the age.
  The cherry / blackcurrant fruit pastille-like aroma was edged with a little sweetness.
  On the palate the wine was subtle, nicely balanced with now soft acidity. In comparison to the others on the tasting it didn't offer massive complexity, but it's balance was perfect. 1 hour later it was still holding together well, retaining the great balance.
• 2003 Château de Saint-Cosme Gigondas - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Gigondas (10/29/2006)
  A ringer in an evening of Cote-Rotie
  Medium-deep youthful colour with noticeable oak in the form of the vanillan notes (a little prominant at this stage) and a soft red-fruited nose. The fruit is comparitively simple (but I guess this is suffering in comparison to aged wines) and the tannins are drying. A decent wine, in good balance (except for the vanillan oak). We'll let the remaining bottle sleep for a few years on this showing. Revisit 2008-2012

Throughout, the common theme in the Cote-Roties were a certain perfume and very earthy farmyardy aromas. Whilst Cote-Rotie is not normally considered especially long-lived, only the 1983 was breaking up (perhaps the decanting might have also assisted this process).

regards

Ian

[David M. Bueker]

Too broad...too broad. And then to bring in non-syrah just makes it worse.

Please...focus. If we want to have syrah as the WOTM in the other section of the forum that's fine, but syrah is just way too broad for open mike. Might as well have red wine.

Too broad...too broad. And then to bring in non-syrah just makes it worse.

Please...focus. If we want to have syrah as the WOTM in the other section of the forum that's fine, but syrah is just way too broad for open mike. Might as well have red wine.

I thought that reading between the lines, the idea was for a big red to counter the negative of the cold weather and the massive s**w storm! That's not too broad for me. I've got a spoofy Yalumba Shiraz Viognier that I'll open for this tonight! WTN to follow soon!

Too broad...too broad. And then to bring in non-syrah just makes it worse.

Please...focus. If we want to have syrah as the WOTM in the other section of the forum that's fine, but syrah is just way too broad for open mike. Might as well have red wine.

What, Open Mike is not like a Butch Cassidy knife fight? There are rules?
When does the topic get narrow enough? Would "Rhone wines with Syrah dominant" be narrow enough? Or Barossa Shiraz? Or does it have to be a specific wine and vintage? IMWTK.

Here's a recent note:

Sparky & Sarah Marquis’ Mollydooker “The Boxer” Shiraz ‘05: On the nose, dark plum and minty oak. This is followed by a palate of sweet blackberry and chocolate, with a long sweet finish, just a bit hot at 16% alcohol. It’s big, it’s fat, it’s dessert-sweet, and it’s kind of flat and one-dimensional–there’s plum and chocolate and oak but that’s it, really. So imagine my astonishment to learn that Robert Parker has given this wine 95 points. Some things I’m just never gonna understand. $20.

I try to keep an open mind about wines and will always try out new ones even though the odds are that I won't like them. So tonight I made myself some couscous with aubergines and tomatoes and lots of harissa (I liked it, gf thought it a bit too strong, ) to go with it. I think it was a well made wine if the big style is what you're after. The Viognier worked in this one.

• 2004 Yalumba Shiraz - Viognier Hand Picked - Australia, South Australia, Barossa, Eden Valley (11/2/2006) 14,5% 24,50€
  
  I like the modernist label! The wine inside isn't bad either if you don't mind enormous proportions, lack of elegance and high alcohol. I tend to like a style of wine diametrically opposed to this one's, but I have to concede that this works. The nose is full of dark berries, sweetness, jam, yet is lifted by the Viogniery touch of peach. The palate is big and sweetly fruity, but has a bit of savouryness to it also. Though it isn't at all to my style, I would think that those who like big wines will find this very good value.

Posted from CellarTracker

Here's a recent note:

Sparky & Sarah Marquis’ Mollydooker “The Boxer” Shiraz ‘05: ... 16% alcohol. It’s big, it’s fat, it’s dessert-sweet, and it’s kind of flat and one-dimensional–there’s plum and chocolate and oak but that’s it, really. So imagine my astonishment to learn that Robert Parker has given this wine 95 points. Some things I’m just never gonna understand. $20.

I too am amazed - only 95 points he's getting ungenerous in his old age

Here's a recent note:

Sparky & Sarah Marquis’ Mollydooker “The Boxer” Shiraz ‘05: On the nose, dark plum and minty oak. This is followed by a palate of sweet blackberry and chocolate, with a long sweet finish, just a bit hot at 16% alcohol. It’s big, it’s fat, it’s dessert-sweet, and it’s kind of flat and one-dimensional–there’s plum and chocolate and oak but that’s it, really. So imagine my astonishment to learn that Robert Parker has given this wine 95 points. Some things I’m just never gonna understand. $20.

Dave,
I don't understand either. My impression closely mimics your note. Spoofed to the max. but there are palates that appreciate this style of wine...just not mine.
Bill

... minty oak...

Dave,
I'd never before considered mint as a flavor imparted by oak. In light of the recent mint/eucalyptus thread, I'm interested by this comment.

Mark Lipton

Too broad...too broad. And then to bring in non-syrah just makes it worse.

Please...focus. If we want to have syrah as the WOTM in the other section of the forum that's fine, but syrah is just way too broad for open mike. Might as well have red wine.

The other week we had Malbec as an Open Mike and the thread lasted 2 weeks. If those of you that do not care for my enthusiasm do not agree with the subject, suggest one. It`s that simple. Otto, Ian, Mike B and a host of others seem to like the Open Mike subjects.
I do not see too many others stepping up to the plate!!!!
Plus this is not WOTM, it is Open Mike. Robin set this up for us and it is very popular.

In a way, perhaps we're finding our way on open mike. Trial and error will see if we achieve something useful and interesting. Whilst we may not achieve any great palate callibration on this topic, I think it's still throwing up some good notes and perhaps raising the awareness of the open mike concept. I for one appreciate Bob's efforts in giving Open mike a go and encouraging me to take part (I pretty much ignored it when it originally started).

I recall on one of the earlier ones, we chose a wine that turned out to be more obscure than I expected (Masi Passo Doble) and it ended up being a Bob and Ian duet. I think we found it interesting, but I'm not sure how much interest it was to others. Jamming around on the theme is one way to see where our preferred balance lies.

I'd love to try a true palate callibration exercise sometime, where a number of us taste the same vintage of the same wine. Maybe even use it to link Open Mike and one of the scheduled forum chats . This would take a bit of thought and organising, but would be quite rewarding.

new post on this subject arriving soon!

regards

Ian

[Jenise]

I'd love to try a true palate callibration exercise sometime, where a number of us taste the same vintage of the same wine.

Ian, this may be harder than you think. A friend and I, both Eurocentric in our wine tastes, traded inventories recently. Out of almost 4000 bottles between the two of us, know how many identical bottles we had? 12.

But to be honest, where I appreciate Bob's efforts tremendously and think some interesting content is being generated, I also understand where David's coming from in wishing for a more narrowly defined topic than just 'syrah'. If I open an old Oz shiraz that cost $60 and you open a brand new one that costs $10 and then two other guys open one each from Washington and California, say, and we all put our notes in a pile, what have we accomplished? What can we learn that we don't already know about syrah?

You mention a situation where it was just you and Bob on a very specific wine. You know what? When we dreamed up Open Mike, that's pretty close to what we had in mind. Microtopics, if you will. A way in which a person could send an open invitation to examine a certain wine, or an appellation or a specific vintage or village--topics too narrow and specific for Wine Focus, or specialized subsets of topics already covered by Wine Focus. An example would be me a few weeks ago looking for company to share an 01 D'Armailhac and a 98 Lafon Rochet. That's the kind of thing in which only one or two people might participate, but whose experience would have value to others. Nobody guessed that the 98 Lafon would be drinking well already, but I found it was an Otto, biggest doubter of all, corroborated it from thousands of miles away. I thought that was pretty cool, and it demonstrates how powerful Open Mike can be.

But the topics can be bigger and broader than that. And they can be all kinds we didn't even imagine. We knew we'd put it out there and the rest of you would figure out what to do with it. And you're right there are no rules, so syrah doesn't break any. It's okay. But David was gently nudging Our Doris by expressing his point of view, which I share, that the broader the topic the less compelling it is for him to participate. He's entitled to express that, and it's probably good that he did because it gives us a chance to review the program and discuss how it's working.

The thing I want to remind everyone of is that this is a tool, something anyone can use any time for any topic. It's not one at a time, it's not weekends only. It CAN be that, but it doesn't have to be.

Now go open your syrah.

[James Roscoe]

Too broad...too broad. And then to bring in non-syrah just makes it worse.

Please...focus. If we want to have syrah as the WOTM in the other section of the forum that's fine, but syrah is just way too broad for open mike. Might as well have red wine.

The other week we had Malbec as an Open Mike and the thread lasted 2 weeks. If those of you that do not care for my enthusiasm do not agree with the subject, suggest one. It`s that simple. Otto, Ian, Mike B and a host of others seem to like the Open Mike subjects.
I do not see too many others stepping up to the plate!!!!
Plus this is not WOTM, it is Open Mike. Robin set this up for us and it is very popular.

The way I understand Open Mike is that anyone can start an open mike at any time on any wine. Is that right Robin? Jenise? I thought it was sort of a "no rules" sort of forum in that regard. If someone wants to start a Cote-Rotie Open Mike, go for it. I would love to read the notes. Better yet, invite me over! I'm to poor to buy any Cote-Rotie.

Keep up the good work Bob. These are some of my favorite threads.

[Robin Garr]

The way I understand Open Mike is that anyone can start an open mike at any time on any wine. Is that right Robin? Jenise? I thought it was sort of a "no rules" sort of forum in that regard. If someone wants to start a Cote-Rotie Open Mike, go for it. I would love to read the notes. Better yet, invite me over! I'm to poor to buy any Cote-Rotie.

Keep up the good work Bob. These are some of my favorite threads.

Correct. I really don't understand the problem here. ANYONE can start an Open Mike, and we can have several of them - hell, <i>dozens</i> of them - running at any time. If you don't like a broad topic, don't open a bottle. No problem. If you want to get together with one friend and share the mike on an obscure bottle, that's great too! The rest of us will love reading it.

But I don't see the point in objecting to one guy's Open Mike just because you'd rather grab the mike and do it a different way. Don't complain about it, just DO it.

Too broad...too broad. And then to bring in non-syrah just makes it worse.

Please...focus. If we want to have syrah as the WOTM in the other section of the forum that's fine, but syrah is just way too broad for open mike. Might as well have red wine.

The other week we had Malbec as an Open Mike and the thread lasted 2 weeks. If those of you that do not care for my enthusiasm do not agree with the subject, suggest one. It`s that simple. Otto, Ian, Mike B and a host of others seem to like the Open Mike subjects.
I do not see too many others stepping up to the plate!!!!
Plus this is not WOTM, it is Open Mike. Robin set this up for us and it is very popular.

The way I understand Open Mike is that anyone can start an open mike at any time on any wine. Is that right Robin? Jenise? I thought it was sort of a "no rules" sort of forum in that regard. If someone wants to start a Cote-Rotie Open Mike, go for it. I would love to read the notes. Better yet, invite me over! I'm to poor to buy any Cote-Rotie.

Keep up the good work Bob. These are some of my favorite threads.

Yup, this is all about participation. Sure we have broad topics, look how picking up on the "Valpolicellas of Veneto"posting lead to a great Valpol Open Mike!! As I said the Malbec one went on for 2 weeks and we all learnt about Malbecs from all over the place. Even from areas we never knew produced the varietal!!

Right now, I am just happy to open the nearest Syrah at hand as the weather closes in!! Yeay, it`s broad but look at the tasting notes in already.

I'll certainly join in as we have any number of '98 Crozes, a '98 St. Henri and a '98 Jaffurs Syrah all awaiting their fate down in the cellar. It just may be a while as we're going away for the weekend.

Mark Lipton

No problem Mark, we will keep this one going for you down there in the warm, sunny south. I`ve just opened a Shale Ridge Monterey Syrah, man things have changed there. Some poor stuff from this winery I seem to remember? For us Canadians, QPR at $17.

Here's a recent note:

Sparky & Sarah Marquis’ Mollydooker “The Boxer” Shiraz ‘05: On the nose, dark plum and minty oak. This is followed by a palate of sweet blackberry and chocolate, with a long sweet finish, just a bit hot at 16% alcohol. It’s big, it’s fat, it’s dessert-sweet, and it’s kind of flat and one-dimensional–there’s plum and chocolate and oak but that’s it, really. So imagine my astonishment to learn that Robert Parker has given this wine 95 points. Some things I’m just never gonna understand. $20.

Geez, whaddaya expect from this producer and Bobby Parker?

Oh yeah, is it OK if I chime in with a couple of South African Syrahs? Stark-Conde, reputedly a pretty good producer...

Oh yeah, is it OK if I chime in with a couple of South African Syrahs? ...

NO!!

Geo, that sounds like a great idea> I was going to buy the Carlou until Keith Prothero mentioned I should look elsewhere!!!
Bill in Detroit seems a tad off form today...LOL. Sport team problems down there Bill???