This showed up last night as a mystery wine:
1. NevadaRidge Syrah Nevada (15.6%; Nevada's first Syrah) Bill&Gretchen Loken/Pahrump 2011: Very dark color; rather weird ozone/pungent very strong charred/burnt/smokey/oak very overripe/over-the-top/chocolaty/confected intense boysenberry/Syrah somewhat alcoholic nose; soft/fat/porky rather hot/alcoholic very overripe/chocolaty/confected boysenberry/Syrah strong charred/burnt/toasty/oak flavor w/ no tannins; very long very strong toasty/charred/burnt/oak intense/chocolaty/confected/jammy/overripe soft/fat finish w/ no tannins or structure; a Syrah confiture. $22.00
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. One of our group had been out at the TestSite for a meeting and took a detour thru the PahrumpVlly returning to LasVegas to eat at their restaurant (which he liked quite a lot). He visited their tasting room and tried their Viognier and thought it pretty decent, so he bought this Syrah to share w/ us. I guessed it to be an overripe Syrah or Zin from a very hot area. Thought maybe Lodi, but it didn't have the earthy/mushroomy character of those wines.
This is a soft/fat/porky/overblown Syrah that speaks of very ripe Syrah. It actually is not as bad as I described and had some interesting things therein. However, it's the kind of wine you can only drink one glass of and then your palate is so slammed/fatigued that you have no inclination to return to a second glass.
NevadaRidge (http://www.pahrumpwinery.com/Wines/Sweet-Wines) appears to be doing some interesting stuff w/ some interesting varieties. But just because you can grow grapes in the PahrumpVlly doesn't mean you should.
Tom