WTN: Flavor Gap

2014 Wind Gap Syrah, from various vineyards on the Sonoma Coast, my second and last bottle, with 12.6% abv it is no surprise that this wine comes across as undernourished. There is some light Syrah flavors and a note of wild game that is interesting but I am underwhelmed by a winery that is much loved by some.

2016 Beringer Knights Valley Cabernet, I ordered 1.5 cases of the 2015 from a retail shop in Ft. Wayne but got this and am very happy. This is a slightly bigger Cabernet and is enjoyable now but will smooth out the slightly elevated tannins in a few years.
One more nice Cabernet in a long string of very typical, reasonably priced reds from Beringer.

2009 Terra Valentine "Marriage" from Napa this is a Bordeaux blend I think (can't find my other bottles just now) but this wine is in an excellent place now, very near peak, tannin-wise, but with lots of further secondary complexity to develop.

2014 Wind Gap Syrah.... with 12.6% abv it is no surprise that this wine comes across as undernourished.

!!! What are you expecting. That is prime alcohol content, certainly not low. Getting above 13% wine generally starts to taste raisiney and overripe.

[David M. Bueker]

Odd...all my 2014 Wind Gap Syrah purchases were single-vineyard cuvées. I have seven vintages of the Sonoma Coast Syrah, but no 2014.

The samples I have tasted ie Beringer Knights Valley Cabernet, have not done it for me. Overrated.

All right, everyone, Jim is entitled to his opinions about the wine, and from an objective standpoint there are few California syrahs that come in under 13%, even if they get a lot of attention on the Internet.

[David M. Bueker]

All right, everyone, Jim is entitled to his opinions about the wine, and from an objective standpoint there are few California syrahs that come in under 13%, even if they get a lot of attention on the Internet.

There's more than you think.

All right, everyone, Jim is entitled to his opinions about the wine, and from an objective standpoint there are few California syrahs that come in under 13%, even if they get a lot of attention on the Internet.

Of course everyone has his/her own taste. I realize that some people like high alcohol wines. But I always thought 12-13% was the reasonable middle, not 'undernourished'.

I would never have thought that degree of alcohol was a guide for determining whether a wine from Syrah, at least one from N.Rhône, is undernourished. We had a couple from Hermitage with our Easter lamb; the 1990 from Domaine des Rémizières came in at 12.5% and 1997 from Chave at 13%. They were both beautifully balanced wines for my palate. I'll post TNs.

Of course, tastes differ. Some people prefer S.Australian Shiraz at between 14 & 15%, full of (over)ripe fruit and American oak.

[David M. Bueker]

It all depends on personal taste. I drink Wind Gap, Arnot-Roberts and other Syrahs from California that have under 13% alcohol. Then there is Lagier Meredith, which is routinely mid-14% and has no overripe/roasted flavors, or obvious alcohol.

Go to the Rhône, and you can find plenty of 14% Syrah. Depends on where you look.

More than most grape varieties, Syrah/Shiraz seems to have a chameleon like ability to change flavour and character according to growing conditions. Here is an article about 15 years old from New Zealand wine critic Geoff Kelly describing the changes. He doesn't hide his preference, which I share, for the cooler climate style.

Syrah is not that difficult to suss, if in judging it, more attention is paid to the bouquet of the wine, rather than the taste (as it should be, if subtleties are to be captured). Syrah as it ripens towards optimal physiological flavour maturity passes through a sequence of aroma analogies which can be summarised on bouquet as:
green and stalky
--> leafy
--> leafy and leafy / floral
--> red currants and suggestions of dianthus florals ± white pepper
--> cassis / black currants and sweetly floral dianthus / wallflower / buddleia notes ± white pepper grading though to black pepper
--> cassis grading through dark plums ± blueberry to black plums, plus freshly-cracked black peppercorn and spice, the florals now darker (red roses, violets) and progressively becoming attenuated
--> bottled black plums ± blueberry, still ideally with cracked black peppercorn tapering out
--> bottled black plums and blackberry mixed
--> boysenberry.
Beyond that the wines become more and more pruney and grossly over-ripe, as so much Aussie shiraz was in the '60s and '70s (and some still are in the ‘00s).

Perfect ripeness / maximum complexity for syrah is where florals, pepper and spice, cassis and dark plums are all equipoised. These wines, as from Cote Rotie and Hermitage, epitomise the syrah wine-style. Above this point is sur-maturité, and the wines progressivly merge into the shiraz wine-style. On this scale, virtually all Australian shiraz (except some of the exciting wines from Western Australia and cooler Victoria) falls into the boysenberry category, and thus clearly over-ripe. Hence the oak fetish in recent decades in Australia, to restore some kind of spurious 'complexity' to bouquets diminished through fruit over-ripeness, in temperatures inimical to floral complexity.

I have nearly zero experience of Californian syrah (I did have one from Qupe long ago), so I can't say where it fits on Kelly's scale. However, in the south of France, it is nearly always blended with Grenache, Mourvèdre and other grapes. Most of the Syrah dominated wines which I have enjoyed from Languedoc and Roussillon come from cooler higher altitude sites which attenuate the tendency to jamminess.

[David M. Bueker]

I have nearly zero experience of Californian syrah (I did have one from Qupe long ago), so I can't say where it fits on Kelly's scale. However, in the south of France, it is nearly always blended with Grenache, Mourvèdre and other grapes. Most of the Syrah dominated wines which I have enjoyed from Languedoc and Roussillon come from cooler higher altitude sites which attenuate the tendency to jamminess.

"California Syrah" is too broad a category. Even Sonoma Coast Syrah varies quite a bit, as the Sonoma Coast AVA covers the equivalent of 200,000 Hectares (obviously a very small % is planted). The "true" Sonoma Coast (where the marine influence is significantly more pronounced) provides most of the lower alcohol examples, and very few of the "jammy" wines. Even some well-placed spots in Napa Valley produce cooler climate wines. Then there's Mendocino further north, and the Santa Rita Hills further south, and the varied micro-climates and soils in each of those areas. Individual producers can then buy grapes from vineyards with different influences, producing wildly different wines in the same lineup. Pax Mahle's Sonoma Coast blends (for Wind Gap, and his eponymous Pax label) sometimes feel like they come from a different planet than single-vineyard wines he makes from the Armagh vineyard or Griffin's Lair.

After reading this thread I opened up a Wind Gap over the weekend. Now I had the 2015 Pinot, not the '14 Syrah, so not comparing apples to apples. I'll open a '14 Syrah soon to see, but thought I would share my opinion.

This had a beautiful nose, honestly one of the prettiest noses I've smelled on a wine in some time. Earthy, and red fruit driven with just a hint of almost violet? I don't even know what to say, I loved the nose on this wine! On the palate it was just alright sadly. Not a bad wine, but very high acidity yet still came off kind of flat. Red fruit was still there, but much of the earthiness dispersed. This wine is still very young and I'm hoping that with some time this comes together. As of now, not a bad wine at all, and for what I paid I'd gladly buy again, but also just felt a little bit empty. This may be a stunner in a few years, and it also could fade away...

I should say also that I often LOVE wines on the leaner side. But after drinking this wine I can see why some would love it and why some would hate it...