WTN: WA Syrah Blind Tasting

Our Tasting Group met recently for an evening of Washington Syrah. There were seven bottles in the blind tasting; at the very last minute, our host decided to add a value-priced California wine to the mix ... just to make things interesting. The vintages varied from 1998 to 2005, an interesting spread. A total of 9 tasters completed their rating sheets.

Scoring System: Tasters rank their preferred wine #1, and so on; ties are not permitted. The rankings are used as point values, which are added. The wine with the lowest point total ends up in first place; the one with the highest total is last ... just like in golf. As a matter of interest only, the number of first, second and last place votes are listed for each wine.

As you can see below, the first two wines were separated by only 1 point, and wines 4-5-6 were also separated by 1 point each.

1) 2003 L'Ecole No. 41 Columbia Valley Syrah ($25) 14.8% ABV: 27 points (2 first, 1 second, 0 last) Most of the tasters placed this wine 3rd or 4th, but its lack of 6th or 7th place votes landed this wine on top by a 1-point margin. It had great color and a rich aroma, with dark fruit flavors and a good balance of acid and tannin, ending with a very nice finish.
2) 2003 Spring Valley Nina Lee Walla Walla Valley Syrah ($45) 15.6% ABV: 28 points (5 first, 0 second, 2 last) Talk about bi-polar voting ... this wine had more first place votes than all the others combined. However, those two last place votes bumped it into second place. The wine was very dark with a huge aroma, had a ton of up-front dark fruit, and an extremely long finish. However, it was just too much for the tasters, who are turned off by big fruit-forward new world wines. Furthermore, at a whopping 15.6% ABV, this wine had the highest alcohol level of the evening.
3) 1998 Snoqualmie Columbia Valley Syrah ($8 ) 13% ABV: 33 points (1 first, 2 second, 1 last) This was the over-achiever of the evening; it was the oldest and least expensive bottle, and time was very kind indeed to this wine. It was both light in color and in body, and it delivered a nice mouthful of red fruit. The wine had little tannin and moderate alcohol, making it a pleasant quaffer.
4) 2003 K Vintners Cougar Hills Walla Walla Valley Syrah ($40) 14% ABV: 37 points (1 first, 1 second, 0 last) This wine had very good color and delivered a nice deep aroma. However, it was highly acidic, overpowering the dark fruit with noticeable sourness on the finish. Only 1 point separated this wine from the fifth place finisher below.
5) 1999 McCrea Cellars Cuvee Orleans Syrah ($45) 14.5% ABV: 38 points (0 first, 2 second, 1 last) Having seen McCrea Cellars Syrah consistently finish at or near the top of several WA Syrah blind tastings over the years, it was a bit surprising to see this one so far back. Perhaps age was just not very kind to this bottle, because it just did not reach out and grab you in the way McCrea wines normally do. The wine had medium color and pleasant aromas, and it was rather soft, with good fruit and a decent finish. Only 1 point separated this wine from the sixth place finisher below.
6) 2005 Balbo Columbia Valley Syrah ($17) 14.2% ABV: 39 points (0 first, 3 second, 1 last) This was the youngest wine in this tasting, and it was reported to be the second label of Beresan Winery. It had medium body and dark color, with dark fruit mixed with gentle spices ending in a medium finish. Altogether, it was a very pleasant wine.
7) 2004 Cline California Syrah ($10) 13.5% ABV: 50 points (0 first, 0 second, 4 last) This everyday, affordable red wine had medium body, and delivered red fruit with some pepper, although a bit on the acidic side. Not a bad wine, but not in the same class with the evening's competition. If you are looking for a more substantial Syrah from Cline, go with their Carneros bottling.

Any thoughts on why the '99 McCrea bombed?

-- Clark

Any thoughts on why the '99 McCrea bombed?

The wine is made in an early-maturing style. I find them already peaked and going down the other side by 5-7 years of age. This one is sliding on home. I've drank Doug's wines many a time, from barrel and glass -- they are always beautiful upfront and I drink them by age five before any downhill stuff rears its ugly head.

The bottle didn't taste cooked, did it?

Randy,

No, the bottle was OK in that respect. Not cooked, corked, tainted nor oxidized. It just did not have any pizzazz. My feeling was that it had already peaked, but I wanted to hear from others on this.

-- Clark

Clark, I read your notes with interest this morning and found myself driven to open a bottle of the 99 McCrea Cuvee Orleans Syrah this evening. My notes on this and a couple other Syrahs I've had in the past few weeks follow:

1999 McCrea Syrah, Cuvee Orleans, Yakima Valley 2/8/2007 Deep black cherry to a red-violet edge. Rich, slightly pruney black plum/blackberry fruit, soft clean vanillin overtones, faint hint of cedar on the nose. Rich, succulent entry to a spice-laden center where prominent black pepper qualities precede rather cloying, angular black fruit elements, slightly viscous, lacking in complexity, yet structured and rather full in body, moderate to long consistent finish. Disappointing.

2004 Roar Syrah, Santa Lucia Highlands 1/13/2007 Deep purple/black to a medium violet edge. Rich, saturated black fruit, chalk, wet stone, menthol, sweet cedar and a note of vanilla on the intense nose. Rich, spicy entry to a corpulent center of black berry fruit with a peppery, spicy overlay, deep and intense, full-bodied through the relatively long consistent finish.

2005 Tait, "The Ball Buster." Barossa (82% Shiraz, 9%Cab Sauv, 9% Merlot) 12/27/2006 Inky black purple to a red-purple edge. Dense and deep, vegetal Merlot tones, smoke, leather and a bit of lead pencil, dark berry-currant fruit on the nose. Rich, deep, saturated entry to a dense core of dark black fruits--black plum, blackberry and black currant are all evident, big and corpulent, blackberry acidity provides ample support, oak and dense fruit tannins define the edges, long consistent finish.

2003 Melville Syrah "Estate" Santa Barbara County 12/14/2006 Medium deep ruby-purple to a red-violet edge. Dense, jammy herb-laden blackberry and boysenberry fruit, rich floral elements on the effusive nose. Lean, rather angular entry to an odd center of rather herbaceous black plum fruit with muted stone fruit acidic undertones, viscous and voluptuous, lacking a bit in structure, moderate consistent finish. The promise of the nose is unfulfilled, big and clumsy on the palate, lacking in structure; disappointing.

2002 Novy Syrah, Santa Lucia Highlands 11/26/2006 Medium ruby to a red-violet edge. Jammy rich boysenberry and blackberry fruit, intense floral overtones, succulent herbal qualities on the expansive nose. Rich, corpulent entry to an intense center of ripe blackberry and boysenberry fruit surrounded by big tannins, both soft and hard, driving minerality and broad-grained oak dominate the latter palate through the relatively long finish where white pepper accents vie with intense fruit and clean mineral tones.

Of these, The Roar and Novy wines were my clear favorites, with the Tait only slightly behind. While both the McCrea and Melville were disappointing, I found much more to like in the McCrea.

Thanks for posting your tasting notes, Charley. Nicely described.

I'll bet you were disappointed to see the note about that '99 McCrea. It's a real shame.

-- Clark

Yes, I was disapointed to see your note and even more so upon tasting the wine this evening. I'm a big fan and promoter of McCrea wines, but I hadn't anticipated the relatively short horizon Randy described and which your tasting confirmed.

I have several bottles remaining from the 98-00 vintages. I will tag them for early drinking and hope for the best. I'll report the results.

Charley

This note from a wine friend:

2004 McCrea Amerique Syrah and 04 Syrah

The Amerique is another dissapointing bottling from the fall club shipment. So much sulphur on the nose as to make it almost undrinkable. The Syrah was another matter. All of the good qualities on the nose and palate and with more of the qualities I've grown to love in their regular vineyard designated bottlings.

I wonder what's going on with McCrea? I think it is time to pay another visit and dig around a bit.

Well, this is interesting. I vac-u-vined the last third of the McCrea CO 99 the other night and revisited it this evening with Veal Scallopine in a Cognac Butter Green Peppercorn sauce.

Nothing like the other night. This wine now shows rich and deep with a lot of black fruit and great viscosity, good length and structure, even seeming youthful.

It's tough to gauge the aging curve of these new world wines, and I'll reserving judgement on this one. I think we all found it in a bit of a dumb stage at this time. It is certainly a much different, and better, wine three days after intitial opening.

Charley

Interesting -- it might be worth laying back a couple to try at 10 and 12 years of age.

I've been a fan of other Snoqualmie wines for QPR. Had a Merlot a few years ago that rose above its price level.