When our guests last night polished off our Jaffurs, I opened two older Syrahs:
1. Shane Syrah JudgeVnyd/BennettVlly (14.5%; 120 cs; www.SWhaneWines.com) 2008: Dark color w/ some browning; strong blackberry/Syrah/blueberry bit c-c/black pepper slight w-c/Rhonish'/roasted bit complex mature lovely nose; rather tart/tangy some c-c/black pepper/w-c/Rhonish some blackberry/Syrah slight tangy/metallic/drying out some toasty/pencilly/Fr.oak slight green olive some complex flavor w/ light drying/astringent tannins; very long Rhonish/w-c/roasted some pencilly/toasty/oak some blackberry/Syrah/c-c/peppery complex finish w/ light drying tannins; quite an interesting Rhonish/w-c/c-c nose but rather dried out & astringent on the palate; seen its better days.
________
2. St.Cosme AC: Cotes du Rhone (14%; Syrah; www.SaintCosme.com; EpicWinesImpts/Aptos) Louis & Cherry Barroul/St.Cosme 2011: Very dark color w/ some bricking; rather earthy/dusty/OV licorice/blackberry/Syrah/bit peppery rather rustic slight bretty/Rhonish/rustic nose; quite tart/acidic very tannic/astringent/rough/hard fairly earthy/dusty/OV/coarse slight blackberry/Syrah flavor w/ ample rough/astringent tannins; long earthy/dusty/OV very tannic/astringent/coarse/rough quite acid finish w/ hard/astringent tannins; not a lot of Syrah fruit and loads of astringent/chewy tannins; not drying out or tired but not evolving well and will not outlive the aggressive tannins.
_________________
A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. Shane Finley, once winemaker at Kosta-Browne, is the mind behind Shane Wines. I like his wines across the board, but they have sorta fallen of my radar some yrs ago. Too many wines to try.
Tom