Last night, as the news got worse and worse, we were very thankful for the distraction of a wine like this to talk about:
2013 Copain Syrah High Rock Ranch Yorkville Highlands
Fascinating nose of cherry, boysenberry with a little black coffee repeat on the palate in addition to the sweet complexity of red bell pepper and sharper notes of green bell pepper. Bright, good mouth feel, a wine to ponder, which we did over almost three hours at which point it was just starting to fade--long after our hopes did. 12.8% alcohol. From my cellar so of course I knew it was syrah, but I couldn't help wondering what I'd guess if I were tasting this blind: origins of FR and WA would be the first things to rule out, along with black grapes like CS, Mer and Zin. But then what? I'd go to Grenache or even a California Carignan probably before syrah. Either way, delicious, and I really appreciate wines that are as good as they are atypical. Apparently this wasn't widely circulated--the last CT TN on it was four years ago.