 
|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
|
|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
207.200.116.66
...last night our group tasted syrahs - 4 American and 2 Australian from $8 to $25.
Unfortunately I didn't really care for many of them and the guy who really likes them couldn't make it.
One was the Zaca Mesa Santa Ynez 2006 $16 - WS92.
The winner was the $8 Yellow Tail Shiraz 2009.
Follow Ups:
I'm thinking Syrah like Pinot, is all over the board. I love Syrah - earthy Rhone Syrah ( be it dusty, earthy with character from Paso or France) or balanced and showing the wines age from Australia. They are all delicious with a little preface.
Enjoy them all.
As someone who makes 600 cases or so of Syrah every year it's my duty to stand up for my beloved variety!!!
First off, Syrah is not the next great thing...sales for Syrah are in the toilet!!! Which leads to a popular joke in the winemaking world: "What's the difference between VD and Syrah? You can get rid of VD!" thank you, thank you, I'll be in at the Sands all next week.
Ok, maybe its not that bad...I sell plenty out of the tasting room and plenty in Washington and Oregon, but overall its not looking pretty...why?
The same thing that makes Syrah my favorite as a winemaker kills it in the marketplace. Syrah is very different depending on how its made and where it grows. Think about it...what does a huge Australian Syrah have in common with an earthy funky Rhone...absolutely nothing.
Your average consumer has no idea what they are getting when they buy a bottle of Syrah...it could be a giant high alcohol, very heavily extracted fruit bomb of a wine or it could be soft and gentle terrior driven earthy food wine...or anywhere in between.
Syrah tastes very very different depending on where it grows...hugely different. I pull Syrah from two blocks in the same vineyard here in Walla Walla. They are maybe 300 yards apart, but are farmed very differently. They taste very very different.
Here in Washington a lot of people have been treating Syrah just like Cab and Merlot...you are starting to see that change quite a bit...lots of co-fermentation, lots of fermenting on stems, cooler vineyard sites, less oak, more gentle approach in the winery..it makes for a much different wine.
If you are tasting wines that are as big as Zins, then you are drinking the wrong wines! Syrah doesn't have to be like that and shouldn't in my book...and neither should Pinot, but that is a rant for another day!!!!!!
Steve
Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot seem to do well there. And Riesling seems to excell as well. And world wide, CS seems to bring higher prices.
Do you as a consumer prefer Syrah? Or is it the challenge? Is it an easier grape to grow? Do you think the area is better suited to Syrah?
And this is not a baiting post. I am just curious as an outsider.
I do make Cab and Merlot, and Riesling, and even Cab Franc. And you are right, I can sell my Cabernet for more money. The single best lot I bring in every year is probably Merlot. But the market for Merlot is down, so I'm a little afraid to sell it on its own. All of my Merlot goes into my Cabernet.
I do think Syrah grows well here, but in different places than Cab and Merlot grows well. I prefer cooler spots for my Syrah. Remember this a huge growing area...lots of different microclimates.
Do I prefer Syrah as a consumer? As always the answer is it depends..what am I eating? What kind of mood am I in?, etc, etc.
Too me Syrah is just more fun to make I guess.
Why more fun?
I guess because you have more options as a winemaker.
To me winemaking is about the 500 little decisions you make. With Syrah you have even more.
Let me try to explain. I have blocks of a vineyard that I share with other winemakers. We pick on the same day and then the fruit goes to three different wineries. We all know the same basics, but we all individually do things a little different. They don't seem like big things, but they add up and add up until the wine made from those grapes picked on the same day from the same block tastes quite different from each other.
With Syrah, that multiplies. For example, a few years ago I made an "experiment" with one vineyard. I broke up the Syrah into three fermentors and they were all teated differently.
Number 1: destemmed and treated like a "normal lot
Number 2: destemmed but layered with stems to make sort of a layer cake
Number 3: grapes fermented whole cluster on the stem
All three ended up completely unique from the other..to me that;s fun I guess.
What were the others?
And do you not like syrahs in general or just these?
I keep reading where the press, WS, WA, Houston Chronicle, etc. keep predicting syrah as the next big deal.
Maybe, but not for me.
By the way, a friend of mine who won't pay more than $12 for a wine just was praising the Yellow Tail. I served it at my daughters 16th birthday party (only the adults) 10 years ago. It was just beginning to import here. Everybody liked it. Had it a couple of years later and it seemed to have gone downhill in quality. Haven't had it since.
...over the years, I've found a few I like and picked them up.I love big zins but most syrahs are just too big to drink without food.
Rosenblum has made a couple of pretty good syrahs. When we were in the Willamette Valley last year searching for good pinot noir, I bought the syrah instead of the pinot at Domaine Serene.
Last night there was:
Zaca Mesa 2006
Qupe 2008
Brassfield 2004
Albert Sterling 2006
Layer Cake Shiraz 2008...and as a fill in for my missing friend, I picked up a bottle of the Yellow Tail at Safeway.
Personally, I rated the Qupe first, the Yellow Tail 5th and the highly rated Zaca Mesa last, due to a musty nose.
Edits: 01/14/11
Thanks for the heads up. Personally, a straight syrah is not necessarily my favorite either. When integrated into a GSM or other Rhone blend they can be fantastic though.
Post a Followup:
| FAQ |
Post a Message! |
Forgot Password? |
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
Top of Page ]
[ Contact Us ]
[ Support/Wish List ]
[ Copyright © 2025, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
