SWIG TASTES NEW WORLD SYRAH

[reminder:, SWIG tastes double-blind. We brown bag and randomly number the whole flight, and individual taster only know the identity of one label before the reveal, the bottle she/he brought]

In this installment SWIG tasted American Syrahs. The meal was scaled back from the last meeting’s decadence; we enjoyed cheeses, lentil stew with lamb, and a sweet potato tart for dessert. All of the wines were palatable and matched nicely with the food.

Before the meal and reveal we ranked the flight of Syrahs, which fell into four tiers.

The following wines tied for equal 4th place. Both were clean, easy drinking wines that we wouldn’t be shy about serving to guests. Interestingly these were the two youngest wines of the flight – maybe a few more years of bottle age would have leveled the playing field?

Xumek 2008 Syrah, San Juan (Argentina) $16. This wine had the lowest aromatics of the group, and plenty of the green tannin typical of South American over-cropping. It was soft with a short finish but balanced and lighter-bodied so food-friendly. Aromas: currant, plum, green pepper, anise, black pepper.

Beckman 2007 Syrah, Santa Ynez Valley, $24. SWIG likes Beckman wines. The 07 Santa Ynez Syrah is biodynamic, showing blueberries, brown/burnt sugar, leather, smoke, dried fruit, and raisin. Compared to some other Beckman wines this one is a bit of a wan effort, soft but tannic with low aromatics, and a little sulfur on the nose. A couple of year will likely help.

Third place went to:

Rosenblum 2005 Syrah, Vintners Cuvee, $15. A lot to like here for 15 dollars, if a little bit over-engineered and seemingly mass produced. The nose was dominated by perfumey potpourri, backed up by jammy raspberry, blackberry, and black pepper. The palate was a bit overly astringent and out of balance. This is not the type of wine to hold on to in hopes that it corrects itself, but definitely a palatable bottle if you are shopping at Trader Joes.

The next two wines scored equal 2nd place. Both were very good, and the Three Rivers an excellent QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) wine to boot:

Lagier Meredith 2004 Syrah, Mt. Veeder, $49. Lagier Meredith is probably the most prestigious label SWIG has tasted to date, at least from the new world. It can rightly be called a fancy wine; this bottle is one of a “vertical” (set of contiguous vintages) donated by Lagier Meredith last year to the charity Auction Napa Valley. The highest acid wine of the tasting, this '04 was built to develop bottle-age character, and had already added some (not unpleasant) musty mushroomy notes to its bitter cherry, raspberry, red currant, and black pepper. It drank a little hot, and had noticeable volatile acidity (a slight acetone smell), but also had a richness of character that one might expect of a bottle this pricey.

Three Rivers Winery 2005 Syrah, $18. Three Rivers '05 Syrah, on the other hand, was a simpler bottle, but cleaner too, with clear flavors of tart cherry, currant jam, butterscotch, vanilla, cloves, tobacco, and leather. Full-bodied, expertly oaked and well balanced, it summarized nicely all that is right with syrah in Washington state. Not a remember for months afterward bottle, this Syrah nevertheless was well worth the price of admission. In the blind rankings it scored the same as the Lagier Meredith.

And, finally, the runaway winner wine of the night. Haven’s '04 Napa Syrah scored first place with all tasters save for one who narrowly placed it second:

Haven’s Winery 2004 Syrah, Napa Valley, $15. To the displeasure of devotees of this Napa local’s institution, Haven’s Winery is in receivership and being liquidated by the conglomerate that purchased it a few years back. The silver lining is that the remaining stock of all of their excellent wines is being retailed at closeout prices. We picked up this bottle for $15, half off MSRP. The tasting notes we compiled suggest a wine made in the style of an Old World Northern Rhone Syrah: forest floor, cedar, leather, bacon fat, walnuts, black pepper, ripe cherry and plum, and even a little Band-Aidy brettanomyces (which works quite nicely in this bottle). All that, impeccable balance and distinctly rich Napa-style fruit too. If you can find a bottle give it a lot of air; it needs it. Three hours is not too long to decant. Great stuff -- too bad they've gone out of business.