Syrah Madness

With the NCAA tourney just ended, I now present the results of our 2nd annual March Madness wine tasting where the host determines what wine-related madness we all will venture into while watching college hoops.  Last year was the inaugural Bordeaux Madness, in which 9 wines from the Bordeaux region of France were pitted against each other in true bracketology form.  The 2005 Ch. Du Glana held it’s own and made it to the finals only to fall to the powerhouse 1985 Ch. Palmer.  Would we have another Cinderella v. Stalwart situation this year, more in line with the actual Butler v. Duke finale?  This year, the focus was Syrah.  The links on each wine below will take you to the community tasting notes on CellarTracker/GrapeStories if there are any.

2003 Clarendon Hills Shiraz Baker’s Gully – This wine showed some age, clear around the edges when viewed at an angle in the glass.  Witnessed stewed/candied fruits and a mineral finish.  When tried again a little later, portrayed some smoky notes, but had a disappointing short finish.

2008 Trader Joe’s Shiraz- The joke of the evening, the 16-seed, if you will.  But, really the test of the evening, to see how it would fare in the competition and see if our taste buds were sharp.  There is a great inside story with our tasting group this night, where a friend at a blind tasting last year swore up and down how Trader Joe’s just blew only to realize the wine of the night he picked was indeed a Trader Joe’s wine.  Talk about egg on face.  Anyway, this wine had a light-medium hue, which was a concern since Syrah is a grape that contains higher levels of pigment, so these types of wines are generally much darker and even inkier at times.  The nose displayed perfume and flowers, had a decent mouthfeel and was a little minerally at the end.  Everyone at the table pegged this one tonight as the dud that went home early.

2003 M. Chapoutier St. Joseph Les Granits- Got a little old world, horsey funk on the nose with green pepper and herbaceousness.  There was mineral on the palate and a nice spicy finish.  A second round a little later showed that the funk had reduced showing more fruit on the nose.  This one had much bigger tannins resulting in more texture and pucker factor.

2003 E. Guigal Hermitage – The hue gave away its age, with red-orange brick colors.  Fruits were stewed on the nose and it was very chewy showing rich tannins and astringency.  A second review an hour later gave way to more fruit and pepper.

2007 D’Arenberg Shiraz The Footbolt- Beautiful deep, dark color.  Very obvious green peppers and veggies on the nose.  Awesome mouthfeel and spice on the palate.  This is smooth, rich and balanced.

2002 Montemaggiore Syrah Paulo’s Vineyard- This was a wine my wife and I had just brought back from our Sonoma vacation trip and were very excited that everyone liked it so much.  It was inky with candied black fruits and pepper on the nose.  The palate presented deep blackberries and raspberries and had the longest finish of the nite.  Just tremendous. 

The top two wines were the D’Arenberg and the Montemaggiore with the Montemaggiore taking the crown.  It has aged well and might still do well for another couple of years.  Montemaggiore means “Major Mountain” in Italian and is a biodynamically farmed vineyard.  They only produce about 1500 cases a year and the wife is the winemaker while the husband, Vince, does the rest.  Their vineyard site is well-suited to the Rhone varieties due to the fact it is 7 degrees cooler than the surrounding areas in Dry Creek Valley due to its elevation.  I will be writing a post specifically about our visit to the winery soon, so keep an eye out for that.

Please share with us more of your experiences with Syrah/Shiraz!

Cheers!