Seattle Wine Group - Mar 2014 Tasting - Theme: Syrah "4X"

Amaroso Room - Wine Storage Bellevue
Tasted Thursday, March 13, 2014 by f22nickell with 478 views

Introduction

The group met again in the Amaroso room of the Wine Storage Bellevue. Henry took the reigns this month and his theme was "Syrah 4X," or "Syrah from four specific regions." He also constrained it to 2005-2009 vintages so we could compare similar aged wines. Finally, he chose to do this single blind so we all knew what wines were in the flight, just not which bottle was which.

We all knew the following wines would be "bagged and tagged" in this month's tasting:

1) California
2007 Lagier Merdith Syrah
2006 Lillian Syrah

2) Washington
2007 Cayuse Armada
2008 Betz Cote Patriarche

3) Australia
2009 Penfolds St. Henri
2005 Astralis

4) Northern Rhone
2009 Michel Gerin Cote Rotie
2009 Gilles Hermitage

Flight 1 - Wines with Dinner (1 Note)

Henry had some nice Foo-Foo pizza deliverd from Zekes (Way to go Henry on resetting the bar back to a manageable level!) Pizza was outstanding. My wife donated some of her garlic & herb foccaccia bread from her bakery. I opened a couple of bottles of wine from my cellar, both not worth mentioning here. Freelon did bring this nice bottle of No Girls Grenache.

On another note, Lee brought a bottle of champagne (I didn't catch the name or vintage) to celebrate Freelon's last day of work at Boeing.

Way to go Freelon! Happy Retirement!

  • 2009 No Girls Grenache 91 Points

    USA, Washington, Columbia Valley, Walla Walla Valley

    Freelon brought this go with dinner. No formal tasting notes.

    Nose is brambly, spicy, earthy notes, and hints of licorice that add complexity. Palate is soft, but not plush or velvety. Really nice complexity with lots of layers. Dark, earthy fruit. Dark chocolate with raspberry notes. Hints of heavy toasted oak. Just hints though. Some unintegrated tannins, but much less than expected given how young it is.

    NOTE: I am not a fan of Grenache, so take that into consideration of my score. Given that, I did enjoy this wine which says alot.

    Post a Comment / 1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Report Issue

Flight 2 - Tasting Wines (8 Notes)

Wines were served single blind (bagged and labeled "A" through "H"

  • 2007 Cayuse Syrah Armada Vineyard 91 Points

    USA, Washington, Columbia Valley, Walla Walla Valley

    Bottle "A"
    Tasted single blind. Pop 'n Poured.

    Light in color, garnet hue, 1/4" to the meniscus. Nose of Cayuse funk, bacon fat, roasted meat, and olives. Little fruit on the palate, primary taste of olives, soy, and minerals. Medium + acidity, tight/firm tannins, light-medium bodied. Finish is long and complex.

    Final thoughts: Most of the group immediately identified this as the Cayuse. Someone noted that Cayuse tends not to do very well in blind, group tastings. Our group confirmed this overall, but it placed higher for myself.

    My Ranking: 3rd out of 8 wines
    Group Ranking: 6th (tied) out of 8 wines
    Middle-Tier (50 total points out of 88 possible points)

    Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

  • 2005 Clarendon Hills Astralis 86 Points

    Australia, South Australia, Fleurieu, Clarendon

    Bottle "B"
    Tasted single blind. Pop 'n Poured.

    Medium color depth, ruby hue, 1/16" to the meniscus. Nose of blueberries and pepper. Blueberries and spice on the palate, with some medicinal qualities and hints of iron. Soft mid-palate, strong tannins and heat. Wine is disjointed and a bit astringent. Finish is short and not complex.

    Final thoughts: Most of the group identified this as a fruit forward, new world style Syrah/Shiraz, but most thought this was pretty young. No one thought this to be the Astralis; this wine was unilaterally panned by the entire group.

    My Ranking: 8th out of 8 wines
    Group Ranking: 8th out of 8 wines
    Bottom-Tier (80 total points out of 88 possible points)

    Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

  • 2009 Jean-Michel Gerin Côte-Rôtie 93 Points

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Côte-Rôtie

    Bottle "C"
    Tasted single blind. Pop 'n Poured.

    Light in color, garnet hue, 1/8" to the meniscus. Very floral nose with lots of red fruit, vanilla, and cherry. Lots of cherry and red fruit on the palate, with some herbs and minerals to brace them. Soft attack but good mid-palate build, lively long complex finish. Body is smooth and silky, tannins are well integrated. Medium + acidity, light-medium bodied.

    Final thoughts: This nose could only be the Viognier in the Cote Rotie. We all pegged this one. This wine was enjoyed by all and a nearly virtual tie for first place. This wine has the acid to age a long time, would love to see how it develops in 10-20 years. My WOTN.

    My Ranking: 1st out of 8 wines
    Group Ranking: 2nd out of 8 wines (virtual tie for first)
    Top-Tier (26 total points out of 88 possible points)

    Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

  • 2009 Penfolds Shiraz St. Henri 89 Points

    Australia, South Australia

    Bottle "D"
    Tasted single blind. Pop 'n Poured.

    Medium color depth, ruby hue, 1/32" to the meniscus. Young wine. Very "Green" nose of bell peppers with some stewed cherries and oak. Fruit forward, jammy cherry palate, smooth but a bit astringent. Secondary flavors overwhelmed by strong, disjointed tannins. Good balance, but overall a very young, primary simplistic wine. Finish is long, but not complex.

    Final thoughts: I pegged this one as the young, jammy, fruit forward AUZ Shiraz. Not my style of Syrah, nor does it appear to be for the group as well. Again, this wine was unilaterally panned by everyone. Both AUZ bottles in their own league at the bottom of the group's scale.

    My Ranking: 7th out of 8 wines
    Group Ranking: 7th out of 8 wines
    Bottom-Tier (78 total points out of 88 possible points)

    Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

  • 2009 Gilles Robin Hermitage 90 Points

    France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage

    Bottle "E"
    Tasted single blind. Pop 'n Poured.

    Medium color depth, brigh ruby hue, 1/16" to the meniscus. Nose is a bit reduced, just hints of red fruit and a touch of oak. Palate is also red fruit, muted and reduced as well.Body is soft through the mid, but has a nice build up to the finish. Tannins are fine, acid is medium, finish is medium, complexitiy is medium.

    Final thoughts: I think this wine needed more bottle time and definitely, more air time. Has good components, but everything is pretty reduced, muted, or shut down at the moment. It was hard to identify where this came from. I left it blank as there just didn't seem to be enough signature points in it to identify. Afraid this one is a baby killer, unable to imagine what this will be like in the future.

    My Ranking: 5th out of 8 wines
    Group Ranking: 6th (tied) out of 8 wines
    Mid-Tier (50 total points out of 88 possible points)

    Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Report Issue

  • 2007 Lagier Meredith Syrah 92 Points

    USA, California, Napa Valley, Mt. Veeder

    Bottle "F"
    Tasted single blind. Pop 'n Poured.

    Thick color depth, deep purple hue, 1/16" to the meniscus. Nose of blueberries, blackberries, forest floor, smoke, and a hint of mint. Palate of Black fruit, forest floor, and roasted meat. Body was soft, smooth, and juicy. Very technically correct wine. Good balance of acid, tannins, heat, and flavor. Wine is still on the young side as the tannins still need a bit more time to integrate. Long finish, but medium to simple complexity.

    Final thoughts: I thought this to be the Betz due to the heavy, but deftly done extraction level of the wine. I really enjoyed this wine. my second favorite of the night, but there was a large gap between this one and my WOTN, the 2009 Michel Gerin Cote Rotie.

    My Ranking: 2nd out of 8 wines
    Group Ranking: 3rd out of 8 wines
    Mid/Upper-Tier (38 total points out of 88 possible points)

    Post a Comment / 1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Report Issue

  • 2006 Lillian Winery Syrah 89 Points

    USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Barbara County

    Bottle "G"
    Tasted single blind. Pop 'n Poured.

    Dark color depth, ruby hue, 1/4" to the meniscus. Nose of licorice, blue fruit, plum, and some chalk. Primary palate of black fruit, very soft intensity with some bitter, astringent characteristics. No attack, soft across the board, ending in dry heat. Tannins are fine. Finish is short and not complex.

    Final thoughts: I think this wine was a bit overwhelmed by the previous extracted Lagier Meredith wine. This one just seemed to get lost. Nothing great, nothing bad ... Nothing memorable. This was a "middle of the pack" wine for most of the group, with only two outliers, one high, one low.

    My Ranking: 6th out of 8 wines
    Group Ranking: 4th out of 8 wines
    Middle-Tier (47 total points out of 88 possible points)

    Read 2 Comments / Post a Comment / 2 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Report Issue

  • 2008 Betz Family Syrah La Côte Patriarche 91 Points

    USA, Washington, Columbia Valley, Yakima Valley

    Bottle "H"
    Tasted single blind. Slow ox'd for 8 hours.

    Dark, deep color depth, Bright purple hue, 1/16" to the meniscus. Very interesting nose of blue fruit, soy, earth, soil, and loam (but not forest floor). Palate of blue fruit, soy, bacon, and slate. Soft, silky body, fine tannins, good balance across the acid, heat, and flavors. Medium length finish with medium complexity.

    Final thoughts: I pegged this one as the Hermitage as, to me, it had the most mineral/stone characteristics of all of the wines. This was a virtual tie for 3rd with the Cayuse for me, albeit very different wines. This may have come in higher if tasted earlier in the line up as I was getting some serious palate fatigue at this point. Apparently the rest of the group was still running strong as this did extremely well across the board with only one 5th place vote, all the rest coming in 3rd or higher.

    My Ranking: 3rd (tie) out of 8 wines
    Group Ranking: 1st (virtual tie with "C") out of 8 wines
    Top-Tier (25 total points out of 88 possible points)

    Post a Comment / 3 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Report Issue

Closing

So here is how the group ranking came in:

Top-Tier (virtual tie)
1) 2008 Betz Cote Patriarche (25 points)
2) 2009 Michel Gerin Cote Rotie (26 points)

Mid/Upper-Tier
3) 2007 Lagier Meredith (38 points)

Mid-Tier
4) 2006 Lillian Syrah (47 points)
6) 2007 Cayuse Armada (50 points-tie)
6) 2009 Gilles Hermitage (50 poins-tie)

Bottom Tier
7) 2009 Penfold St. Henri (76 points)
8) 2005 Astralis (80 points)

Groupings show WA wines (1st and 6th) and Northern Rhones wines(2nd and 6th) were spread out amongst the group. The CA wines (3rd and 4th) were bundled in the upper mid area. Finally, we collectively do not like the AUZ (7th and 8th by a wide margin) wines!

×
×