Amaroso Room - Wine Storage Bellevue
Tasted Thursday, March 13, 2014 by f22nickell with 478 views
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
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!
Wines were served single blind (bagged and labeled "A" through "H"
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!
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.
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