2001 Cali Syrah vs. 2001 Aussie Shiraz Blindtasted
Tom's House, Palo Alto, CA
Tasted Thursday, April 10, 2008 by rjonwine@gmail.com with 504 views
Introduction
Introductory comments by tasting organizer Ross Bott:
Syrah is probably the most versatile of all the wine varietals, capable of florishing in a broad range of climates and soils. It is relatively hardy and will survive cooler vintages as well as warm ones while still producing interesting, complex wines. It works well as a pure varietal, and also blends graciously with Grenache, Mourvedre, Cabernet, Carignane, and a wealth of lesser-known red varietals, complementing and not overwhelming those varietals. Syrah can be vinified in a lighter, earthy style or in a big, rich fruit driven style, or anywhere in the range between those two endpoints.
The rich, fruit driven approach is often called the New World style, perhaps because many of the best examples come from California and Australia. However, even in Syrah's home in the Northern Rhone, many of the heavyweights from the top domaines (Guigal's La Mouline, La Landonne and La Turque, Rostaings, Gerin Les Grands Places, etc.) have moved routinely into the 14-16% alcohol range in recent vintages. These wines are wonderfully rich and fun to drink when young, but many question whether they will age into something interesting and complex with a decade or more.
Since most of the best examples of this powerhouse style have only come out in the past several years, there are few data points to help us understand how these wines will develop. Based upon tasting examples that have reached the 5-7 year age, I am perhaps more optimistic than some. At this age, many of these fruit bombs have begun to shed some of their baby fat and one should be able to glimpses of the spicy, black pepper, minerally, bacon fat themes which make Syrah such a wonderfully complex varietal. And in fact, in many of these powerhouses, these non-fruit themes are beginning to surface. Further, Syrah seems to handle the higher alcohol levels more gracefully with age than most other varietals, with the higher dry extracts of Syrah offering a thick coat of plushness around the harder alcoholic bones. And the complexities which begin to emerge seem to promise even more interest as these Syrahs move past their first decade.
Tonight we'll have a special tasting of some of the very best 2001 California and Australian Syrahs in the powerhouse style. The 2001 vintage was an outstanding one for both regions, with predictions that it would also produce one of the most long-lived groups of Syrahs. At seven years of age, we should start to be seeing some signs of evolution and get some idea whether we will be seeing something even more wonderful in 5-10 more years. This will also be an opportunity to see whether the powerhouse style ages in different ways in California vs Australia.
On the California side, the lineup is headed up by the great Behrens & Hitchcock "Alder Springs Vineyard" and Jeff Cohn's "Caldwell Vineyard" bottlings. From Australia, we'll have two of the best from the Sarah and Sparky Marquis team (Henry's Drive "Reserve" and Marquis Philips "9") and Rolf Binder's "The Changeling" from the Eden Valley region in Barossa.
Flight 1 - pre-tasting blind wines (2 Notes)
The clue was "same winemaker, same vineyard, same year." The Rosenblum slightly edged out the JC Cellars.
Flight 2 - My TNs and group rankings (8 Notes)
Flight 3 - sweet finish (2 Notes)
2001 Rosenblum Cellars Syrah Fess Parker Vineyard 88 Points
USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Barbara County
Dark red violet color; ripe plum, black fruit and berry nose; tart plum, oak, a little herbal, lacking complexity and depth; medium finish 88+ pts.
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2001 Jeff Cohn Cellars Syrah Fess Parker Vineyard 88 Points
USA, California, Central Coast, Santa Barbara County
Dark red violet color; darker, tangier nose than the '01 Rosenblum Fess Parker; tart black fruit, vanilla oak and a little smoke palate; medium finish
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