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Syrah Tasting
Manhattan Beach, CA
Tasted January 17, 2012 by cabber with 444 views
Introduction
Tuesday "school-night" wine tasting. Single blind. Decanted 1-3 hours. Some beauties and some surprises.
Flight 1 (7 notes)
Red
2007 K Vintners Syrah Skull
98 points
This was our Wine of the Night, tasted blind against a bunch of fantastic syrahs. Surprisingly approachable for such a young wine. Fantastic depth of fruit, balance and SUPER long finish.
Red
2003 Saxum Bone Rock James Berry Vineyard
96 points
Tied for second in the syrah tasting. huge nose, silky tannins, big blueberry.
Red
2005 Clarendon Hills Syrah Moritz
95 points
Tied for second in our tasting. Great nose of black and blue fruit, spicy, mint, blueberry pie. In a nice place now.
Red
2002 Barossa Valley Estate Shiraz E & E Black Pepper
93 points
Very nice. Has mellowed, so not as much of a jammy aussie fruit bomb, but far from subtle. pepper, of course, licorice and spice. balance and silky texture.
Red
2003 Pax Syrah Obsidian Vineyard
94 points
This was great, but did not have the complexity or long finish of some of the others. blueberry and red fruit, bright acidity.
Red
2004 Garretson Wine Company Syrah The Bulladóir
94 points
Yes, its huge, powerful and hedonsitic. BUT, it as mellowed (relatively) from when I had it a couple years ago. Stacked up nicely with the other big syrahs we drank. Glad I have more, since I expect it will continue to improve.
Red
2005 Pride Mountain Vineyards Syrah
91 points
Drank this after the blind tasting. A nice clean syrah. Hits all the bases, but no real WOW factor for me. earth, blueberry, raspberry and a little spice. a pleasant quaff at the end of the evening.
Closing
Made for a rough Wednesday morning, but worth it! Charles Smith is the real deal and lives up to the hype, if the Skull we drank is any indication. Forget the conventional drinking windows - 3 hour decant and GO!