Tag Archives: Syrah

Price: 11-15 bucks, Tasting Notes

Renwood Zinfandel 2007 Lodi

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logo-renhiendlabelhiI picked this up while browsing at Spec’s when I saw that it had Viognier in the blend. It’s not very common for white and red grapes to be blended together – the biggest exceptions being old-school Chianti and Côte Rôtie. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Zin/Viognier blend. Let’s see what it’s like.

Producer: Renwood

Grapes: 85% Zinfandel, 11% Syrah, 4% Viognier

Appellation: Lodi

Vineyards: The Zinfandel grapes are from “middle-aged” vineyards (30+ years old)

Winemaking: Interestingly, only 15% of the blend was aged in oak, and used oak at that. There is no indication on the tech sheet as to whether the Viognier was co-fermented or blended later, though based on the color I’m assuming it was blended.

Alcohol: 13.6%

Price: I paid $10 or $11 on sale at Spec’s in Austin (I think the regular price is closer to $13-14).

My tasting notes: Fairly light in color, surely due to the dose of Viognier (a white wine, for those who aren’t familiar with the grape). It has a pretty nose. I get the floral note from the Viognier and loads of raspberries, but not in a jammy way. There is also a wet-earth quality and a bit of sweet oak as well.  On the palate, it comes across as a relatively light-bodied wine, with more red fruit, slightly earthy flavors and a smooth, silky texture.

Overall assessment: A modest style of Zinfandel, which is less and less common these days. A nice quaff, if you don’t require a wine from the “These go to eleven” school of Zin. B-

Free association:

modesty

Question: Have you ever tasted or seen a Zin/Viognier blend?

More info:

Thanks to Renwood for emailing me the tech sheet which wasn’t available online.

I can’t find many reviews/tasting notes of this wine online. Wilfred Wong of BevMo gave it an 87. And there’s one review at CellarTracker. That’s all I could find.

Price: 11-15 bucks, Tasting Notes

Vina Robles RED4 2007 Paso Robles

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VinaRoblesRed4_labelThis wine had a lot of “shelf appeal” for me. First off it’s from Paso Robles and it’s got the vineyard named on the label. Yippee! Then I see that it’s a blend of Petite Sirah, Syrah, Tannat and Touriga Nacional. Geek-tastic!

Producer: Vina Robles

Grapes: 51% Petite Sirah, 43% Syrah, 4% Tannat, 2% Touriga Nacional

Appellation: Paso Robles

Vineyard: Huerhuero – an estate vineyard (cool map here)

[from the winery] Huerhuero Vineyard occupies a rolling terrain on the southeast border of Paso Robles, with largely south-facing slopes that reach a maximum elevation of 1,200 feet. This location is a crossroads for marine air entering the region from both the Templeton Gap and Salinas Valley. The soils are shallow, shifting from clay loam to sandy loam, with rocky calcareous subsoils—a well-drained composition that naturally tames vine vigor. The main soil types are the Nacimiento – Los Osos and the Arbuckle – Positas complex. A tight vine spacing of 6 by 4 feet in several blocks creates root competition and also controls vigor. The result is smaller vines, with balanced canopies and small, intensely flavored grapes.

Winemaking/aging: “up to” 14 months in 1-2 year old French oak

Alcohol: 14.5%

Price: $14

My tasting notes: This wine leads with bright red and blue fruit on nose, with some meaty/gamey aromas. On the palate, the fruit gets deeper and darker (blackberries, black cherries) with a steely/mineral quality that makes me think “old world” momentarily. Some oak and drying tannins on the back, but smooth overall considering the grapes involved.

Overall impression: This is definitely a wine I would buy again. Plenty here for everybody. It’s got gobs of fruit, but plenty of natural structure as well. Very solid. Plus it’s got fun grapes. B

Free association: I don’t know why but… Darth Tater (dark, but cheery?)

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More info:

Winery’s tech sheet (all their wines are in one pdf so you have to scroll down to find this wine)

Other blogger viewpoints at: Wine Peeps (score only: 2.5 stars), Young Winos of LA (scroll down), Wine and Cheese and Wherever You Are.

Price: 11-15 bucks, Tasting Notes

Can Blau 2007 Montsant

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CanBlau07_snapshotOkay, maybe you’re getting tired of me posting about Montsant, but I’m going to keep trying them as long as they keep impressing me. Let’s check this one out.

Producer: Cellers Can Blau.  (This wine also bears the label of Jorge Ordoñez Selection, though Tempranillo Inc. is listed as the importer.)

Grapes: 40% Mazuela, 40% Syrah, 20% Garnacha. (Mazuela is a synonym for Carignan, which I was unaware of until researching this post.)

Appellation: D. O. Montsant (Spain)

Vineyards: The Mazuelo was planted in sandy clay, the Syrah in chalky soils and the Garnacha on slate, known as llicorella [from the label]

Winemaking/aging: no info

Alcohol: 14%

Packaging: Beautiful diamond pattern on the label. Looks like an inlaid marble floor you’d see in a palace or something. Real cork closure.

Price: $14

My tasting notes: Nice dark color. Cedar, beef jerky and blueberry on the nose, with some of the alcohol showing through. On the palate, this wine has an inky, dry, slightly stemmy core laced with ripe mixed berry fruit that disappears quickly. Finishes very dry and tannic. This wine throws quite a bit of sediment as well. (It got a bit rounder and more balanced on day two, so I’d recommend decanting this one for a few hours.)

Overall assessment: Interesting how this blend comes together, you get the tannic backbone of the Mazuelo/Carignan, the cedar and meatiness from the Syrah and the Garnacha delivers some fleshy fruit (though not enough, I think). At least that how I imagine the components working together. In the end though, I didn’t find this as satisfying as I’d like. The hollowness of the mid-palette left me hanging, wanting more depth. B-/C+

Free association: The name Can Blau makes me think of this song from Bob Schneider called Blauu.

More info:

Apparently most people liked this wine more than I did, so maybe you will too. It makes me question myself when I see so many gushing reviews of a wine I think is good but not special. But, hey, I gotta call ’em like I see ’em.

Stephen Tanzer gave it 91 pts and Robert Parker gave it 90 pts.

Other blogger reviews at Serge the Concierge, The Rhone Report, and BlogRoom.

More tasting notes at Corkd and Snooth. More people on CellarTracker shared my thoughts on the hollowness of the wine.

Price: 11-15 bucks, Tasting Notes

Perrin & Fils Vinsobres “Les Cornuds” 2006

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PerrinVinsobres_NV_bottleshotPerrin & Fils is a producer that always catches my eye. I’ve had a number of very good bottles from them and no bad ones. So when I saw this bottle at Costco from an appellation I’m not familiar with and a couple of nice scores (91 WS and 90 RP), I couldn’t resist.

Producer: Perrin & Fils

Grapes: Back label says 65% Syrah, 35% Grenache – but I read in two places that the AC rules for this appellation require a minimum of 50% Grenache. So I’m assuming they got it backward on the label and it’s 65% Grenache.

Appellation: Vinsobres (AOC, France) (map). Formerly classified as Côtes du Rhône Villages (1957), then Côtes du Rhône Villages Vinsobres (1967), this appellation was granted its own AOC (just Vinsobres) in 2005.

Vineyards: From vineyards at Domaine de la Bicarelle and the Julian estate. They describe the soils as “Stony and sandy marl on the slopes, with quartenary stony alluviums on the terraces.”

Winemaking/aging: Label says 35% is aged in French oak, but no indication for how long or whether the barrels are new or not.

Alcohol: 14%

Price: $12-15

My tasting notes: Dusty red fruit, pencil shavings and dried herbs on the nose. Feels weighty in the mouth, with flavors of dried cherries, plums, figs and just a hint of black olive. Persistent minerality on the finish. (Drinks well on day two – a little fruitier and fleshier.)

Overall assessment: A nice wine. Good balance of restrained fruit and minerality/earth, especially after a few hours open and the next day. A good way to explore lesser-known Rhone appellations. B-

Free association: In the my last post, I used Iron Man to convey the iron notes in the wine. I have comics on the brain, so I’m using The Thing to convey the earthy minerality of this wine.

TheThing_Cover

More info:

Wondering how to pronounce the name of this wine?

Other blogger reviews: Gang of Pour,  Viva la Wino and Passport Foodie

Price: 11-15 bucks, Tasting Notes

Drink Pink, Take 2: Routas Rouviere 2007

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After recently enjoying a rosé, the Bonny Doon Vin Gris de  Cigare 2007, and asking myself why I don’t drink pink more often, I picked up another — this time from France.

routas2007roseProducer: Chateau Routas

Grapes: 40% Grenache, 30% Syrah, 30% Cinsault

Appellation: Coteaux Varois en Provence (AOC, France).

Vinification/Aging: [from the producer’s website] The grapes are cooled and kept on their skins for 12 to 24 hours immediately following harvest, then gently pressed. All the Syrah and half of the Grenache go straight to neutral oak barrels after being pressed where they go through their primary and malolactic fermentation. The remaining Grenache and Cinsault are fermented in stainless steel tanks and blocked from malolactic fermentation. The two different lots are aged separately for five months and blended prior bottling.

Alcohol: 13%

Price: I paid $11 at Spec’s in Austin.

My tasting notes:  Very nice salmon/apricot color.  On the nose, I’m struck first by soapy aromas, like a heavily-scented hand soap — Wild SugarBerry Blossom, or something like that. There’s a bit of crayon box, too. And slightly oxidized aroma like sherry. Maybe I have an off bottle. Mrs. VINEgeek adds that there is a “creek water” element to it. In the mouth, it comes across somewhat sugary on the initial attack, like sugar-coated strawberries and raspberries, followed by bit of that oxidation I smelled (though not so much as to make it unpalatable). It has good acid and finishes dry.

Overall assessment/score: I hesitate to give this a score since there’s a chance I got an off bottle. Even without the possible oxidation, I think it was a bit out of balance. For my palate, this is not nearly as nice as the Vin Gris de Cigare. Here are some other people’s thoughts.  Also, Wine Spectator gave it an 87.

Free association:

who_owns_bath_and_body_works-741300

Price: 11-15 bucks, Tasting Notes

Montsant = Poor Man’s Priorat

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Capcanes Mas Donis Barrica 2005 Montsant

MasDonis2005_bottleEven though I try not to be a score-shopper (“90+ only, please!”), it’s hard to pass up a 91-pointer for under $12 from an up-and-coming appellation: Montsant. It’s a relatively new Spanish D.O., formerly a sub-region within the Tarragona D.O. It essentially surrounds the Priorat D.O., which is home to many high-dollar cult wines. Like Priorat, Montsant is planted mostly to Garnacha (Grenache) and Cariñena (Carignane). Let’s check it out.

Producer: Celler de Capçanes

Grapes: 85% Garnacha, 15% Syrah

Appellation: Montsant (D.O., Spain)

MontsantDO

Vintage: 2005

Vineyards: 80+ year old Garnacha vines and  30+ year old Syrah vines

Aging: 8-9 months in new and old French and American oak “barricas”

Alcohol: 14%

Price: I paid $11.60 at Spec’s in Austin

My tasting notes: This wine brings a lot to the table aromatically.  There are berries at the core, but draped with layers of violets, clove, cedar, tar, Swiss Miss hot chocolate powder. I even caught a kind of a swampy smell. In the mouth, it’s pretty rich with jammy berries and spices, and a pleasant minerality. It gets a little hot & prickly at the end, but not too bad.

Assessment/score:  Very interesting wine for the price. It could easily pass for a $20-25 bottle, I think. Worth seeking out. B

Free association:

SM_Curved-v2

Robert Parker has given this wine 90+ points in several of the last 5 or 6 vintages. Here are his notes on this 2005:

“It offers up an expressive nose of slate, mineral, licorice, violets, black cherry, and blueberry. Layered, long, and complex, this spicy, hedonistic effort has 2-3 years of aging potential but can be enjoyed now without guilt. It is a great value.”

Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate
91 Points

Price: 11-15 bucks, Tasting Notes

Bonny Doon Vin Gris de Cigare 2007 California

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VinGrisCigare07_bottle_600pxh_300dpiMaybe because I had just posted about the Bonny Doon Mourvedre, I picked up this bottle on a recent replenish-the-stock-of-everyday-wine trip to the wine shop. I don’t drink much of the pink stuff, generally. It has a top-of-mind awareness problem with me. I just don’t think about it very often. When I go to the wine shop or grab a few bottles at the grocery store, I tend to think of value reds from Spain or Portugal or the Rhone, Argentine Malbec, Sonoma Zins. Or whites like New Zealand SBs, Albarino, Vinho Verde, various Alsace whites. Rosé as a category just doesn’t cross my mind.

I opened this one for one of our “grazing dinners” as my wife like to call them: prosciutto and melon, caprese salad, olives, some cheese, etc. Let’s see how it did.

Producer: Bonny Doon Vineyards

Grapes: 47% Grenache, 27% Cinsault, 14% Syrah, 7% Grenache Blanc, 5% Roussanne

Appellation: California (though it’s hard to tell from the label — it just says “Pink Wine of the Earth”)

Vineyards: unknown

Aging: unknown

Alcohol: 13.5%

Price: I don’t remember exactly what I paid, but it’s in the $12-14 range.

My tasting notes: Beautiful color. Strawberries and a distinct balloon aroma on the nose. On the palate, it has nice fruit leaning toward strawberry and cherry and possibly peach. Hints of earth and herbs. There is a really great texture to this wine; good weight. Am I imagining a little bit of an oily quality? Finishes dry and delicious.

Assessment/grade: I really like this. Beautiful color, nice aromatics, great mouthfeel and flavor. What’s not to like? Why don’t I drink this more often? B

Free association:

credit: D Sharon Pruitt (flickr account: Pink Sherbet Photography)
credit: D Sharon Pruitt (flickr account: Pink Sherbet Photography)

More details on Bonny Doon’s sell sheet for this wine here.

Price: Over 20 bucks, Tasting Notes

Cline Los Carneros Syrah 2006 Carneros

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Cline_LosCarnSyrahRT

I opened another bottle from Cline last night. My stock of everyday wines has gotten low, so I’m raiding my nicer bottles. I have four vintages of this wine in my cellar.  It was a stand-out for me on my last visit to the winery a few years back and I’ve been saving my club shipments of this wine ever since. I thought maybe I’d arrange a vertical tasting or something. But I wanted a nice bottle to go with my wife’s awesome eggplant parmesan, so I picked the current vintage (the 2006), saving the others for that hypothetical vertical and assuming I could replace the 2006 more easily.

So how was it? Let’s see…

Producer: Cline Cellars

Grapes: 100% Syrah

Appellation: Carneros (AVA, California) – from the Sonoma side of this AVA, which straddles the southern ends of the Sonoma Valley and Napa Valley AVAs.

Vineyard: Estate hillside vineyards with shallow clay and loam soils.  Classic Carneros climate of foggy mornings, warm afternoons and cool evenings due to nearby San Pablo Bay. Photos here and here.

Aging: 12 months in French oak (30% new) with dark toast

Alcohol: 14.5%

Price: $28

My tasting notes: Near opaque color, with a muddy garnet at the rim. On the nose, I get plenty of vanilla oakiness and an interesting pine aroma that reminds me of Christmas. There is some red fruit, but it does not smell highly extracted, which is promising. In the mouth, it’s lovely. Plummy fruit with mineral and leather notes accented with very appealing oak. It has great weight and mouthfeel, smooth but with a bit of tannic grip. And it carries the alcohol much more gracefully than the Bridgehead Zin from last night. Really delicious stuff.

Assessment/score: I really like this. I’ve had a few vintages now and it has always impressed me. Highly recommended. A-

Free association: Not sure why exactly. Sleek but comfortable. Elegant. Smooth wood.

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