Piedrasassi 2009 Syrah Central Coast ABV 13.5% $40

Again a hiatus from the blog for a couple of weeks has made me want to kick things back off with a bang.  I’m trying not to make a habit out of these breaks from the blog but my latest excuse is that my current obsession with Golden State Warriors basketball hasn’t done my wine writing any favors.  Now that the young Warriors have been undone by the aging Spurs, I have sworn off basketball for the rest of the season and I’m back in the blog game.

I’ve been wanting to try one of the higher end Piedrasassi Syrahs for quite a while.  I’ve had their more budget-friendly Syrah more than a few times and although I definitely wouldn’t call it cool climate, it’s a delicious honest Syrah.

The 2009 Central Coast Syrah is also honest.  It’s got a lot of those cool-climate characteristics I love and a pure core of acidity on the palate.  On the nose the wine has a beautiful floral aroma and bright blackberry. There’s black pepper and anise too.  The finish is just about perfectly balanced for my taste and is extremely food-friendly.  This is another versatile Syrah, yes, although I get tired of the Syrah-only-goes-with-barbeque paradigm, this is a wine that actually would go well-grilled food.  I could see it also matching well with richer chicken and fish dishes.

The Central Coast is a 100% Syrah blend and is an expression of the Piedrasassi philosophy and current thinking.  The Piedrasassi winery explains this philosophy on its website:

“Don’t get us wrong, we like single vineyard designates. As winemakers, we enjoy learning about the different personalities of the vineyards and the fruit they produce. However, we are also big fans of a well-crafted blend, which should highlight not only the strengths of the grape and the region but also how those traits are expressed through a particular winery’s lens.”

For this vintage, winemaker Sashi Moorman wanted to accentuate the savory side of these particular vineyards, so this wine also has some stem inclusion to add aromatic complexity. It’s a vineyard blend from Harrison Clarke, Sebastiano, Rim Rock and La Purisima Syrah vineyards. He picked earlier than most of his other Santa Rita hills counterparts and the wine was aged in 100% neutral oak.  Moorman’s made quite a name for himself as a low alcohol aficionado, which is a philosophy you can probably guess I agree with.  You can read about it more about it here on Blake Gray’s article for Wine Review Online (per usual, the comments are just as interesting as the article).  This wine is a great example of Moorman’s idea that grapes picked at a lower alcohol level can develop into wines with just as much flavor and complexity as grapes that are left to hang on the vines longer to develop phenolic ripeness. This wine is packed with flavor and aromatic intensity.  The acidity that’s present as a result of the earlier picking also adds to the complexity of the mid-palate and it makes you wonder, as Moorman does, how anyone would decide to wait longer to pick.

I can’t wait to try more of Moorman’s wines.  He’s got a deft hand with Syrah and it’s a style that’s right up my alley.

Two Delicious 2011 Northern Rhone Syrahs for About $20

2011 Laurent Combier Crozes Hermitage 12.5% ABV $20

My first thought when I had a whiff and a sip of this wine was, “Damn this is a well-made Syrah”.  This is fabulous stuff and another great example of why cool-climate Syrah grown in the Northern Rhone is where it’s at.

On the nose this wine is dusty violets and olives and herbs.  There’s a bit of orange zest even and pretty licorice.  The mid-palate is full bodied but with great balanced acidity.  Wow this is a nice wine.  A wonderful finish too, not much tannin, and nicely integrated with the rest of the wine.

The Laurent Combier winery has an interesting story.  The Combier family were organic fruit farmers in the 1970’s (when nobody else was) who grew grapes until the son of the family, Laurent, who had studied both viticulture and agriculture at the university in Orange refocused the farm and made it more of a viticulturist family who grew apricots and peaches.  They expanded their grape growing and now are about 19 hectares of wine and about 20 hectares of mainly peaches and some apricots.

The grapes are brought in and go through a 25 day maceration in stainless steel tanks and then eventually are transferred to either concrete eggs or into neutral oak.  The result is a pure fruit wine with beautiful body and acidity.  In keeping with their organic philosophy,  the wine also sees very little sulphur.

This is just a deliciously pure Syrah and one that I will seek out again, especially if I can continue to find it for less than $20.

2011 Yves Cuilleron Syrah Vin de Pays des Collines Rhodaniennes 12% ABV $18

This is a wine that on the nose just screams old world Syrah.  It’s got a rustic edge to it with a lot of minerality.  On the palate it’s just a tad juicy with dark fruit and hints of tobacco, and has a full mid-palate with some tannins on the back end.  The acidity spikes and makes the wine finish a little like biting into a tart orange.  This is a wine that might be best suited for big food like steak or sausage but would also work with pork or chicken dishes with a rich sauce.

The Vin de Pays des Collines Rhodaniennes Syrah is Cuilleron’s entry-level Syrah and comes from the village of Chavanay where his headquarters reside.  Chavanay is in the more up-and-coming area of St. Joseph.  The vineyards for this wine are farmed naturally, if not quite organically.  The grapes are de-stemmed, fermented in open vats and go through a two-week maceration process.  The wine is aged for eight months in oak.

According to my Northern Rhone bible The Wines of the Northern Rhône, Cuilleron has drawn a lot of attention to himself because of his modern wine making although Livingstone-Learmouth thinks that Cuilleron gets considerably more “flamboyant” in his winemaking with his whites.  I look forward to trying more of Cuilleron’s Syrahs as I continue to explore the Northern Rhone in more depth.  For an “entry level” Syrah this is definitely a wine to find and enjoy and for less than $20 it gives a great introduction into the world of cool-climate Syrah.

A disclaimer: 

The truth is that as I begin to peel the onion that is French Syrah, I’m finding out that it’s going to be a slow process.  My notes for the French Syrahs are going to be a little more heavy on the tasting notes rather than the back story of the winery simply because of how far away I am from the story of these wines and how little I’ve researched them so far.  That will all change as I find out more and more.  Perhaps a trip to France in the future?

Now, you may wonder how the hell am I not an expert in Northern Rhone when I profess to be extolling the virtues of cool-climate Syrah.  Well, while I have drunken quite a few of these wines and have a good sense of their flavor profiles, I don’t know that much about the specific producers or the story behind them.  The price point for some of the Syrahs has also been a factor in scaring me off.  But now, I’m delving in, with an eye out for some not-so-expensive iterations.   Please stay with me as I learn more!

MacLaren 2010 Judge Family Vineyard Bennett Valley Syrah 13% ABV $38

I met Steve Law, MacLaren’s winemaker, at this year’s Rhone Rangers grand tasting event and was immediately blown away by the fact that he was a dedicated cool-climate Syrah winemaker in California.  Most wineries that make a cooler climate style of Syrah don’t necessarily advertise it as such and as I mentioned in my previous Rhone Rangers post, cool-climate Syrah wineries are few and far between to start with.  Which begs the question (and the same one many probably ask about my blog):  What was Steve Law thinking by starting a winery dedicated to this style of Syrah?  In fact, on my way to Steve’s small winery operation, I stopped by an open house at Peay winery and had a brief conversation with the winemaker Vanessa Wong.  After hearing that I was heading to a winery in Healdsburg dedicated to cool-climate Syrah she paused, raise her eyebrows and replied, “Well, that’s the definition of insanity.”

Well, bring on the insanity.  This is my style of Syrah.  It was grown in the Bennett Valley appellation, which lies between Glen Ellen and the west side of Santa Rosa.  There are areas of Bennett Valley where the Syrah grapes barely reach ripeness and, in fact, some would say would be more suited for Pinot. (I don’t agree.)  I’ve had a few bigger styles of Syrah from this area but also a few elegant and savory Syrahs that scream cool-climate.

The Judge Family Vineyard Syrah from MacLaren is a great example of how Northern California Syrah, when grown in the right environment, can reach the same heights as Northern Rhone Syrah.  This wine is really a dead ringer for a Northern Rhone Syrah – it’s got textbook bright plum, black olive and floral aromas.  There’s a lot of fresh fruit on this wine; this is not a jammy style of Syrah, which is something Steve Law is very proud of.  There’s also a lot of minerality and a very savory edge, almost like a salted plum.  The mid-palate is bright and transitions to a nice lift of acidity on the finish.  There is very little evidence of tannins on this wine and that’s exactly what Steve was trying to achieve.  This wine is up there with my absolute favorite Syrahs that I’ve tried for this blog.

Steve Law moved to California after living in France and working in the electronics industry for twelve years, a time he also spent drinking and eating and falling in love with Northern Rhone Syrah, especially St. Joseph.  In coming to California he began exploring wine areas and developed an affinity for the Healdsburg area.  He began to volunteer for Michael Talty at Talty Winery and eventually convinced Michael to let him make a barrel of wine in 2007.  Steve wanted to make Syrah, and he got some fruit from a winery down the road and made it in a style that’s more associated with the Dry Creek Valley Syrah – big, tannic, and fruity.  Steve told me the wine was actually received well but he never liked it himself; it just didn’t remind him of the Syrah that he had grown to love so much in France.

After some lucky conversations with two of Steve’s favorite Saint Joseph winemakers, Yves Cuilleron and Francois Villard, Steve realized he needed to find cooler climate grapes and to pick a tad earlier.  He also needed a way to de-emphasize the tannin but emphasize the acidity.  Steve is passionate about the important distinction between these two red wine characteristics.  Big and tannic wine needs fatty food to cut through it and Steve wasn’t interested in that.  He was impressed with how the Syrahs he’d had in France and specifically from Saint Joseph were not huge tannic bombs but rather, elegant wines that went just as well with meat dishes as they went with fish.  He felt that the key to making a wine in this style was to deemphasize the amount of extraction from the skins.  The skins in grapes are what carry all the tannins and when punched down heavily or pressed at high pressure those tannins result in a bigger and blockier style of Syrah.  Steve solves this problem by pressing down the grapes with a bladder press at a very light setting.  This light pressing extracts the beautiful flavor, aromas and acidity of the Syrah without giving him all those beefy tannins.  It also results in getting less juice per ton than many other wine makers.  But Steve is ecstatic with the results.

And he has a right to be.  This Judge Family Vineyard Syrah is my favorite in Steve’s lineup (you can see some of my tasting notes from his other wines here).  It’s a wine that much like the Two Shepherds Syrah could easily go with light food.  In fact, I drank a few glasses with an egg and vegetable scramble and the wine went spectacularly well with it.  As Steve said, you can save the jam for your bread and butter in the morning because it doesn’t belong in your wine.  I couldn’t agree more.

Two Shepherds 2011 Russian River Valley Saralee’s Vineyard Syrah 13.5% ABV

A nice long desert vacation and the start of the SF Giants season has left me a little behind in wine posts but I wanted to get back in the swing of things with one of my favorite California wineries to come about in the last few years.

The Two Shepherds Saralee’s Vineyard Syrah is everything I love about well-made cool-climate Californian Syrah.  It still has that bright and deliciously pure California sunshine-y fruit but it also has some savory and secondary aromas that give it complexity and interest.  On the nose, I get some aromas of fresh plum and strawberry and a fair amount of minerality.  There are hints of anise in the background too.  The mid-palate is elegant and has a great combination of body and acidity.  The finish is beautifully bright and savory and hints to the aging potential of this wine.  Like many of the cooler climate styles of Syrah that I’ve tasted for this blog, it’s a red wine that would go well with lighter fair.  You don’t have to wait until you barbeque a steak with this Syrah, it’s ready to drink with your roast chicken, even salmon, or (at least in our house) the ubiquitous sautéed chicken breast.

Two Shepherds owner and winemaker William Allen

Two Shepherds is the love child of wine blogger William Allen.  Allen started the Simple Hedonisms wine blog in the mid 2000s and eventually decided to “…put his money where his keyboard was by planting a vineyard and starting a micro-winery.”  He moved up to Healdsburg to make wines that he felt celebrated California fruit and weren’t masked with oak and unnecessary additions.  2010 was Allen’s first vintage under the Two Shepherds label.  Allen is not a natural winemaker but he does believe in a minimalist approach.  Keeping the wine in neutral oak barrels is an integral part of his approach to winemaking because Allen feels that the wine gets body from the oak but doesn’t develop any of the oak flavors that mask the fruit.

Allen attributes his revelation as to how good California wine could be by having tasted a Grenache Blanc from Paso Robles winemaker Anthony Yount.  The Grenache was treated in a way that gave it body but also made it light on its feet and balanced for his palate.  In an email to me Allen described why he liked the wine so much, “It was the fact that the Grenache Blanc was made in a style that was both textural and complex, as well as bright and acid driven. Most California Grenache Blanc is either bright and linear, or over-ripe and flabby. When it became hard to find many others doing similar, it became one of the cores of Two Shepherds.”  That one wine became an inspiration to him and set him forth on a path to explore how he could make wines with California fruit that also bridged the gap between complexity, body, and acidity.

Tasting from concrete egg

On a recent visit to Two Shepherds Winery, Allen was excited about his new concrete eggs that he hoped would give him another way to ferment the wine without imparting extraneous flavor.  Allen is zealous about his wine and gave us a great tour of his small operation.  What I find most interesting and exciting about his wines is that they are so different from many of the California wines that exist these days– the higher acidity and elegance combined with the texturally weighty body illustrates how William was, in fact, able to achieve that goal that he set for himself.  I’ve had other Syrah from Saralee’s vineyards and this wine is unique. Although he focuses on Rhone varietals, William will be making some Cabernet Franc in the coming year to show how his house style can elevate its somewhat suspect reputation in California.

It was a pleasure to taste the Two Shepherds Syrah and I can’t wait to see how this winery will develop in the future.  The combination of acidity and body is a rare and special one in many California wines and one that I am constantly looking for. I’m glad to have found it.

This wine was provided as a media sample.

Thank you to Rick LaRocca for the wonderful pictures. 

In Search of Acidity: The 2013 Rhone Rangers Grand Tasting in San Francisco

Me at last year’s Rhone Rangers event, just happy to be here.

So, for this year’s Rhone Rangers Grand Tasting I went in with a plan. This year I was in search of acidity and I had a list of wineries that I had researched that just might have the brand of Syrah that I was looking for. The previous year had largely been a bust because I hadn’t done my research and I didn’t focus on one variety. I mean, I tasted some great wine but it wasn’t in the style that I was looking for. Many of the wines were big and blocky and even verged on flavors of port wine. These were not the elegant and balanced wines that I so love to drink with food. I left last year’s Rhone Rangers wondering where these wines were. Had a made a great mistake in trying to start a blog about California cool-climate wines?

Now, it turned out that with a little more research I found a year’s worth of Syrah to drink without much of a problem. And luckily at the very end of last year’s tasting I did find a couple of wineries that matched my style. Ambyth and Two Shephards were fantastic examples of more balanced versions of the grape I love.

Those two successes were enough to bring me back to Rhone Rangers this year and this time I even got to go as a member of the media.

Me at this year’s Rhone Rangers event, a man with a plan. 

Here were some of the standouts that I tasted this year in alphabetical order. You’ll notice that I skipped Ambyth this year having done an earlier blog post (link) about their wines.

But first, a word about these types of tastings: I prefer to write about a bottle of wine that I’ve tasted over a period of time, most often over two days. I think this gives me a real sense of what the qualities of the wine are. I hope to spend some more time with wines from the wineries listed below and give a more detailed picture of the winery and the vineyards and people behind it. So, what follows is just a snapshot of the highlights of my day.

Bonny Doon Vineyard

It was a pleasure to finally taste some of Randall Graham’s (THE Rhone Ranger) single vineyard Syrahs. I have been wanting to for a while and always heard that he made a more restrained and elegant style of Syrah, which was exactly what I found to be the case.

2008 Syrah, Alamo Creek, $35
The nose on the Alamo seemed pretty closed down that day. The wine had great acidity and balance on the palate but was very tight and I didn’t get the aromatics and flavor profiles that I normally get from Syrahs made in this style.

2008 Syrah, “Bien Nacido”, $42
The Bien Nacido has a gorgeous floral nose that made me think it had some Viognier in it. It also reminded me a bit of a warmer style Syrah but it was decidedly not jammy. This is a great wine. The body was very restrained and with firm acidity on the finish.

Clos Saron

2008 “Heart of Stone”, $40, and the 2010 “Stone Soup”, $50, Syrahs
Another example of a Pinot-focused producer that also makes great Syrah. Both the 2008 “Heart of Stone” and the 2010 “Stone Soup” wines were brighter styles of Syrah with wonderful savory aromas. The most interesting thing about this producer is that they are in the Sierra Foothills appellation. I look forward to trying more of their Syrahs in the future.

Eric Kent Wine Cellars

I stopped by the Eric Kent table so I could taste their Las Madres vineyard Carneros Syrah. After I had written about the Anaba version I’ve been keeping my eye out for more wineries making Syrah from this special vineyard.

2010 Syrah, Las Madres Vineyard $42 and ’11 Las Madres (Barrel Sample)
Now, as I mentioned in the Anaba post, this is not exactly a vineyard that produces a wine with a ton of acidity but it does have an amazing aroma profile, there’s a savory meatiness to the wine that’s really tantalizing. These wines didn’t disappoint. The ’11 seemed a bit rounder and the ’10 a tad more angular but those fantastic aromatics were there.

MacLaren Wine Company

Winemaker Steve Law and I had a great time talking about cool-climate Syrah. I’ll definitely have to dedicate a later post to Steve because like myself, he’s a bonafide cool-climate Syrah aficionado.

2010 Syrah, Judge Family Vineyard, Bennett Valley, $38
This was my favorite of the bunch. At 12.8% alcohol it was decidedly his most cool-climate in style. Elegant on the palate, high in acidity and with great savory components, this wine was Steve’s attempt at making a California version of a Saint Joseph. And I think he succeeded.

2010 Syrah, Drouthy Neebor, Sonoma County, $35
This was Steve’s blend from his different vineyard sources. Also a very balanced wine, nice acidity and not too blowsy. Drouthy Neebor means Thirsty Friend in Scots.

2010 Syrah, Russian River Valley, $28
This wine is more of a nod to the average California wine consumer. It’s a bit bigger and richer than the others. I liked it but not nearly as much as the previous two wines.

2010 Syrah, Samantha’s Vineyard, $38
A bigger style to be sure but also had good acidity and some savory components.

Meyer Family Cellars

Meyer Family is owned by the family that founded Silver Oak Winery in Napa. The son Matt moved out to Yorkville Highlands with the thought that that small appellation between the cool Anderson Valley and the hotter eastern valleys would be a perfect spot for Syrah.

2009 Syrah Yorkville, $28 and the 2009 Syrah, “High Ground” Yorkville, $42                 Both wines had wonderful acidity and a nice clean finish but not a whole lot of aromatics. They seemed a tad closed down to me, I got a bit of black olive aromas and some plum. I’m keeping my eye on this appellation though, I think there’s a ton of potential here for Syrah.

Paradise Vineyard

2009 Sonoma Coast Syrah, $24
Here was a winery that I definitely had not heard of. I was really pleased to taste their 2009 Sonoma Coast Syrah. This wine had great black pepper cool-climate aromas. It was a bit on the richer side but not over-oaked and not over-the-top. I look forward to spending more time with another bottle of this wine.

Qupé

Now this is a winery that needs no introduction for anybody that knows anything about Syrah. Bob Lindquist has been championing a cool-climate style of Syrah for years now and it was fun to taste some of his higher level offerings at Rhone Rangers.

His table was a bit crowded and it was hard to find some elbow room to take down any notes but let’s just say that all of the Syrahs that he offered showcased a lot of pepper aromas that I associate with cool-climate Syrahs. They were definitely still California in their body and style, I would say almost a combination of a cooler and warmer Syrah. I enjoyed the wines, and again, will have to spend some more time with them down the road.

Stark Wine

2009 Eaglepoint Ranch Syrah, $42
I stopped to taste Stark’s 2009 Eaglepoint Ranch Syrah because it was a 2006 Eaglepoint Ranch Mendocino Valley Syrah I tasted many years ago that was one of the wines that opened my eyes to cool-climate Syrah. I wanted to check in with Stark wine to taste theirs because for whatever reason they’re simply aren’t many Eaglepoint Syrahs around these days. Stark’s version is a little more on the rich side than I remember but it still had good acidity and some cool-climate characteristics.

Terre Rouge

I was very impressed with Terre Rouge because I have never heard of them before and also because I tend to like Syrah more from coastal areas in California and haven’t had many great examples from the Sierra Foothills. These wines were fantastic.

2008 DTR, $38 and the Sentinel Oak Syrah, $38
Both the 2008 DTR and the Sentinel Oak Syrahs had great acidity and savory components. Even their most expensive Syrah, the “Ascent” ($85) had a core of acidity that brought out the minerality of the wine. Another interesting aspect of these Syrahs is that they are grown on their own root stock which is a rarity in California wine. I’m very interested to explore more of their wines down the road.

Two Shepherds

2011 Syrah, Saralee’s Vineyard, $35
Two Shepherds was getting a lot of action on the day of Rhone Rangers so I only had a brief chance to check in with William Allen and taste his 2011 Russian River Syrah. This is a wine that I tasted earlier in the year and was getting a lot of primary fruit aromas. Not many savory or “off fruit” aromas that time around. This is a great wine that’s made to really let the fruit speak and not be overwhelmed by oak. This time around I was getting some more olive and black licorice aromas. I have a bottle of this wine and will be re-visiting it soon.

All in all, it was a much more successful day at the Rhone Rangers tasting and left me optimistic about the state of Syrah in California. Perhaps, as many wine writers have been saying, we, as a country, really are moving towards a more “balanced” and food-friendly style of wine. If this is truly the case, I couldn’t be happier and I look forward to tasting them in the years to come.

A footnote: Over the past year of writing this blog I’ve been doing a lot of thinking as to how the average consumer can get more information on what style of Syrah they are going to taste. Much in the same way that the In Pursuit of Balance organization has promoted a more acid-driven balanced version of Pinot Noir, Syrah would benefit from some way for the consumer to differentiate its varied styles. If I had more money and time I would try to promote this organization but in the meantime if you also share the same love of the savory side of Syrah, keep reading my blog.

The Waterkloof Circumstance 2009 Syrah $25 13.5% ABV

To be sure, South Africa is simply not on my radar as a place from which to enjoy Syrah.  I think of Chenin Blanc, I think of Pinotage and I think of Cabernet.  But a fellow Syrah aficionado convinced me that this was the real deal.

The nose on this wine just screams Syrah.  It’s a combination of smoky and savory components like olive tapenade and smoked wood mixed with blackberry aromas. There’s also just the slightest hint of a vegetal aroma.  Which is exactly what I like.  The mid-palate has good texture and richness. The finish, although a tad too sweet for my taste, does have a fair amount of acidity. It’s a wine fit for gulping but with just the right amount of complexity to encourage you to linger over it for a bit.  It’s a tad New World in style but without much alcohol coming through and any of that blocky sweetness that you can get on Syrahs that are too over the top.

The Waterkloof story is a fascinating one.  It’s a biodynamic vineyard and a place that is attempting to create an environmentally sound ethos as a winery.  You can watch an amazing video of all that’s going on there. Let me just tease it by saying that it includes Rastafarian Horse Shepherds.  The biodynamic/organic story is one that’s been told in many places and I don’t want to belabor it here.  Let’s just say that the Waterkloof owners believe that minimal intervention results in wines that more truly represent the terroir from which they come.  They believe that most of the intervention should come in the vineyard and actually the majority of the focus should be in the soil, not in the vines.  This is a pretty standard story for a biodynamic vineyard.

Does is make better wine?  The truth is I’m not sure, but this wine does have a texture and complexity that I don’t often get in many New World Syrahs.  Does that have more to do with the biodynamic nature of the vineyards or the fact that the grapes were fermented with their stems in large basket presses and then aged in larger 600 liter oak barrels?  Again, I’m not sure.  And to be honest this is what I love about wine.  There’s an unsolvable complexity to it that keeps me interested.  It’s an intellectual and physical experience all rolled into one.

Mission Estate Winery 2010 Hawke’s Bay Syrah $13 ABV 12.5%

So I’ve wanted to write about this wine for a while.  And, in fact, it’s one of the reasons I decided to open up the blog to wines from places outside of the U.S.  I’ve been looking for a Syrah like this — one that has cool-climate characteristics yet with a modest price tag.  I tasted this blind in a large group of Syrahs and guessed it to be French.  Now, I didn’t peg it for an expensive French Syrah but I did think that the combination of dryness and clarity on the palate made it French.  I was obviously surprised to see that it was from New Zealand and only $13 and I’ve been buying it for a while since then.

On the nose this wine really tells you it’s a Syrah.  There is no oak to mask the aromas, just pure red berry, smoke, and pepper aromas.  It has a light and elegant nose and no hints of alcohol and, in fact, this wine comes in at a low 12.5% alcohol.  It’s got tons of flavor and a nice acidic lift on the mid-palate.  A very food-friendly wine — I’m thinking pork or roast chicken.  I would suggest decanting it or opening it and letting it sit for a bit to mellow out some of that acidity because it can be a little harsh on first opening. In fact, this wine was much better on the second day.

The Mission Estate Winery is one of the older wineries in New Zealand.  The grapes for this Syrah are grown in the famed Gimblett Gravels area of Hawkes Bay, which is mostly known for its Bordeaux varieties (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot etc.), but is also known for some spectacular Syrah.  There isn’t much of it, but the few examples I’ve had in addition to this wine show that great things can be done with Syrah there.  The defining characteristic of the Gimblett Gravels terroir is, as you can gather from the name, the gravel.  The rocky soil means that there’s little water retention and the vines struggle to grow and have a tendency to focus their efforts into producing concentrated fruit.

The other interesting aspect of this area is that it’s virtually impossible to grow grapes in the Gimblett Gravels without using irrigation.  For many winemakers and consumers, irrigation is a bad word.  They will tell you that wines that are irrigated are not truly representative of the environment in which they are grown because the addition of water masks their authenticity.  Well, here’s an area of the world in which wine would not exist if it weren’t for this judicious addition of water.  And the wines are ridiculously good.

To allow the purity of that Gimblett Gravels fruit to come through, the wine is aged in stainless steel tanks, which could account for a bit of the rather rustic mid-palate since there is no oak aging to mellow it out.

This is a great wine for 13 bucks.  You might be more likely to find the 2011 now but from what I’ve heard the vintages are very similar.