March 02, 2006

The Verdict on the Syrahs

Roshambo Syrah was one of our two winners (Here's a conga line of their wines)

OK. Here's the first few of six Syrahs our group tasted. A seventh was a rogue bottle of Zin, a 2002 Renwood Zinfandel, Sierra Foothills. We tasted it anyway. No one identified it as a Zin. So maybe it just didn't matter.

1) 2001 Roshambo Syrah, Dry Creek. $11.99
This was one of our two winners (I bought this one, which is vindication considering I bought the bottle everyone hated at the last tasting). I smelled earth and cat pee on this wine and a bit of white pepper. It tingled on the tongue and tasted of ripe fruit. John tasted cloves and some pepper. The wine opens to sweet raspberry jam, he says. Really good with goat cheese.

2) 2003 Melville Syrah, Santa Barbara. $18.99
A bit pricier and a wine that Marlo, a budding wine afficionado, really likes. This was a big wine. I wrote "it felt like someone hit me with a mallet" when I sipped it. I smelled oysters, something fishy, and burnt match. Marlo smelled alcohol (this wine has 15.4 percent alcohol), big fruit and jam. "Fishy smell," said Michael. "If I wanted a bottle of sweat I would have asked for it." To be fair, I went back to this wine after it opened and it tasted much better.

I'll post a couple more reviews tomorrow.