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From the Cellar: Syrah

With almost all of our recent discussions of Syrah, the topic has eventually turned to the ageability. If the question is does Syrah age, the answer is of course. However, Syrah’s answer is more conditional than most. Allow me to explain by using a set of wines tasted last night to illustrate!


First, lets take a look at what was tasted:


1988 Edmunds St John Sonoma Syrah

1988 Guigal Cote Rotie Brune et Blonde

1994 Columbia Crest Reserve Syrah

1994 Swanson Napa Valley Syrah

1995 Delas Bessards Hermitage

1995 Charles Melton Barossa Shiraz

1996 Columbia Winery Red Willow Vineyard Syrah

1996 Chave Hermitage



We had a moderately broad range of vintages and appellations here, considering the modest sample set, so we can draw some strong conclusions with the help of my previous experience- which did serve to help craft this line-up.


[TEXT LINK TO – Check out the line-up and tasting notes here – Slideshow}


I believe that most Syrah intended for the cellar peaks relatively early in the context of cellarable wine, which would make an argument for the wine’s popularity. In fact with a few exceptions, I tend to prefer my Syrah a bit on the younger side while the fruit is still intact and covering the structure.


What does that mean? In the case of much New World Syrah, that means that the wines are drinking fine after two years or so from release, and tend to stay on a slowly fading plateau of maturity for around another 10 years. With Old World Syrah, I find a distinctly different cycle of aging, one that sees the wines going through a closed period when one frequently second guesses one’s sense. Why did I buy this again?


Syrah, for all its incarnations, remains a fairly structured wine and one with assertive acidity in many years. There is some kinship between Burgundy and Syrah in this aspect. In less ripe years, Syrah can manage to produce complex, aromatic and richly flavored wines, but that acidity remains rather vibrant.


Case in point is the 1996 Chave Hermitage, which remains a fairly acid-driven wine, though it has fleshed out considerably over the years. What was once lean and hard exposed acidity is slowly becoming brightness.


That sounds distinctly familiar to me, I could easily have written it about a 1996 Burgundy! While this comparison may be a bit extreme, there is a delicacy to the finest Syrahs, primarily from the Northern Rhone, that does make them seem Burgundian to me. Their ageing cycles do diverge once the wines are mature.


Syrah tends to be a wine which loses its fruit faster than its tannin once it matures. No where has this been more evident than in Cornas, that Northern Rhone appellation famed for its rusticity, particularly of tannin. Even here things are changing and those raspy tannins of yore are being replaced by a manner of suppleness. Some of that suppleness is coming from the increased use of newer, smaller barrels that are used in standard operating procedure of the New World.


Those small barrels fundamentally change the nature of Syrah, softening the wine at first and adding rich spice notes and a sweetness that Syrah seems capable of handling, but there is a price to be paid. That price tends to come in the form of tannins, and more specifically, wood tannins from the barrels that are replacing fruit tannins.


As grapes mature they tend to lose both tannin and acidity. Warm climate wine producers combat these losses by adding both: acid added directly to the fermenting wine or corrected after fermentation, and tannins added through the use of new oak barrels. Some say these additions bring the wine back into harmony, which may be true on the day the corrections are made and for the near future, but there is something inherently dis-harmonic about many of these additions.


Wines made from particularly ripe fruit tend to be particularly fruity. That fruit, like the boundless energy of children, is fairly short lived. With time the fruit fades, revealing the wine’s underpinnings, tannin and acid. What was once the framework for this giant tent of fruit too often becomes a simple set of jarring poles of acid and tannin- uncovered, ungainly and unpleasant.


I may be generalizing here, but as far as I can tell there is a lot of truth to this analogy. Somehow the naturally occurring tannins in wine tend to melt away faster than wood tannins, with some notable exceptions.


The wines tend to have an innate balance that carries them through life, fruit and tannins dancing into the distance, heading off hand-in-hand. Acid on the other hand tends to remain the final marker for the great grandstand that once stood proudly.


This finally brings me back to the object here, a description of the way Syrah ages. While Old World Syrah tends to struggle to find its balance, with its initial burst of fruit being immediately appealing only to dip lingeringly into gangly adolescence, New World Syrah tends to only dip briefly.


New World Syrah, with its bold fruit and ample dose of oak-derived aromatics and flavors, tends to find its footing quite quickly, with the oak and fruit building to an early peak as the modest fruit tannins fall away. Once on its plateau, it can be wonderful: fruity, spicy and with some savory elements working as a foundation, but the life of all that exuberant fruit tends to be relatively short lived. By age 10 or 12, the wines tend to express more wood than anything else, with spicy aromatics and lingering, often uncovered wood tannins marring the mid-palate and finish.


On the other hand, Old World Syrah tends to lack that boldness of fruit, or at least the examples that are becoming mature today do. In their place are savory characteristics and balance, with more restrained and often redder fruit. These wines need about a decade to hit their peaks. The fruit tannins melt away, adding to the richness of the wine and helping to define the harmony that is possible with proper ageing.


So there is an intersection of sorts here. As I’ve crudely plotted out on the attached graph, the two styles both tend to hit their peaks together about 10 to 15 years after release. This was one of the hypotheses I planned to test when putting together my aged Syrah tasting. The notes pretty much support this hypothesis, though my selection of wines may have predetermined that to a certain extent.


One final note about the wines: while I have mapped out my thoughts here in rather broad brushstrokes, it is worth adding that not all New World producers produce New World wines. This characterization is as much a function of winemaking as it is of where the wine is made. The Edmunds St. John’s performance will attest to that!


So what were the results? Not surprisingly, the wines from 1988 were both on their down slopes yet still enjoyable; a particularly noteworthy feat for the Edmunds St. John as 1988 was a notoriously difficult vintage in California. The bulk of the wines bore out my hypothesis, with the New World wines being mostly at peak and moving down slope, and the pair of Hermitages showing wonderfully with youthful vigor. 



Aged Syrah is a bit of a rare beast. Not much that is ageable is made to begin with, and much of that gets drunk in its youth anyway. So what is aged Syrah like and when is the right time to drink it?


For more information on when to drink, check out: On the Ageability of Syrah


At their best, aged Syrah wines combine the delicacy of Burgundy and the aromatic complexity of Barolo with a power all their own. No wonder they rank among my top three wines! Bet you can guess the other two.


Increasingly, the balance that Syrah is capable of is being traded in for more power. As you might know, I am not a fan of the more-is-always-better style of wine making.


These aged examples from a recent tasting all were remarkably well balanced and helped to illustrate the middle age portion of Syrah’s life cycle.    


Slide one


A pair of 1988s


This was a patently unfair pairing. Who would pit an excellent if austere and classically proportioned vintage from the Northern Rhone against a little upstart in California? Add in the fact that 1988 was a difficult vintage in California, it was cool and with rains during harvest, and you have the makings for an easy victory. If only it were so.


see these wines as being qualitatively quite similar, with the Guigal being richer and plumper though a tad less interesting when compared to the ESJ’s freshness and elegance. It’s a toss up, though I’m going to give it to ESJ. By the way, this flight would have been killer with lightly smoked wild boar ribs. I’m just saying!


Slide 2


1988 Edmunds St John Sonoma Syrah


Tobacco, caper and a little funk and earth here with late arriving tea and lilac, some peppery spice as well. Very Northern Rhone. Little bottle sweetness, fully resolved tannins, a little lean and still has fine red fruit. Fruit is low intensity, but there’s plenty of wild cherry and red currant going on. This really has a sense of delicacy and class. It needs food at this stage as it’s a bit austere and lean. Smells lean but complex with a lovely nuance-filled palate impression. 88pts


Slide 3


1988 Guigal Cote Rotie Brune et Blonde


Old wood, a bit of minerality, dried fruit, lots of dried herb, Provençal herbs, black olives, a touch of sun dried tomato and smoke. A touch thin on the palate, this lacks some depth but does show fine acid and very soft tannins. Lovely pick up on the leathery, slightly gamy finish with surprising length. Some burnished dark almost nutty, toasted nut, cocoa plum fruit. Finishes with meaty flavors and austere tannins showing. Very solid but lacks an extra gear. 88pts


Slide 4


1994 Was a Very Good Year


So here I’ve pit one of my old time favorites, the Swanson Syrah, against a relative newcomer. The Columbia Crest was new in the sense that the first varietal Syrah to come from Washington State was the 1989 Columbia Winery Red Willow Vineyard, if my memory serves me correctly.


1994 was a great vintage across much of the West Coast, so these wines were on equal footing, and this was a great time for discovery with Syrah as people were enthusiastically planting the vines and honing their craft. The Columbia Crest included 15% Grenache in the blend and showed a bit more of a Chateauneuf character because of it. It really was wonderfully aromatic but the palate had already begun to lose noticeable fruit.


The Swanson also was showing early signs of fruit fading but what a nose. Detach yourself from the world of wine for a moment and indulge in the aromas of red licorice rolls, root beer kegs, violet pastille and red hots! Candied, yes it was, delicious smelling, you better believe it! Not exactly the style of wine I generally reach for, but this showed beautifully! Winner: Swanson


Slide 5


1994 Columbia Crest Reserve Syrah


Lovely on the nose: wiry, gamy and very little brett, but what is there is leather and fresh barnyard. Very fresh, not sure I would call this domestic. Green peppercorn, smokey, intense and really impressive. The cigar and minty spice are powerful. Big and a touch sweet with bright acids, lots of red plum and lots of red fruit. Backed up with a nice herbal, pollen note. Finishes with bright acids, a bit too bright, and a lot of sweet tea. Much more on the nose, which is outstanding, palate is red currant and a touch lean. 89pts


Slide 6


1994 Swanson Napa Valley Syrah


Candied: a bit of root beer, licorice, deep gamy core, violet pastille, leather, peppery cinnamon and cigar box over a base of black olive juice. Very lean and focused, with plenty of sweet fruit that tends to the red end of the spectrum. Lots of cola, root beer, and cinnamon spice layered over a fine bed of dark, firm fruit. This finishes with intense inner mouth perfumes and decent length. Very perfumed, very New World but complex and rather friendly. Light powdery tannins persist on the finish. 91pts


Slide 7


1995 is probably my favorite vintage of the 1990s in the Northern Rhone. I love the balance the wines show and the great harmony between the rich fruit and the ripe yet firm structural elements. So why am I comparing this wine to a 1995 Barossa Shiraz, a vintage that was plagued with the combined issues of mild and damp conditions? I thought this type of restrained vintage might show well against Hermitage, but it was also the last vintage of Australian Shiraz I bought for my cellar!


The reasons behind that are worthy of another discussion, but these wines were a fair pairing because of the tendency towards rusticity embodied in Delas’ pre-1997 style. Having said that, this was no contest. The Delas was more youthful, more complex and showed better balance than the Charles Melton. Advantage to Hermitage.


Slide 8


1995 Delas Bessards Hermitage


Fermented tobacco, green olive juice and a nice touch of limestone. Elegant and refined in the mouth with early meaty, gamy juices followed by green tobacco, peppercorn, caper, herb, salt, black olive, mineral, smoke and stem. The structure here is rather light in appearance but firm in nature. The meat juice and green peppercorn notes linger on the long finish. Huge grapevine smoky scents and super fine tobacco smoke smells enchanting. Just a little lean on the mid-palate with chalky tannins on the finish, this feels at peak with a bit more to show. 92pts


Slide 9


1995 Charles Melton Barossa Shiraz


Lovely nose, sweet and gently spicy with cinnamon, spice and leather. It has subtle mint, black raspberry, prune fruit and some face powder notes.  A bit past peak, but with a fine mineral base and red fruit with some blueberry. Soft and opulent, this has real power on the short but voluminous finish. The nose seems to show some classic vanilla oak. Finishes with a bit of earthy bitterness. Chunky and a bit fudgy. 87pts


Slide 10


1996


This was no contest. Forget the vintage charts which will tell you that 1996 was barely above average in the Northern Rhone and that the Washington State frost-reduced crop was able to produce some impressively concentrated and ripe wines. We are talking about Chave here.  


This is pretty much as good as Chave gets, which is not to say that this is the best that Chave can do but rather, given the limitations of the vintage, this is the best the vintage could do. The 1996 Chave Hermitage is simply fabulous, there’s no other way to put it, and you would have to look long and hard to find a better example of Hermitage from this period, though I can suggest both the ‘97 and ‘95 Chaves!


Slide 11


1996 Chave Hermitage


Super fine, subtle game and herb notes, smoky dried beef, limestone dust, stem and smoke, like a pillow around my head. Bright and finely balanced, this is so elegant with great inner mouth energy. This is layered and bright, showing raspberry, light rare beef and spicy floral tones on a palate. Shows nice flesh growing to frame the acid. Lovely growing finish with real vinosity, yes this feels like real wine! 93pts


Slide 12


1996 Columbia Winery Red Willow Vineyard Syrah


Toasty marshmallow, red fruit, light cherry, a little mint, rare beef and kale. Has a soft entry and then big acids kick in. Not tremendous fruit left, though this is bright and focused, a touch roasty on the nose, a bit short and nicely balanced. Nothing out of place but not distinctive. A bit of cocoa and angular tannins round out the modest finish. 84pts








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