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So, Syrah?

Rod Smith

So, Syrah?

SO WHAT’S UP W/SYRAH?
          I’m pleased to have a guest spot on this site. Sommeliers have become a powerful positive force in the wine world and I’m glad to participate in your discourse.
          I’ve been thinking about California Syrah lately, and how disappointing it’s been. More than two decades ago it was so up-and-coming—but it never really got here. The grape and its wines are wine royalty, yet few California producers hang their hats on it, and fewer still have made consistently strong showings.
          I remember when the first “true” Syrahs (as opposed to Petite Sirah or whatever) came out of the gate in the early 1980s. It was really exciting, to a new generation of wine geeks at least. We’d plan dinner parties around new releases from Duxoup or Joseph Phelps. (Fred Dame—do you remember how intense that early Syrah scene was?) In fact, it was Joe Phelps, the inveterate Rhone ranger, who established our first significant true Syrah plantings.
Within a few vintages there were enough varietal Syrahs on the market to mount meaningful comparative tastings. Those early wines were exciting, not just as novelties but as credible echoes of the Rhone. I was particularly interested because I’d been getting Syrah religion at the source in Rhone caves with vignerons like Clape, Guigal, and Jaboulet, tasting with the Druids (that’s how it felt, anyway) through barrels of wine that clearly spoke of varying terroirs and vintages. If California could produce expressive Syrahs like that, I thought, we might actually have a new dimension in California wine.
          Then we all watched in horror as the early promise—of a new tool for exploring and expressing different terroirs in our magnificent coastal and mountain terrains—was broken by a flood of rather syrupy, high-octane red wine labeled Syrah for no apparent reason. Many strike me as little more than grape-flavored booze. Perhaps not coincidentally, I’m hearing reports from the field that Syrah is increasingly a tough sell. (Note: I feel like something similar has happened in eastern Washington, although that’s probably a topic for another post.)
          Can we count the paving stones on the downward path? Start with indiscriminate planting, overcropping, and excessive manipulation—particularly oak overkill. (Why do so many California winemakers think they have to make Napa Valley cabernet out of every grape variety?) I’m aware through contacts in various cellars that quite a number of highly-regarded winemakers freely doctor their wines with enzymes, tannin, concentrate, etcetera (all of which I consider substance abuse). And of course, these days it’s pretty par for the course to pick the grapes overripe and then add acid and water, which is like trying to balance a table by sawing a little off this leg and a little off that. And then there’s what I consider excessive ripeness. I’ve heard several winemakers say, “Twenty-six brix is the new twenty-four!” Personally, I liked the old twenty-four. If the variety matches the site and the vines are balanced, the grapes will be plenty ripe and the wine won’t taste like a mess of mismatched adjectives.
          Voila--there in my glass the other night was an Arnot-Roberts Syrah (Clary Vineyard ’06). It had that whole peppery, leathery, minerally thing going on, intense but not dense, with cut-glass definition and brisk natural acidity that cut right through my friend Sebastian’s pork rillette. All at just 13 percent alcohol, without de-boozing. And I thought of other classically-styled Syrahs I’ve enjoyed recently, from Dehlinger, Edmunds St. John, and the like. I wonder whether Syrahs like that will always be anomalous, or if they finally signal a trend toward the coalescence of some Syrah ideal?
          So where’s it all going? Will California Syrah producers continue following the score-mongers toward one size (extra large) fits all? Or will they rally around nuanced expression and distinctive character, perhaps leading the way toward the paradigm shift so many of us have been hoping for?
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous

    Seems the best use of California Syrah right now is adding it to California Pinot Noir.

  • And as I posted that last response it struck me that some of you may not share my abhorrence of manipulative winemaking. So, what does everyone think? Is it fair for a marketing group to go for the cult market by billing their expensive wines as expressions of terroir when they’re actually reverse-engineering to please certain critics or hit a sensory profile determined by focus groups?

  • Taking the last first, I do know those vines. Must admit I’ve lost touch with current wines from that planting, but did write about them about 20 yrs ago when John Beuchsenstein was making the wine (he then went to Fife and now has Republic of Sauvignon) and the Keene family (do they still own it?) had Dr. Carole Meredith (UC Davis plant geneticist) authenticate the varieties in that planting. The vines are on their own roots, I believe. Now that you mention it, I’d better catch up. I wonder if they’ve been propagated, and where? As for markers of manipulation, that’s really frustrating. Obviously, the goal is for such techniques to be not apparent, or undetectable. That’s why I cultivate my own little KGB network of moles in various cellars, especially during crush. But generally, look for incongruities, like if it tastes like the grapes were falling-off-the-vine-ripe and yet there’s abundant acidity and moderate alcohol. If you just have a feeling that the wine was jacked around, it may well be the case.

  • Thank you for the straight forward insight. I have only in the last 2 years started to dissect wine and train my palate. "Newbie". It seems that the more I travel around the state and talk to wineries the trend in California is longer hang time, cold soaked, rich opulent fruit at the expense of high alcohol, less acid.. which is a great beverage... but harder to match with food.(I am in the 12%-13.5% Old World camp).So now (after reading your article), I've felt that some of the wines I like from California that show good structure have only just manipulated that way in the winery?  My question is.. Are there markers that "You" find in a wine that give a clue of what type of manipulation occurred?. McDowell Valley has some Old Syrah vines planted in 1919, any thoughts on them..

  • Delicious, indeed. I marginally prefer the Rodgers Creek bottling for its more defined and focused character, but both are outstanding. Certainly northern Rhone aromas and flavors, although the weight and alcohol are more toward Barossa—is that the essence of California? In fact, that scale is my only complaint. I don’t think alcohol should be among the main impressions in a wine. It plays a vital role but ought to be backstage. I drank those at a party and wasn’t taking notes, but both seemed to be in the 15% range (if that’s wrong, mea culpa). Exciting, though. Ramey’s only been doing syrah for a few years under his own label, but I think he’s already made a statement.

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