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And the usual blatherings from the Bloody Pulpit:
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Qupe Hillside Syrah: Always one of my favorites, year in & year out.
BobLindquist takes the saignee juice from this wine and barrel ferments/barrel
ages it in new Francoise Freres barrels. This light red wine (which is
actually pretty tasty stuff on its own) is then back-blended into the primary
wine to achieve to appropriate smokey/toasty level Bob desires. It's sort
of an ersatz-Rhone roasted character that would never be mistaken for a
real Northern Rhone/roasted character; but it does give his Hillside a
unique smokey/pungent character that's unmistakable.
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Hermitage: This '89 is a legendary wine and everyone had very high expectations
for it. Some of the Francophiles in the group were waxing eloquent over
what a great example of not-yet mature Hermitage it was. There were a few
folks exchanging puzzled glances until finally one person (Dave Jablonski)
audaciously tossed out the question "Does anyone else not care for this
wine?" Suddenly there was a lot of backtracking by folks who admitted that
the wine was not showing very well. Interesting group dynamics.
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These wines were a selection of WashState Syrahs that was put together
by Glenn Magelssen on a recent trip up to that area.
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WashState Syrahs: I've followed them from the very start when I tasted
David Lake's/ ColumbiaWnry/RedWillow Syrah from the barrel in '??. My first
immediate reaction was "Wow...they're onto something w/ Syrah up here"!!
Although I'm not able to follow all of them because of the scarcity of
some, I always make an effort to taste all of them I can at Rhone Rangers
and HdR. My opinion hasn't changed one iota on their Syrahs. A was expecting
many of the early ones to be much like their Cabs & Merlots, with a
huge hit upside the head w/ an oak plank. Surprisingly, that has not been
the case w/ a few exceptions. Although I wouldn't characterize WashState
as either better nor worse than the Calif ones, they are certainly different.
They seem much more towards the Rhone part of the spectrum, but more Hermitage
or St.Joseph than Cote- Rotie. If anything, they most closely resemble
Margaret River or Victoria Shiraz than any others. Or maybe very good Languedoc
w/o the hard tannins. The WashState Syrahs seem to display much more terroir
than their brethern to the south. Or maybe the winemakers are more skilled
at coaxing the terroir out in their wines than down South. And they manage
to do it at alcohol levels that would be considered anemic down South.
At any rate, we know that Wash State is making world-class Syrahs. After
all.. the WineSphincter has told us so!!!
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McCreaCllrs: I've followed their wines from the very start, when Doug McCrea
first showed up w/ samples at HdR. I've been mightly impressed with thewines
he makes across the board; not just the Syrah, but the Grenache, Viognier,
and blends as well. And they seem to get better and better with each vintage.
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6. K-Syrah: I hah had a more generic labeled Syrah from this producer a
yr ago that I stumbled across down in Atascadero, about $20/btl. I liked
it quite a lot, especially for the price. This is the first single-vnyd
Syrah I've had from them. Blown away by it; one of the greatest Syrahs
yet from this country. Wish I had more to follow it with age. This guy
better show up at HdR this summer I think.
TomHill
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