Those of us who consume wine on a daily basis are often more eclectic in our tastes. For us, it’s a bummer when night after night we face the same old stuff.
Back when I was a pup and consumed a lot of Gallo Hearty Burgundy, I didn’t mind that the stuff always tasted the same.
Not any more. If I have a Cabernet on Sunday, I want Sauvignon Blanc on Monday, Riesling on Tuesday, Syrah on Wednesday and Norton on Thursday. If Cab comes up twice in a week, I want them to be different.
And we alter the food. When I want a Riesling, the dish chosen to go with it is secondary. Often, we pick the
wine first and the food comes second.
About two years ago, I noticed that I rarely picked Syrah on those wine-picked-first nights. It was obvious why: boredom.
As a lover of almost all wine, I viewed Syrah some 20 years ago as a potentially fascinating alternative to other dark reds.
It hasn’t worked out quite as I had expected, but at the time I had no idea the world of wine would come to such a staid state in which excessive ripeness was seen as mandatory by so many.
Syrah has a future among wine lovers, but at the moment, it’s sitting unloved on the vine, or rather on store shelves. Winemakers with whom I’m close admit that sales of this wine for the last 18 months or so have been flat. Sure, a few hot brands can command prices in the $40 range, but it appears that a majority of “high end” Syrahs from California and Washington now can’t justify $30. Even $20 is a stretch.
One superb Syrah producer from Sonoma County is Dan Goldfield. By any measure, it’s at least as good as, if not a lot better than, Penfolds’ famed Grange, which sells for $250 a bottle on reputation.
When, some years ago, I tasted the Dutton Goldfield Syrah and knew it was a classic, I suggested that Dan charge $75 for it, as he didn’t make more than a couple of hundred cases of it.
But Dan knows the market, and he rapidly rejected my suggestion. He began to charge $35 (same as today), and still it doesn’t sell out as fast as you’d imagine.
Syrahs that once sold briskly at $30 have slowed. I argue that the reason is simple: Consumers seem to get the fact that this grape variety delivers good, sound quality at a modest price (sales of Aussie Shiraz are sailing along, generally in the $7 to $18 price range), so why should someone spend a lot of money on a wine that may only be marginally better?
The answer is distinctiveness.
When a Syrah is truly distinctive, it is worth more. And what has happened to Syrah in the last decade is most winemakers err on the side of pyrazine caution and leave the grapes on the vine so long, they get ultra-ripe. Winemakers believe consumers don’t want anything “green” in their red wines.
Bzzzz. Wrong answer.
Distinctive red wine sells because it is distinctive. But Syrah harvested late usually is devoid of distinction. It is a fat red wine.
The prized Shirazes in Australia come in all different forms, and among the most in-demand today are cooler-climate wines that have pepper (black and white), clove, mace, nutmeg, cinnamon, red currant, black currant, olive, tea and perhaps a dozen more descriptors.
A classic example of how the U.S. consumer seems oblivious to the great qualities in distinctive cooler-climate Syrah is Brandborg Winery’s 2004 Syrah, Umpqua Valley ($27).
This wine delivers classic black pepper aromatics with hints of violet and clove and has expressiveness in the finish because of good structure based on a balance of fruit, acid and tannins. But it has been a slow mover in retail outlets.
Terry Brandborg has made this wine for a number of years, but in this most distinctive version, the curious thing is that non-tasting room consumers don’t understand the wine. Most assume the peppery component is somehow related to the green pyrazine elements seen in some unripe Cabernets.
This wine isn’t unripe at all but exhibits the black pepper aroma called rotundone, recently identified by a research team from Australia.
Brandborg is distressed that this superb wine sells slowly away from the winery, though it sells well at his tasting room, thanks to explanations of its character. The 2002 version of this wine received a Platinum medal three years ago at Wine Press Northwest’s annual Platinum competition.
Those interested in the wine may purchase it at the tasting room (or by phone, 541-584-2870). Those who say they read about it here will pay only $240 for a case, or $20 a bottle.
California has a few Syrah makers who can achieve this level of complexity if they harvest early enough to capture the distinctiveness. Washington, with its colder nights, can far more easily deliver this. Not as many do.
I’ve tasted a lot of Washington Syrahs that showed the wines came from good fruit. But many displayed a level of ripeness where the nuances that might have been there at 24º brix were gone by 26º. And these wines were picked at 28º.
It’s sad to see this. Complex nuances are part of the regional and varietal charms that great wines deliver. Over-ripe Syrah is like anything that’s overripe: It’s simple, boring and not worth a lot of money.
The future for Syrah lies in distinctiveness.
DAN BERGER is a nationally renowned wine writer who lives in Santa Rosa, Calif. He publishes a weekly commentary Dan Berger’s Vintage Experiences (VintageExperiences.com).
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