Proving Them Wrong With a High Alcohol Syrah

The story: Last week I took issue with some of the points that Eric Asimov was making about domestic syrah and its sales stagnation (or slight decline). In summation it was argued that the big, high alcohol, extracted syrahs that do not show varietal distinction are what are ruining the grape. You can read my post for my full argument, but the discussion sent me to my stash for a syrah that rang in at over 14% to see if it was offensive to me in some way. See I aspire to be a wine geek, but I just keep enjoying things that I'm not supposed to enjoy. I don't mind a little oak in my wine, I don't mind a lot of fruit once in awhile, and I even still buy Australian wines. There are wines I do NOT like, but they tend to be missing something like structure, acid, or flavor. Give me a little out of place spice, funk, or blueberry pie now and then and I won't complain. I'm not sure exactly where that leaves me, but this week it left me with a bottle of Napa Valley syrah that I thoroughly enjoyed. I guess I'll drink these wines outside of the clubhouse and then come inside for some more valid restrained wines.

The wine: The Marelle 2005 Syrah Napa Valley was included in a shipment from The Wine Garage that I received recently. Winemaker Ashley Heisey uses her love for northern Rhone syrah, and her experience with ripe tannic fruit in Napa (she has worked for Mondavi, Opus One, and Far Niente) to make the purest expression of syrah that combines Old World restraint with New World texture. She searched for cool climate vineyards and focuses on this grape alone. The wine poured a dark opaque purple core that faded to raspberry red edges. The nose gave up some sweet dark berry liquer, a bit of dusty earth, red hot cinnamon candy spice, and some gamey meat. As it opened up there were more herbal notes that got a bit medicinal. The wine offered dark fruits up front, with some restrained spice across the mid-palette. The finish was more smoked meat and olives, and framed by soft tannins, had a nice length.

The verdict: I picked the wine out of the pile because at 14.5% I thought it might fall into the fruit bomb, extracted category. I thought I would still enjoy it, however, and have to hide myself in shame from the wine trend police. However, the wine was truly restrained and indicative of a cool climate syrah, with just the right touch of fruit. I really liked the wine and give it a 3.5/5. This wine sells for $39 from the winery.