Syrah Surprises – Unexpected Discoveries and Disappointments

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I use this wine key: Forge de Laguiole Ebony
I have used this glass in this Video: Nude Stem Zero Powerful Reds
I have tasted the following wines in this Video:

2020 Vinedos de Alcohuaz ‘Tococo de Alcohuaz’ Syrah, Elqui Valley, Chile
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/vinedo+de+alcohuaz+toncoco+sra+elqui+valley+chile/2020?referring_site=KSB

2020 Stefano Amerighi Syrah Cortona, Tuscany, Italy
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/stefano+amerighi+sra+cortona+tuscany+italy/2020?referring_site=KSB

2017 Gramercy Cellars Les Collines Block 50 Syrah, Walla Walla Valley, USA
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/gramercy+cellars+les+collines+block+50+sra+walla+valley+washington+usa/2017?referring_site=KSB

2010 Penfolds St. Henri Shiraz, South Australia
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/penfolds+st+henri+sra+south+australia/2010?referring_site=KSB

2008 The Ojai Vineyard Syrah, Santa Barbara County, USA
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/the+ojai+sra+santa+barbara+county+central+coast+california+usa/2008?referring_site=KSB

2001 Domaine Rene Rostaing Cote Rotie Cote Blonde, Rhone, France
https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/dom+rene+rostaing+blond+cote+rotie+rhone+france/2001?referring_site=KSB

The 100 Point Scoring System (from www.robertparker.com):
96-100: An extraordinary wine of profound and complex character displaying all the attributes expected of a classic wine of its variety. Wines of this caliber are worth a special effort to find, purchase and consume.
90 – 95: An outstanding wine of exceptional complexity and character. In short, these are terrific wines.
80 – 89: A barely above average to very good wine displaying various degrees of finesse and flavor as well as character with no noticeable flaws.
70 – 79: An average wine with little distinction except that it is soundly made. In essence, a straightforward, innocuous wine.
60 – 69: A below-average wine containing noticeable deficiencies, such as excessive acidity and/or tannin, an absence of flavor or possibly dirty aromas or flavors.
50 – 59: A wine deemed to be unacceptable.

Syrah has a long history and the most common place associated with the grape is Hermitage in the northern Rhône. The wines from Hermitage are so famous for their quality that they were used to add body and concentration to Bordeaux wines. This process was commonly referred to as Hermitagé.
The name might suggest that the variety comes from the Persian town Shiraz, located today in not-so-wine-friendly Iran, or maybe from Syracuse in Sicily
Today we know, however, that it is great-grandchild of Pinot and the offspring of little-known varietals Mondeuse Blanche and Dureza.

It’s the noble peasant a dirty intellectual bacon and blueberries a grape with many faces and contradictions surra is one of the greatest grape varieties but for some reasons it continues to live in the shadow of caban Sor and Pon Noir usually trading at far lower prices than the two kings of red

Wine but why is that so I have a whole range of suras from all around the globe that should give you a good indication of what the great variety is able to do and whatnot so k s no that that’s old so um well I’m drawing a blank here so let’s Go you have criticized my way of pronouncing Sur s in the past and I’ve practiced so here comes s at least that’s what it’s called in France in Australia it’s actually called shiras made and I would still call it surra sometimes when no one’s watching okay s

Has a long history and the place most associated with the great variety is Armitage in the northern Rome the wines from Armitage are so famous for their quality that in the past they were used to add body and concentration to the wines from bordeau this process is

Obviously not allowed anymore but it was called amaji the name s might suggest that the grae variety originates from the Persian town called shiras which is located in today’s not so wine friendly Iran or maybe from Syracuse in Sicily today we know however that it is the great grandchild of Pino and The

Offspring of the little known grape varietals M blanch and Dura but now let’s get down and dirty tasting through the selection I’m aware that we are not going to cover all wine regions that produce great s you can obviously add some suggestions down in the comments wines that I should maybe taste next

Time but Leon selected some awesome wines and I’ve added some from my own collection to give the whole range a little bit more depth so the first one is the 2020 vieno the audas too the audas from elq in Chile and now that I’ve learned how to say s I definitely

Have to learn how to pronounce AO AO huas properly a is located north of Santiago and it’s quite an interesting place because you’re getting close to the equator but it really goes up into the mountains so The Vineyards are at high altitude you therefore get lots of very intense sunlight but also

Strong dial shifts and the wines that come out of this area tend to be really crisp and fresh but at the same time concentrated and Rich this wine refocuses on Southern European gra varieties like s MRA gash but also toga National and Luis GES who writes for Robert parka calls their wines true

Mountain wines and says that they are from some of the most extreme Vineyards in chili this is a blend of 85% s and 15% ptit s which isn’t actually s it’s also called duif and it’s a completely different grape variety which is quite popular in California for example it

Adds a lot of concentration tenants body color so it’s an interesting grape variety to have in a blend but yeah it’s often confused with s but it’s it’s just not s whoever said the wine world is easy it’s not it’s it’s complicated so I’m going to do you a favor here all of

Those people who like me to pull out the cork straight through the wax so here you go guys look at that looks a little bit disgusting to be honest the color doesn’t really help and see if if that happens how how am I supposed to pour from that it’s

Just it’s not not that smart so usually you should scrape off the wax a little bit to make sure that no wax goes into the bottle because you don’t want wax in your wine do you no that’s better so s definitely has the potential to stain your teeth and tongue it can

Produce really dark colored dense and concentrated wines and here you definitely have a lot of color this might also be due to the fact that it gets quite a lot of intense sunlight that also causes the grapes to yeah to produce more color pigments to protect

The the stuff that is inside the berry this is also pretty hands of wine making 100% whole cluster spontaneous fermentation and 22 months in large fooders to not give the wine like Oaky flavors but rather round out the edges a little bit delicious this is a good start you get the blueberry flavors

Plumps cherries no Oak flavor just a little bit of pepperiness maybe on the pette it’s grippy and fresh it’s a really light and Lively wine even though it has body on concentration as well the alcohol is 133% so not very high but there’s presence there I’ve been asked

What grippy means and I usually use it as a reference to the tenants the tenant structure so if they are present if they have bite if I can feel them here on my gums and on my tongue that means there is quite a bit of tanic concentration

There and that they still have quite a bit of grip this is a very good wine I’m going to rate it 94 points I think it’s just so balanced and fresh and vibrant and I definitely have to come to Chile I have never been there and I would like

To see those extreme Vineyards that they cultivate and taste the wine in the place where it’s made the next wine is the 2020 Stefano amarik s from Cortona in Italy and I came across the name of this producer when I was in v no de monano shooting a video and one of the

Producers talked about it and it kind of piqued my interest Stefano Amari apparently had the wish to produce a grand sir and therefore really focus on this grape Variety in Cortona Cortona is located right next to the area where Vin no de mon poano is being produced and

You able to use several different great varieties but apparently the SAS are quite special coming out of this area on the back label he mentions that the winery is biodynamic but they’re only certified organic so I don’t know how real this is how much they actually do

When it comes to biodynamic farming and he also says that they are stomping the grapes by feet and are pretty hands off when it comes to to wine making methods so this should be fairly untouched maybe a little bit natural the wine is aged in wood and cement whatever that actually

Means I mean when people write it’s aged in wood could mean that it’s it’s not aged in BS it could also mean that it is aged in BS maybe it’s a mix of of different vessels I’m not really sure in the end what is in the in the glass or

In the bottle that’s what what really counts I guess so again really dark colored maybe even darker than the previous one it oo smell that’s pretty good this actually has a little bit more of the pepper and tobacco flavors that you sometimes get in s pepper is a common

Descriptor for S it is actually linked to the compound rotund that causes this sensation and it’s very potent so just a few drops into an olympic sized swimming pool would make it smell like pepper but not to everyone roughly one quarter of the world’s population is completely

Blind to rotund and some people are more susceptible to it and others don’t really smell it even at higher concentrations but at some point will smell it so it is interesting not everyone will get this pepperiness but this definitely has quite a lot of pepper so there’s this pepper tobacco

Leaf notes there’s also really bright and ripe cherry flavor which is really intense and very very Vivid there’s also flavors of plums delicious stuff so it’s really complex and it showcast the grape variety really well wow this is good who would have thought that Italian s can be

This good this is absolutely delicious I I’m stunned so on the nose it’s really complex complete very well balanced on the palette it’s also also rich and Powerful but also fresh theut tenants are polished but present there’s quite a lot going on here and it really feels

Feel like the essence of the great variety I also got to apologize to Stefano because for some reason I didn’t notice that there’s a massive Demeter logo on the back label as well as the organic label so they they are certified biodynamic as well so sorry my bad this

Is really great stuff and it and and I think I couldn’t find any anything on robert.com or Venice about this wine just a few really old old tasting notes so this this is definitely one to watch I’m going to rate this 96 points I think it is pretty damn good we’re jumping

Back over the Atlantic and all across the United States to Washington State on the west coast of the us and this is the gry sellers loline Vineyard surra from 2017 this one is made in Walla Wala in Washington state so not in Seattle further Inland where it’s really dry and

Hot but I’ve tasted this before and I really liked it I was in Washington state a few years ago and there lots of really interesting things going on there I think I’ve tasted quite a few ones from Washington State actually on this channel they have reeling which is

Usually a little bit more limey and can be quite interesting I haven’t tasted many really really good ones but it’s it’s it’s good good stuff for sure but there’s also really interesting cabet sors there is definitely quite a lot of really delicious s and gy sellers for me

Was actually the the producer that that kind of performed the best in most of the tastings they were in BR Harrington is behind this label he is an MS a master Som but he decided to leave his job on the floor behind and make wine in Washington state after tasting some

Great wines from that place 20 years ago and I think now he’s yeah he’s he’s really arrived as a wine maker it’s not that often that summer years or wine personalities that weren’t really trained as wine makers switch to wine making and make great wines but he is

Certainly one of them the loline vineyard is at roughly 400 m in altitude it’s sustainably farmed and it apparently produces quite small and intense berries that can be converted in a delicious bread so this has a little bit of age on it and maybe it shows it certainly is a is

A lighter colored s so it’s not as concentrated and dark as the previous ones it’s more brick colored towards the rim you can see your fingers through it not necessarily at the core but but yeah it’s it’s not it’s not super dark that’s for sure the wine is made using 100%

Whole clusters whole cluster means when you use the entire grape so you don’t D stem you don’t separate the stem the Woody part from the berries you use the whole thing the stem tends to add a little bit of flavor adds tenants it changes the Dynamics in the fermentation

Vessel and therefore produces a different wine often times they tend to be more peppery more spicy a little bit more chewy the tenants can be a little bit more aggressive especially when the stem is not fully ripe and it is an interesting element in surra wine making

Also for example when it comes to P Noir but you have to know how to use it you know you you can really mess up your wine by using unrip stems and then everything tastes like I don’t know like something you don’t want to drink this

Is however something I I do want to drink it is quite fragrant and elegant there’s even some notes of strawberry so rather red fruit rather than black fruit um but there is also this slight pepperiness a little bit of dark cherry flavor some Blackberry notes as well it’s all quite

Complex a combo of spicy notes and delicious fruit flavor on the P this goes in a different direction than the previous ones it’s a little less chewy a little more velvety lighter 133% alcohol so lower levels of alcohol and also yeah just a little bit more lightness so it kind of

Dances across your tongue it’s not heavy and doesn’t bite you this might also be due to the fact that it’s 2017 so it’s now 7 years old this obviously also changes the structure of a wine and makes it a little yeah rounder and more vality I’m going to rate this 94 points

A delicious delicious wine but maybe something for people who yeah who prefer Peno over caban s so more delicate we’re going back in time and this is the 2010 pen fors St Henry sh from Australia and I didn’t just grow massively this is half a bottle I think can’t do a S

Tasting without including a shiras from Australia it certainly isn’t the homeland of the grae variety but Australia has adopted the grae variety and made a completely different style that is now internationally recognized and people love that stuff it’s just different the wines tend to be a little bit more bold quite rich and

Concentrated I mean this has 14 and a half% of alcohol so certainly a bit more more than all of the previous wines and yeah they tend to be a little bit more juicy and concentrated even though this is actually known as the more elegant high-end wine from penfolds penfolds is

One of the iconic wineries in the world of wine it was established in 1844 and well as Australian wine became better and better pen Foods grew alongside with the General Industry one of the most important people from the company is Max Scher who in secrecy developed the pen fors

Range which is now one of the most expensive wines coming out of Australia and the St Henry is actually considered to be the Rival the brother that is a little bit more elegant and refined compared to the big and bold range so this is 100% shz The Grapes were soured

From different places in Southern Australia and that’s that’s kind of a panfuls thing they don’t necessarily like to work too much with specific Vineyards or smaller plots they prefer to blend the best stuff from interesting places together in order to make their greatest wines so half bottles tend to

Age a little bit faster so while this is a wine that you can age that you should age this probably is now really in its drinking window already but let’s let’s find out we only know once the cork is popped this is kind of a cute small cork match this cute

Small bottle but when you look at the color it actually it’s pretty dark I mean it’s darker than the 2017 gy Sellers and it actually has less brownish notes in there as well man I’m really treating myself today this is delicious man this actually needs a a

Little bit of air sometimes people ask why I don’t craft the wines or don’t open them early on usually it’s a question of logistics it can get quite difficult especially when I do blind tastings and I do sit here sometimes for a few minutes with the wine and give it

A little bit of time to breathe and develop but yeah I I can’t I can’t decant it and taste it over and over again especially when I when I taste several wines next to each other this is dark Blackberry cherries Cassis flavors there’s also a little bit of coconut a

Little bit of spice notes coming through I’m guessing from the wood and there’s the eucalyptus flavor that you sometimes get from Australian wines my nose is quite sensitive when it comes to Eucalyptus so I do smell that quite quickly in a wine I remember talking to Australian wine makers who kind of after

Me telling them the wine smells of eucalyptus say well yeah it’s surrounded by eucalyptus trees but I don’t really smell the stuff anymore on the palette it is dense and intense the talant are definitely quite a bit grippier than all of the previous ones quite a lot more concentration the alcohol obviously is

Also quite a bit higher but there’s also lots of balance there’s good freshness at the finish the one is Lively It Feels So Young even after 14 years in Bottle or 14 years after the Harvest so this is good I got to do it I got to I mean this definitely deserves 98

Points it is delicious completely on the other end of the spectrum when it comes to S definitely more concentrated even though there are even more concentrated SAS coming out of Australia or other places in the world but this just yeah it just has everything in balance and beautiful so we’re flying back to

The us and this time we’re in California in the central coast and this is the 2008 ohigh Vineyard Santa Barbara S Adam toak set up this Winery in 1991 after being a partner together with Jim clendenon in obor kma and here he does quite a lot of great stuff with Pinon

NOA and shadon as well but sir is one of his favorite grape varieties and I bought this bottle somewhere in France actually when I was on holiday I just came across it it’s not that often that you find wines from outside of France really in France in a one shop in France

But they had this so I just I I bought it Santa Barbara is an interesting place it is actually pretty far down south it’s not far away from Los Angeles but it tends to be really cool because the mountain ranges here really open up towards the Pacific and let the cold air

Coming from the Pacific Ocean Into The Vineyards and therefore yeah therefore the ones retain a lot of freshness and vibrancy can produce great penos there great Chardon but also really interesting SAS let’s hope this is one of them because the rating was actually not that great it was rated 88

Points on robp parker.com but you know they don’t always get everything right and maybe maybe I’m lucky here let’s see so this is definitely a little bit more Garnet in color lighter than the St Henry shiras but it doesn’t doesn’t look really old I mean it’s 16 years

Old still seems like it it’s holding up oh the nose though H this is a bit of a shame I actually think this is oxidized well I’m sure that is oxidized but but I think it’s a problem of this specific bottle rather than the wine as a whole I

Mean this can be a problem when you buy older Wines in a shop especially a shop that doesn’t really that isn’t located in a in a Cellar that isn’t providing the ideal aging conditions for wine the bottles can get bad after a while for me

This is one of those examples it’s a bit of a shame because I can sense that there is quite a lot of beauty there I get some olive notes in the background quite a lot of cherry flavor but over it there’s like this yeah oxidized Aroma hovering disturbing the nose of this

Probably delicious wine I mean you could still drink this but it certainly doesn’t give you everything it once had and I’m not going to rate this I’d still suggest picking picking up a bottle of the wines that they make because they tend to be quite delicious this one

Though it’s just past its peak fortunately this doesn’t happen all too often when I make these videos which is a good thing but but it happens every now and then every now and then you get a flawed wine last but not least we obviously have to taste the wine from

The home of s which is the northern rone and this is the 2001 rosang K code blonde from the northern R the northern R is really spectacular the vineyard that tend to be really Steep and really rough and rugged and they produce some really outstanding very delicious wines

And it’s probably the place where s costs the most as well I mean Amit they can get really expensive but in most other places s is still trading at fairly affordable prices even when it comes to like the top producers c means the roasted slope and well it got this name because it

Gets a lot of sunshine can get really warm there some wines from the kti became really famous namely the laas from gigal the London l and loline that well to my taste at least sometimes get a little bit too rich and too fat but um

I think this is more on the refined side of thanks this one is also interesting because Parker originally gave it 91 to 94 points but it was later tasted and rated 90 points by a different critic so so I’m excited to find out whether well

Parker got it right or not at least to my palette I got the cork out in one piece which is a good start so this is going to be exciting because this is clearly an aged s it’s more than 20 years old and S has this reputation of

Being able to age for a long time but it usually tastes really delicious during the first years of its life so in year 1 2 three after bottling tends to be quite fruit driven and ripe and intense and then it often closes up so it doesn’t really give you everything for a while

And then opens again and can yeah go for decades so this should definitely be a wine that is made in order to be aged let’s see whether it actually aged well the one is named cot blonde because this is a part of the cot Ro Vineyard where

The soil is slightly more chalky and therefore lighter in color there is also a Cod Brun which is more based on iron rich clay soils which is obviously more brown in color there’s also this legend of the former owner handing over the light colored part of The Vineyard to

His blonde daughter while giving the darker colored Vineyard to his brunette daughter I’m not really sure whether that’s that’s true all right this might need a little bit more time in glass but it definitely yeah it’s not it’s not great I mean this is clearly the most expensive one in the

Tasting but it definitely isn’t the best so this is a typical surra on the pad it’s fresh the tenants have melted away it has good yeah Lively on the finish the pette on the pet it there’s substance there but it’s not super strong but yeah overall I

Think I think it I mean it is a very good wine I’d love to drink this with some roasted Meats but I’m going to rate this 91 points and is this worth a few hundred I don’t think so all right this was a tasting full of ups and downs

Highs and lows but there was some really satisfying and delicious wines here on this table highlighting the fact that sir is great can be great my favorite wine of the tasting when it comes to scores was the S Henry St Henry shiras which was just delicious and profound

And still so Lively but the biggest surprise to me was this the Stefano Ami I’m definitely going to buy a few more bottles of this because it’s a just delicious but the other I mean the first four were all really really beautiful the ohigh I mean this can happen can

Happen to the best of us and I think this is just from another time and not necessarily just the most profound wine from that time so so it was fun it’s a classic but I mean for the price of this I could buy I think all of the other

Ones combined and I’d probably rather do that so thank you for watching I hope you enjoyed this video if you did like it and subscribe to my channel if you haven’t done so already why haven’t you done so come on click that button my question of the day is what do you think

About surra which one is your favorite which one did I miss which region should I definitely include next time let me know Down Below in the comments so whatever you do stay thirsty oh