NoVA Terroir and Syrah?

A little while back I was quite enthused by a tasting that I was involved in. There is a group of us that get together once or twice a month and choose a selected theme to really nail down on. We taste the wines blind and they often come from all over the world, unless the theme is a region. This particular tasting that got me so excited was all things Syrah from anywhere in the world.

At this tasting that included three winegrowers, a viticulturist, a wine aficionado, and a wine distributor we tasted through Syrah/Shiraz from California, Washington, Barossa, Cote Rotie, Idaho and Virginia. Yes, Idaho and Virginia were included!!! The bottles cost on average in the $30-75 per bottle range.

There really were some stunning wines. It really showed the wide range of what Syrah/Shiraz can offer. Some wines were overtly fruit bombs showing lush jammy red and blackberry fruit, some showed floral notes, some smoky, some meaty many with great complexity. The regions I am normally best at characterizing would have been California, Barossa and Cote Rotie (or Northern Rhone). California often shows gobs of fruit and fairly substantial barrel treatment and quite elevated alcohol (sometimes balanced, sometimes not). Barossa Valley is similar to California in the sense that it often is a huge extracted wine with jammy and bramble berry like notes and good barrel treatment, usually quite low in acidity. The old world versions like Cote Rotie or Hermitage, Cornas, St. Joseph, etc from the Northern Rhone tend to show some different complexities like smoky meat (think bacon or charcouterie), forest floor, as well as balanced fruit. All of these wines from these regions kept with their trends and common characters.

In the end of all the tasters there were three favorites almost unanimously, although all in different order of the top three. One of which was clearly a wine with a couple years of age, but still with some age ability. It showed great intensity on the nose with subtle fruit like blueberry, raisins, and plum but really struck us for having great earthy and bacon tones. The palate was soft and silky with a long smoky oak driven finish. The wine ended up being Domaine Jamet Cote Rotie 2001. Not Shocking, especially since it was a $70.00 bottle. The other two showed some very common characteristics. They had the plummy and ripe fruit characters of a wine from Barossa or California, but the complexity and subtle meaty tones of the Northern Rhone and also a great underlying floral aspect. The palate one both were medium bodied showing great elegance, still very firm tannins as they were clearly young wines and great long finishes.

Well it was no shocker that they came from very close to each other and they were made in similar methods. Both were co-fermented with Viognier (traditional in Cote Rotie). One had 6% Viognier, the other had 9% Viognier. Both wines were aged about 16 months in barriques of which 75% was new. One of the wines was primarily French Oak, the other was exclusively Virginia Oak. What were they? Tarara Winery Syrah 2007 and Delaplane Cellars Syrah 2007. Both of these wines came from Northern Virginia which was really exciting to see. It made me ask myself the question I am still asking today. Is it possible that Syrah could find a new home in Northern Virginia? I seem to think so, since we have already proven Viognier is from here is second to none, and in most places of the world Syrah and Viognier are planted side by side. In tasting our 2008 Syrah there is several of the same characters only our 2008 is a little lighter then the 2007 given the nature of the vintage and the 2008 shows a touch more floral, the 2007 a touch more fruit. Altogether though it has me thinking...Syrah and Northern Virginia...Great Terroir?

Our 2007 Syrah is currently only available to our Estate Wine Club members as it was our first crop and is a limited release. In the future we are looking forward to having plenty of Syrah since the vines are maturing.

So with that all said, it is time for me to get back out to the vineyard and watch the 2009 Syrah vines grow into some great wine for the future showing Tarara's terroir.