Cali syrah comparison (with critic tasting note analysis)

I had two different syrahs from California recently.

• 2011 Rhys Syrah Horseshoe Vineyard - USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Santa Cruz Mountains (4/29/2017)
  Light black cherry and olive, with a green, vegetal backdrop. Not much concentration or depth. Tried it again a second night hoping for positive development with a little time and air, but the bitter, vegetal notes came to the forefront as the fruit receded, rendering it essentially undrinkable for me. The score is a composite of the two nights. (78 pts.)
• 2012 Pax Syrah Griffin’s Lair - USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast (4/15/2017)
  My first crack at Pax 2.0 or 3.0 or whatever. Savory, blackberry and strong flavors of meat, both smoked and bloody predominate, with cracked pepper and other spices trailing after. Thick and tannic texture; young. Very reminiscent of a young Northern Rhone, with a California twist. Really an excellent wine, reminds me of why Pax’s Griffin’s Lair has always been one of my favorite sites. I can’t tell if other tasters had bad bottles or just didn’t like the flavor profile, but my experience was consistent with what the pros promised. (93 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

I looked again at the critics’ notes on the wines as kind of a sanity check. Here’s Josh Raynolds (who I like quite a bit as a reviewer):

Pax: “Inky purple. Exotic aromas of candied dark berries, fruitcake and dried flowers. Lush and creamy in texture, offering sweet blackberry and blueberry flavors and a suave floral undertone. Becomes spicier and more lively with aeration, picking up star anise and allspice qualities that carry through a long, intensely perfumed and youthfully tannic finish.”

Okay, I got a lot more meat and blood, but we are in the same league.

Here’s Josh on the Rhys (with my comments):

“Inky ruby [Not particularly inky, but sure]. Heady cherry compote [Not heady or strong at all], blackberry [Nope], olive and cola scents [Olive, yes; cola no] are sharpened by cracked pepper and minerals. Stains the palate [Not in the least] with sweet dark fruit [No sweet, no dark and definitely not staining] and floral pastille flavors [], showing uncommon density and power [Is he kidding? No power, no density] for the vintage while remaining fresh and energetic [Dull and lifeless]. Bitter cherry [At least the word bitter made it’s way in] and spicecake qualities carry through the finish, which is firmed by dusty, building tannins [It wasn’t particularly dry or dusty or tannic] and juicy acidity [It did have some acid lift].”

I read his note, and think, hey, this sounds like an interesting wine, but other than “bitter” and “olive” nothing matches up. I included his Pax note to reassure myself that it isn’t just different palates. I’m so far off on the Rhys it’s an entirely different wine.

This was my second Rhys syrah. Neither was palatable for essentially the same reason: bitter green flavors completely dominated. I do like the pinots, although I haven’t had more recent vintages where stems play a more prominent role.

At least the Pax was fun. Young, but fun.

Slaying a board darling produces

I love the Chardonnay and really like the Pinots but have not enjoyed the Rhys Syrah either and for much of this same criticism. Too much stem and too stark for me. I think it is a style thing as I really trust their wine making. After a few tries, i figured not for me so I will leave them for those who do enjoy 'em.

I have a few of these. I wonder how they’ll do with a bit more age?

Thanks for your impressions. I have some Rhys Sarah going back to 2009, but have not had one yet. I will make a point to dig one out and tee it up for later this week. Will report back.

I love the Rhys syrahs and chards, but not so much the pinot. That’s what makes a market.

I can definately see how the syrahs can be polarizing. Super peppery and green olive proflie. But the few I have tasted have had fruit to hold it up.

I think the pinot’s are spectacular but have found a few bottlings unbalanced from the stem inclusion when young.

I would guess that the vintages were a factor here. After all, 2011 was a cool vintage, and perhaps that was felt more acutely in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

I love the Rhys Syrahs and the current Pax wines. They are very different.

I will say that 2011 is by far my least favorite vintage from Rhys.

Chris, I saw your Rhys note on CT pop up before seeing this thread. Checked your past tasting notes looking to calibrate to my taste…they don’t give the impression you’re a big fan of Rhys relative to your other scores. Maybe not your bag?

After this I opened a 2014 Horseshoe Syrah 375 ml and wow was I wrong! Spicy and pepper on the nose and savory black fruit in the glass. Had it with a prestige porkchop and cabbage. While not fruit forward this is a fantastic food wine. 92 well earned points.

I hesitate to interrupt a controversial thread but thought a couple of points might add context to the discussion. The 2011 vintage was the coolest CA vintage in at least two decades. Our Syrah at Horseshoe struggled to ripen and we picked the grapes after Nov. 6. Given the late ripening we decided to use no stems and the wine was completely destemmed. Meanwhile 2012 was a ripe (and nearly ideal) vintage. Comparing wines from these two vintages should provide a stark contrast in vintages. While I love cool climate Syrah, I certainly understand if someone prefers wines from warmer vintages.

I’ve only had the two syrah, as I said in the original post. I tried this latest one because the first one wasn’t to my taste, and I wanted to give it another try; bad bottles happen even to good producers and it wasn’t what I was expecting. I like their chardonnay and their pinots, with the caveat that I haven’t had many of the pinots; I’ve been patiently waiting for them to mature. The funny thing is, given the experience with the syrah, is that I generally find their pinots to be on the fruity side, which is fine by me, with the green showing as a complimentary sous bois or earthiness, which I find appealing in pinot.

A large part of what led me to vent publicly was looking back on my experience compared to the pros’ tasting notes. Nothing in their tasting notes would have led me to expect that a big bitter green bomb would go off in my mouth; I was more or less expecting a darker-fruited, more structured version of Rhys’ pinots. Not what I got. I’m two-for-two with green bombs on the syrah; if that’s what I should expect, no, it’s not my bag, and I will sell the rest, even though a part of me will wish I could have tasted the wine Josh Raynolds described because it sounds pretty good.

Kevin, I appreciate you correcting the record. I had attributed the green, asparagus-like flavors to stems, which I had understood you used in your syrahs, but if you de-stemmed the 2011, that can’t be the reason. The other syrah I had was the 2010 Horseshoe; was that a warmer or a cooler vintage?

C,
2010 was also an extremely cool vintage and like 2011, Horseshoe Syrah did not ripen until November. Unlike 2011 we did use some stems in 2010 and this does contribute some green olive notes to that wine. We have a experienced very warm vintages from 2012-2016 so those wines will exhibit a quite different character compared to 2010-2011.

I haven’t opened any of my 2011 Rhys Syrahs. So I won’t argue with the OP. I will, however, say that I love Rhys Syrah, as much if not more than their other wines. I was bummed when they tore out the Syrah at Skyline, although I completely understand why they did. In my personal opinion, Rhys’s Syrahs are the best I’ve ever had from the New World.

Also, 2011 gets slammed as a vintage quite often. But as we get some distance, I’m really starting to like it as a vintage, and that includes at Rhys. The two Horseshoe Chardonnays that I’ve opened were spectacular. the 2011 Home PN was fine, not great, but the 2011 Bearwallow is REALLY good right now in my opinion. I think it might be my favorite Bearwallow for current drinking.