which syrahs are retirement worthy?

I have long been a new world syrah lover and over the years I have managed to get on what I consider to be the primo lists. But retirement is upon me and I really can’t afford to buy all of the wine I’m being offered. I should cut back by about half. So who stays and who goes?

Alban - my first great syrah experience. Love him and love the wines. My first Reva was a 1998 purchased for $38. Now Reva is ~$100. Seymour’s and Lorraine are ~$160. That much better than Reva? But really, Patrina is pretty good - half the price of Reva and not hard to find.

Cayuse - at least they don’t over load you with wine. For the longest time I only got 3 bottles a year. Now I’m up to 6, but the second 3-pack was God Only Knows - not what I was looking for. I was thinking about dropping, then they granted me the Frog. Still, just 9 bottles a year. And at a reasonable cost. I did opt not to go for Horsepower or Hors Categorie because of the higher cost, but I wonder if these are now Christoph’s true love.

Saxum - found them at Hospice du Rhone in 2006. So I got the great 2007 vintage. They have held their price at ~$100 for a long time, but not many vintages have been as good as the 2007s. Two and half cases a year is ~$3000.

SQN - I waited a long time to get on the list and I have sucked up everything I could since. The prices haven’t gone up that much, especially when you compare them Napa cabs (is that valid?), but I get offered a lot and I feel like I have to take it all. Unlike Cayuse, I went for every secondary offering. I couldn’t get Chimere, but I did finally get Next of Kyn and snagged some Third Twin. The total yearly tab just for the SQN family is approaching $10K.

One solution is to just buy less, but I think it is likely that most of these places will drop me if I don’t take my full allocation. I share my allocations when I can find a friend who is interested. I could flip some, but I really don’t want to buy wine for that purpose and few of these are really flippable, By the time you pay the auction fees, most are break even or worse.

Re SQN? Do you drink them? Do you enjoy them? Are you getting value for money? These are the questions I ask myself when buying from lists. If you have been a regular customer and want to adjust your order, I cannot imagine they wouldn’t accommodate you. I ask about SQN because you wrote about tasting the others, but the questions apply.

Do you buy any syrah for regular drinking with your weekly meals? You are buying super-premiums - not my style at all, but super premiums nonetheless - when there is a whole mess of really solid syrah for so much less. Perhaps slow a little on the premium and use some leftover money for the drinkers. I love my daily drinkers. Now that said, my Gonon tonight is not a daily drinker, it is the premium stuff that reminds me how great syrah can get.

Mark, to echo Counselor @lf3rt’s post, there’s a TON of recent vintage Rhones which are fantastic, are age worthy, and considerably less expensive.

Sell it all and buy Northern Rhône while you still can!

Honestly, I’m with Alfert on this. If you are buying to sell later then maybe these wines will hold their price. A lot of people find SQN to be undrinkably gloppy and these wines are the absolute opposite of what I find I like. But Myriad and Bedrock both make beautiful Syrahs that hit somewhere between the premium purp and the more elegant Rhône style, and Halcon does too, and those wines are half the price of Cayuse or Reva. There is so much good Syrah for so much less…

Halcon is a great reco, Noah!

Falls somewhere in the middle of Cali and France. I’m a fan.

I would drop Saxum and Alban. The Patrina is fine and easily available. Both wineries are easy to find at attractive prices on the auction block. Like others said, there are a sea of great Syrah at half the price.

I was in this same place of needing to cull lists and also entertain my expanding palate around 6-7 years ago. I was on all the same lists (and more Bedrock/Carlisle ect) and I’ve only maintained SQN and Cayuse which are the singular wines to me for this continents Rhône.

I had been on Saxum since 03 and decided I had (and still have) way too many bottles. Ordered every other release for a couple years and they dropped me without a peep, which was a blessing in retrospect to have them cut me off. Also made me value operations where I feel appreciated or a bit more connected.

Start thinning the herd, it’s hard at first as you feel like your going to miss something, but in reality there’s a world of good wine out there. Too much to ever try all you want really. I would start by opening up one of the N Rhône threads and look for some of the wines where folks say this wine was polished, has new oak ect and start trying those. While they won’t be quite as much of either as CA Rhône they have plenty of fruit to carry them. You can get old world Syrah, with a new world bent that’s very much in your wheelhouse for $30-60. Think V. Paris and many others, 2015’s and 16’s would be a perfect place to start exploring.

No reason to be on Alban either, they are out there to buy if you want your fix. You’ve got to keep Bionic Frog of course, but I think Cayuse are singular wines for US Rhône’s. You can drop God Only Knows and keep BF…I did. Good Luck with the process.

Thanks for the replies. I can’t believe that I just found out about this board.
First, Robert… You’re saying that Cayuse will let me keep buying BF and Cailloux (my original get) and not take GOK? That would be great. I just assumed that GOK was the price I had to pay. It’s not bad wine, just not that interesting compared to their syrahs.
Second… I am in the woods as far as northern Rhones go. I love CdP and I have a few salted away, but most are at least as expensive as what I’m buying now. I’m familiar with the famous Cote Rotes and Hermitages (Chave, La Chappelle, etc.), but the value sweet spot ($30-$60) is a mystery. I just assumed that it didn’t exist.
Third… SQN is almost not wine. The whole thing is like a work of art, especially when you think every bottling is one and done. I do like being able bring them to a dinner and wow the crowd. I don’t think I’ve ever opened one just for myself. I do think that NOK is more often same and I don’t need to double up.
Fourth… The closest thingI have to everyday syrah is Carlisle. And I already mentioned Alban Patrina. I know there are others in that value range. I have visited Paso Robles several times, but it seems like every place I like is as expensive as Saxum or getting there. Booker, Clos Selene, Law Estate, Epoch all make good wine, but none is value.

The gist of it is that there a ton of good wines at $80-$100, but that’s not every day wine and certainly not retirement wine. I will look for Bedrock.

Mark,

Buy a bottle of Vincent Paris 2016 Granit 30 and start there. Had a couple over that past weeks, and for $30, while different that SQN or Alban it delivers just as much pleasure albeit in a different way. Then for WA test drive some K Vintners Syrahs, both Milbrandt and Motor City Kitty are $25.

I dropped Alban years ago and I only buy 1 or 2 bottles of Saxum per year, can’t seem to get away from SQN, wines are too unique.

I’d really try to work backwards from what you really want to drink in the future. Like how many of each producers do you drink or expect to in a year. do the math on current purchases. My guess if you are like me and many others you are still accumulating which is not really the end goal. I am reducing my cellar as I expect to move XC and really have too much. So I’ve been thinking long and hard about how many of X producers wine do I drink per year and realistically want for the future. How many great wines versus wines I do not think twice about drinking. It has ended up being an interesting mental exercise and I think I have finally made great progress on reducing the cellar size yet ensuring I have the wines that are special. Special can be a $20 Faurie Hermitage I bought in Ampuis or Chave. I’m finding I can dramatically reduce the number of producers I own and quantity by working from backwards from my forever cellar goals. I also had to resist my early temptation to primarily keep the cream of the crop as I do not drink those regularly.

Why do you care if any of these wineries “drop you?” They’re not your friends…they just sell you wine. If they drop you from the list, it’s not a measure of your worthiness as a wine lover or a person. Let that shit go. Buy and drink what you like.

I am not Robert, but yes. I know from personal experience. I cannot say how it may impact other desired wishlist adds in the future, but each three pack is treated as a separate allocation. Not buying GOK will mean you will not be offered GOK next year but will not impact the Frog etc.

There are some solid threads here on value Rhones, and not just from France.

Given your apparent affinity for more modern wines, I think the recommendations above for Paris wines, especially the Cornas 30 and 60, are excellent recommendations. Great materials in these wines, glossy for my palate but not overdone at all. An easy “buy”. Alain Graillout and Rousset are some other excellent choices in that $25-$40 range. Barou is a solid value and under $25. These are not high-alcohol, big-punch wines like what you are buying, but they show more syrah typicity, are affordable, and pair well with food. Worth a try.

Look for wines from St. Joseph, Northern Rhone.

And yes, Bedrock of course. I’m a not a huge fan of the Bedrock syrahs, but they seem to be in your flavor profile. I am really enamored with the Bedrock. Morgan and Chris are the top tier of Zins IMHO.

Carlisle? Copain? Pax?

Try Anthill Farms and Myriad syrah at about $45

Myriad, Quivet, Carlisle and Chris Tynan all come to mind

I regularly buy 3 of those 4.

Myriad and Bedrock will definitely be I. Your wheelhouse. I think you would find Copain and Pax too lean but hard to say.

What ^^ he ^^ said.

So many great options already mentioned - but a few more in my neck of the woods to consider:

Ojai Vineyards
Jaffurs
Samsara
Stolpman

Good luck! And next time you are heading to Paso, consider detouring to Santa Barbara County instead!

Cheers.