TN: A Surprising New Zealand Syrah

Put this up against your favorite peppery Cote Rotie in a blind tasting and I doubt you could tell them apart…

• 2008 Man O’ War Vineyards Ltd Syrah Dreadnought - New Zealand, North Island, Auckland, Waiheke Island (8/13/2010)
  To be perfectly honest, this was one of the most surprising wines I’ve had in recent memory. I wasn’t expecting this to be nearly as good as it was. This is a cool climate Syrah that exudes wonderful white peppery scents on the nose that take you right from the North Island of New Zealand to the hillsides of Cote Rotie. Mixed in with some tasty dark fruits and a clean, lengthy finish. (92 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

Sounds great Rob. I visited some wineries on Waiheke Island a couple of years ago, missed this one though. Gorgeous place, only a short ferry ride from Auckland. Nice to see some wines from this interesting terroir making it stateside.

This is consistantly my favourite wine from Man o War.

The 2008 is fantastic, the 2009 and 2010 barrel samples are much better…

Never actually tasted this but Te Mata Bullnose and Kusasa make fabulous peppery Shiraz. Craggy Range is also supposed to be great.

Very cool, Rob. If you don’t mind divulging, where’d you find this bottle and how much was it?

Picked it up at KL for $30. From time to time I pop in and just have the Aussie / NZ guy pick me out a few bottles.

I got to meet their marketing person and taste their wines up at the Vancouver Playhouse wine festival. I also really liked their Merlot-Cab Franc-Malbec blend that sells for about $15 and Ironclad at about $27. It has been fun being able to sell their wines. They are actually going to be in town in a few weeks with their winemaker.

Cool; thanks. I like the “pick a couple for me” approach – especially once you’ve found someone who has your palate dialed-in.

KL is probably where I purchase 75%+ of my wines and most of the Redwood City store employees know me pretty well… (which also gets me some free tastings from time to time…)

Ditto for me and the Hollywood K&L (except I usually talk to the same guy every time I go in).

(which also gets me some free tastings from time to time…) >

Awesome bonus!!

Plus I think there are one or two hot chicks that work at the Hollywood KL…

There most definitely are … and they’re very nice, too!