TN: 2006 DAIN WINES SYRAH "THE SMART SET" WHITE HAWK VINEYARD

WINE TALK
1

2006 DAIN WINES SYRAH “THE SMART SET” WHITE HAWK VINEYARD (SANTA BARBARA COUNTY)

Popped, poured & tasted over 8 hours.

Medium to medium deep red.

Very aromatic spicy waxy sumac wild red black & Ludens cough drop cherry cola smoky red plum & magenta fruit nose with a hint of sassafras apricot sage & cherry bark/sap. Rich spicy & sappy. An aromatic spice bomb, with a minor in fruit, in fact!

Big round fruit up front with lots of sappy spicy cherry raspberry blood blackberry strawberry bark tinged fruit. More fruit in the front - more sap bark & then slightly drying tannins on the back end. Fairly long flavor. Round with medium concentration, but spice sap & fruit throughout - and in that order.

Lots of stems included in this baby. Alcohol doesn’t show through, but seems a bit more than the label noted 14.5%.

Overall a very spicy sappy fruity & enjoyable bottle - keeps getting better, with fruit eventually coming all the way through to the finish.

*Could possibly see an edit/upgrade on this later/tomorrow. The more I drink this, the more I like it . . . and I know it’s Feb in NY, but I can’t think of a better Syrah for barbecued beef/venison at the moment.
93/100

newhere

*Upgraded this a bit (92 > 93) after 8 hrs.
Fruit kept coming up on the palate. Tasting more open (Duh!), wild & classy. Adding fruit to the mid-palate, with the semi-drying tannins softening a bit & adding blood orange/pink grapefruit/mineral & Schaarbeek cherry extending into the finish, which also became less rough & more elegant.

Nice QPR @ ~ $27, too

[winner.gif]

2

Nice note. I agree. Great wine. Thanks.

3

+1
I’m also a fan of the Sojourn Las Madres, but sad that he’s not going to make it anymore…

[cry.gif]

4

Very nice note. I love the Smart Set syrah! It was my first taste of White Hawk vineyard juice and it has been my favorite new world vineyard producing syrah ever since.

5

I believe Maggie Harrison makes her Lillian with white hawk fruit as well. Have you done a comparison. I have 3 on order but haven’t sampled any yet. She gets rave reviews and it is priced about double.

6

D Gris,

I haven’t tasted the Maggie Harrison Lillian.

From memory, Ojai may be the only other White Hawk Syrah I’ve had.

To me this is a must buy (again!) wine. I paid ~$27!

Prost!

newhere

7

I haven’t had the Lillian either, unfortunately, but as Rob said, for the money it’s hard to imagine that Lillian is twice as good for twice the price.

Herman Story makes a White Hawk as well that is supposed to be tasty at around the same $30 price point, just hard to get a hold of.

8

I definitely do not need to buy any more wine, but I went to their site to see what was available, some @ $42. They appear to not be producing Syrah anymore. Some '05 was available from another vender at the $27 price point. Where did you find it.

9

Ain’t happening anymore with this. I got mine for $19.99 but that was long ago in a different land called BLOWOUT! [basic-smile.gif]

10

I’m on Long Island so there’s a (small) hint

But I’ll wait to tell you after I pick up another bottle or two! :wink:

OK - Just kidding. :slight_smile:

I got it at Seaholm, Huntington, NY

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Mike - I think many of our favorite stores are in this land called BLOW-OUT at some point.

It’s a wonderful thing. [drinks.gif] On the consumer end, anyway!?!

12

Hi folks,
Glad you enjoyed our syrah from White Hawk. We don’t have anymore, curious and will check on our site, it should not imply we have any for sale.
We have decided to focus on pinot and wish the best to syrah producers and drinkers everywhere!!

Dain

13

David,
[oops.gif] Some times I do not accurately remember what I looked up on a site, sorry. I think I did find the '05 listed from a vender through Wine Searcher.

14

No worries, thanks for posting.

15

Hey Dain,

Thanks for input from the source - even though it might not be exactly the result I hoped to hear after tasting this beauty?!?

Really sorry to hear you’re giving up Syrah production - especially because Pinot is not quite in my top half dozen, and the quality of this first (for me!) Syrah of yours.

Have to say I’m curious, if you care to share with us why you’re giving up Making Kick-Ass Syrah like this?

Cheers in any case, & maybe you have me curious for the first time in a while to taste a Cali Pinot.

Cheers!

[basic-smile.gif]

16

I haven’t tried the '06 “The Smart Set” but the '07 for me is a terrific wine. Certainly one of the best QPR purchases I made in the last year at $23.10. I wish Dain would keep making more of this wine.

17

Very gratifying to hear that folks enjoy our syrah. I enjoy making wine in this style. The 2006 seems to have plumped up in bottle with a few years of age.
Our syrah have been described as almost ‘pinot-like’ in texture which I find to be an interest comment.
Our syrahs have some attributes of northern rhone wines but are clearly Californian to my palate. In general our syrah (and pinot) will be in the low to middle range of California abv. We do a lot of whole cluster with syrah, which I love with this variety.

We never did make much syrah, typically no more than 100 cases per vineyard each vintage. I love it but it is not an economically viable option and hopefully our focus on pinot will pay off in terms of ever increasing quality.

If you wish to support some kindred syrah spirited folks…see also ESJ, and DAG.*

Dain

*disclaimer…friends of mine just so ya know.

18

time to update the website…

I just spent 8 mins talking about Syrah that you don’t make anymore… neener