For Syrah world travelers, take a look at Domaine des Tourelles 'Syrah du Liban ’
and a great list from Washington as well. Bravo!
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Colgin and Eisele.
Piedrasassi.
Unless I missed it, I don’t see any mention of Ziereisen. German reds are definite beneficiaries of recent warmer vintages and great wine makers.
big basin rattlesnake
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Hi George,
Syrah loves limestone soils up at our Brosseau Vineyard, Chalone AVA. Only caveat is if your site is really hot, then you risk high pH wines. I once made a Syrah from limestone soils out of Lockwood area and the pH was quite high on the wine. High tannin and high pH not a great combo for many reasons. Feel free to message me if you have any more questions.
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Yeah the Los Alamos area of SB county is very epic. I always loved making Thompson Vineyard Syrah back in the day.
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I’d be interested to hear some of these reasons! Do these create problems during the winemaking process or is this more a stylistic or preferential thing?
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Same. Huge fan of Stefano Amerighi.
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McPrice Myers and the various offerings from K Vintners are my favorites from the USA.
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Hi Otto,
With high pH (3.90 and up), wine stability starts to get tricky (heat stability) unless one is ok with haze formation in bottle later. Acid (TA) tends to get much lower (as pH goes higher) and the tannin I find with Syrah, whenever I have hit this pH point, the wine gets strange texturally. Wine feels ‘top-heavy’ in tannin due to low acid. Separately, aromas start to get weird, the higher the pH imho. Trying to fine out the tannin (to balance the body) is tricky because the wine gets ‘flabby’ fast. Use of high levels of residual sugar and or oak can help dampen the high pH challenge but most of those on this board likely steer away from these types of wine profiles.
Syrah was planted in a lot of places 20 years ago but now I think we are seeing the ones remaining are the sites with optimal climate/soil relations to the varietal.
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Love the Peay les Titans. Great cool climate syrah priced well
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The Rhys Horseshoe vineyard 2013 would be in my top few individual wines with this criteria. I see quite a lot of conversation on bottle variation for it however, so perhaps I’ve been lucky on the few occasions I’ve had it.
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Carlisle Papa’s Block
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Royal City is really great.
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Pax Majik Vineyard and Nellessen Vineyard Syrahs.
Great list, especially for those of us who like West Coast / California Syrah
I would add Kongsgaard to this list, it’s a big favorite
One question, for those of you who know more on Syrah:
I have a bunch of 2001-2010 Kongsgaard Syrah that I bought recently from a friend. The 2009/10s are amazing, thick complex but also filled with fruit. The 2001/02s have almost no fruit, taste like just tannin structure. Fortunately what I bought is mostly the later years.
Do you think this is a function of the vintage, or the age of the wine? I.e. at some point with the extra age, the fruit in the older ones just diminished completely?
Thanks!
It seems that something went wrong with the Rhys corking process in 2013. Many of my Rhys 2013s have leaky or protruding corks, and others have noted the same. As a result, I have been drinking the wines a bit earlier than I might otherwise, but I haven’t yet encountered any damaged wines (and some, like the Horseshoe Syrah, have been excellent).