Received the catalog for the fall wine sale at Surdyk’s here in Minneapolis and it got me thinking about popularity of wines. The first grape they promote, on page 2, is zinfandel followed by chardonnay on page 3. I was surprised that they would lead off with red zin. Is zin that popular? What really surprised me, however, is that CA syrah was lumped into the ghetto of Miscellaneous Reds which starts on page 32. Is the general buying public really that disinterested in syrah? And is zin that much popular than syrah?
While I am starting to buy a few more bottles of zin from select producers, I buy 4 times as much syrah as zin.
My general question would be what class of Zin was on Page 2 and what class of CA Syrah was in the back? My guess is they are pimping the $8-$15 Zin to the mass public who likes that type of wine.
Right, they were probably shilling this plonk to dirtballs like me who don’t know any better (zin, pinot and syrah are virtually tied in my cellar).
Alan, taste an old vine zin made by the likes of Paul Draper, Mike Officer, Ehren Jordan, Fred Scherrer, Morgan Twain-Peterson, Rod Berglund, Bob Cabral, Dick Arrowood, Thomas Rivers Brown, Pete Seghesio, etc. You decide if it’s worthy.
Other than Ravenswood Big River and Teldeschi bottlings at $25+, the rest were in that price range. In terms of syrah, they were only offering 4-5 different wines all of which seemed to be CA appellations at similar prices. At least around here, looking for syrahs in LWS tends to be a pretty pointless venture.
Mike,
Thanks for the recs. I have started buying from Bedrock and am on the waiting list (I think) for Carlisle. I’ve had some Ridge but probably need to drink more. I’ll keep my eyes open for the others. Zin will most likely never be a big component of our cellar but I definitely want to expand our selection.
I find most Zins very underwhelming, but have picked up some high end ones very cheap and have been pleasantly surprised. My sense is that both categories are having trouble selling, but that probably makes retailer margins that much better b/c they have to be buying some of it really cheap if I am able to as well. I’ve seen plenty of closeouts in both categories.
Most stores around here are structured just like the catalog - Zin prominent with its own section and Syrah relegated to sharing a small space with the Other Reds. In terms of retail sales, I have no doubt that the numbers are representative of the space given, but I also think this has become a self-fulfilling prophecy for Syrah. It has no place in the mindset of the average consumer.
I still believe Syrah’s day is coming, but for now I’m happy to enjoy a lot of great wines at decent price points. I’ve always considered Zin to be a good value as well, but these days I can think of more sub-$20 Syrah I’d recommend than sub-$20 Zin.
Most American wineries have been rocked by the recession, but no category has been hit as hard as California Syrah. Sales for the variety have foundered…
With regard to retail sales, forget it…Buyers don’t want to talk. They won’t even let you pull it out of the bag. And that’s in California. It’s much worse in the Midwest—we can’t give Syrah away.
THERE’S a joke going around West Coast wine circles: What’s the difference between a case of syrah and a case of pneumonia? You can get rid of the pneumonia.
Alan - last stats I saw, there were about 50,000 acres of zin planted and about 19,000 of syrah in CA. Zin has always been far more popular. Don’t forget, a lot of the stuff like Hearty Burgundy and those other jug wines included zin.
I say this in all sincerity - Zinfandel is a “minefield!” Like Burgundy - you need to know what you are doing. It is so adoptable - it grows pretty much all over the state.
Be wary my friends, but don’t discount Zinfandel!
I love syrah and believe that California makes syrah as good as any in the world. It does so well here, in fact, that the premium juice got way ahead of market perception. Great deals abound.
As others have stated, with the syrah market in the tank, it is a great time to be a buyer and I fully expect that I will have an over-abundance of great, well-made, well-priced syrahs to choose from for as long as I am interested.
Interesting to read the links to articles which bemoan the lack of interest in CA syrahs. It seems everyone’s reference point as the standard-bearer of syrah is the northern rhone region. It bears remembering that they have been growing grapes in France for about 2,000 years and, despite having a number of great wine growing regions, the pinnacle of syrah is isolated to a very small region which, to my knowledge, does not produce in high volume.
America has this embedded fast-forward mentality. I think the real reason sports like soccer (futbol) or even rugby will never gain widespread popularity is that in both sports the ball often must move backwards in order to move forward. Americans hate this.
I suspect that syrah is moving through the phase where it must go backwards in order to move forward. The great syrah vineyards and the great syrah producers are being identified and they are in the process of calibrating supply with demand. Lesser producers will get frustrated and move on to the next grape in fashion and marginal vineyards will do the same. In the end, we will be left with a strong and vibrant syrah scene and that will be a good thing, just not a big thing.
No matter the variety a wine is made from, it all comes down to producer and the style they make their wines in. Does the failure of Syrah sales really mean that all Syrah from California sucks?
The issue for both Zin and Syrah is that people need to want to try something different. If you’re Joe or Jane AverageWineDrinker, you know Merlot, you know Cab and perhaps Pinot. You need some reason to pick up a different wine. Now, wander into a decently stocked supermarket and look a the wine section. If you’re not very familiar with wine, you’re going to be overwhelmed. What do people with too many choices and little information do? They tend to pick the stuff they know. This is especially true in tough economic times when the odds are higher that the average wine drinker doesn’t want to waste $15-$20 on a ‘bad’ bottle.
A lot of the focus here is on producers that even I never see as someone just up the coast. I don’t see Copain, Carlisle etc so those wines aren’t what people here (Seattle) consider when they think of Cali Syrah. Too, I wonder if the Aussie Shiraz fad of a few years ago soured people on Syrah since the ones that sold where so extreme in style for the most part. Because I’m honestly a little surprised that Syrah is having a tough time - it’s goes very well with a lot of the food that seems to be popular, better in many cases than Cab. Sauv.
I was initially into the whole Aussie Shiraz thing when I first started drinking wine ten years ago and then I was soon turned off by it. Then I made the Carlise list a few years ago and took a “chance” on an SC Syrah. Since then, I’ve ordered more Syrah from Mike than Zin.
Zin was at the beginning of the catalog, not because it’s more popular, but because they want to push it.
Zin damn near died out in the '80s until the Turley style (for good or bad) came along. Zin & Syrah are the poor stepchildren to Cab, Merlot and now Pinot. Syrah was probably over-planted like we’re probably going to see with Pinot in a few years.
My best way to get a handle on the local wine industry is at the yearly Sonoma County Harvest Fair. Over the years you get to see trends plus the good and the bad. For the last couple years I’ve been very impressed with the Syrahs. fwiw, I’ve been disappointed in Pinot as there’s a lot of mediocre PN out there in the $40-50 range. I believe that’s because Pinot is so popular right now; no other variety could get away with that. I’ve also noticed a toning down of the Zins–not as many hot ones (where you can taste the alcohol) as in the past.
Put the syrah on the back burner, fine with me. More for me to buy.
Jaffurs just said they may have to limit their single vineyard syrah wine club next year due to demand.
Some folks get it, some don’t…thank God!
I would argue that zin - as bottled RED wine DID die in the early '70s because Bob Trinchero made a boo-boo. However, the demand for white zin saved hundreds of acres of zinfandel that would probably have been otherwise grafted over to chardonnay or merlot. It began to resuscitate in the 80’s and, in my mind, began its next great decline in the wake of the Turley high-octane era - roughly until 6-8 years ago.
