Que Syrah Vineyard Syrah

Presented double-blind at Tasting Group. The wine presents a deep ruby/purple color with a near opaque core; medium viscosity with significant staining of the tears and no signs of sediment. On the nose, the wine is developing with notes of blue, black and red fruits: blueberries, blackberries and Marionberries, olives, roasted meat, black pepper, purple flowers and rocky earth. On the palate, the wine is dry with medium tannin and medium+ acid. Confirming the notes from the nose. The finish is medium+ and the texture seems a touch thin. Initial conclusions: this could be Syrah, Malbec, Gamay or Cabernet Franc from France or the United States. Because I felt the non-fruits leaned a bit more heavily, my final conclusion was Syrah from France, Northern Rhône, Côte Rôtie with a little age in a cooler vintage like 2014. Wow! This is really tasty stuff and so varietally correct. I shouldn’t be surprised. It seems like every time I taste Arnot Roberts, the quality is high. Already quite the charmer in its youth, the 2020 “Que Syrah” should drink well through 2035.

Delicious and just a tiny bit funky.

Among everyday wine drinkers, Syrah gets a bad rap. No one is exactly sure why this is, but many (myself included) think the blowsy Shiraz craze of the early aughts has something to do with it. Serious wine lovers know, however that Syrah is one of the world’s greatest red grapes, provided it is planted on the right sites and harvested at the right time (both of which, it must be said, are not so common in California). There are an increasing number of benchmark bottling a of Syrah in California, this one perhaps chief among them. The Arnot-Roberts guys, @duncanarnot and Nathan Lee Roberts (not on IG?) have been making arguably California’s most profound cold-climate Syrah from the Que Syrah vineyard way out on the Western Sonoma Coast for many years now. When I say cold, I mean really cold. Fog drenched, windy as hell, just a stone’s throw from the ocean, this vineyard gets ripe at like 12.2% -12.8% alcohol or it doesn’t get ripe at all. And the wines it makes…. Crunchy blue fruit, bloody meat and rusty nails, dried flowers and powdery refined tannins. With age bacon fat and leather emerge. All draped in a saline umami jacket that makes the mouth water. I can only buy a couple of bottles of this a year, but each one is a battle between drink and hold. So I split the difference. I decided to open this one up and both regretted it (it will improve for another decade) and luxuriated in it. May you be so lucky to have similar problems.

100% knowingly opened this wine too early, but I couldn’t help myself. It’s one of my favorite California wines, and 2018 was such a spectacular vintage I couldn’t wait to see what Que Syrah Sera. And boy oh boy this is an epic wine in the making. It’s still incredibly “primary” but gives every indication that it will blossom into a mind-blowing wine. Right now it smells of bloody meat and thyme and forest floor. In the mouth deeply stony flavors of cassis and blackberry are shot through with potash and chopped green herbs while a gorgeous green olive / dirty martini salinity lingers in the finish with a grapey fruit that says “you idiot, if you’d just waited a year or two....” I don’t regret it though. Another winner from @duncanarnot and crew.

Black pepper and bright berries for days. Lilac. Smokey, grapey, just a touch of beef. Tart, energetic and refreshing if not profound.

Reminds me of Souhaut.

wild berries, wild herbs, mint; medium body, quite tannic, medium+ acidity, 12.2% ABV; 100% whole cluster ferment

Hitting the spot now. Unusually rich for an A-R syrah.

Bloody. Ferrous. Chewy. Sanguine.

Takes a while to open up but then it delivers the profile of the northern Rhone.

Might be my favorite Syrah now a days