A CHARISMATIC SLEEPER OF A NORTHERN RHONE SYRAH
“Wine cheers the sad, revives the old, inspires the young and makes weariness forget its toll” -Lord Byron, English Poet
If you have heard it once you have likely heard it dozens of times, and I am here to confirm that Syrah has a bit of an identity crises these days. People seem comfortable when they see it blended with other varieties, like Grenache, Mourvedre, or “GSM” as so many of you call them, when they are made in the model of classic Cotes du Rhone, a blended red from France’s southern Rhone Valley. Some people love the deeper extraction and exuberant dark fruit you find in southern hemisphere Shiraz, others the more savory black pepper and cured olive notes found in Syrah from the northern Rhone, but Syrah as a stand alone category, well, let’s just say it is not setting any records in the feverish sales department if you know what I’m saying.
Maybe it’s because the variety is used so often for blending that people don’t quite know what to expect when grabbing a wine that is 100% Syrah.’ That or they never even think of Syrah when they are seeking a bottle or two of delicious and layered red wine. Baffles the lot of us but it is a fact, and it is not just among our customers. We hear the same from sales reps and wine makers all the time. This all popped in my mind the other afternoon when I was sampled on a red wine, from Collines Rhodaniennes, IGP, (Indication Geographique Protegee, a place in the Northern Rhone area of France) in a fairly modern looking bottle. I thought the pacagaing playful, that was until I saw it, there on the front label in big letters, Syrah.
The generous fruit on the nose pulled me in for a second, third, fourth deep sniff and as happens with so many great French wines, my mouth started to water. The wine was calling me from its little puddle in my big tasting glass. Calling me to press the glass between my lips, stay at the table, investigate, and start thinking about what to sink my teeth into that would be perfect when washed down with this delectable and compelling, Syrah.
“If Syrah tasted more like this, more people would drink Syrah”, all my tasting notes said. It was the purity, freshness, dark fruit, slight salinity and whiffs of smoked pork that had me, um, managing that first little sip and, a rarely seen occurrence in the madness that is before the holiday supplier tastings, I asked for another sip. This, this is simple French Syrah at its finest. Stripped of its playmates and lying there in my glass, naked and unashamedly French in structure and balance. I knew I had to get some for all of us, but how much? “There were only 8 cases brought to California” my sales rep responded when I questioned the availability, “And there are only 4 left” so, my dear wine lovers, what do you suspect I replied? Yeah, “I’ll take all four of them” my response. Guess what? They just arrived!
$30.00 for a perfect northern Rhone Syrah? That just so happens to be made by Yoann Francois, the cellarmaster for a very famous Cote Rotie producer, Domaine Jamet, (whose wines I’ve yet to see here in the United States) that level of winemaking and insight poured into a, “little family project” that we can get all the way out here in California? Yeah, you bet your ass I took the last of it for us! So, you know the drill, super rare and at this price, this wine is going to fly. Get, you, some.
2020 Domaine Francois & Fils IGP Syrah, Collines Rhodaniennes $29.99