Syrah

The Rhone Report: About Rhone and Rhone-Style Wines and Winemakers is part of an ongoing series. Part II: Reds Last month we presented some lessons we learned from tasting whites and roses at the 2007 edition (March 18) of the annual Rhone Rangers tasting at Fort Mason in San Francisco. This month we discuss some lessons we learned from tasting reds.

Sonoma County winemakers are searching out the perfect marriage of locale and climate to produce noble cool-climate syrah. “This is, honestly, one of the best places in the world to grow syrah,” said winemaker John Holdredge, who makes a cool-climate syrah from a Russian River Valley vineyard called Lovers Lane. “You can have a nice syrah from a warm climate but it’s just a different animal. I don’t think I’ve had one where I thought, wow, that’s pretty.”

It was my love of fine wine that led me to follow my muse by attending culinary school. As a result, my culinary mission statement has always read “a meal is never complete unless it is accompanied by great wine.” Hence, adding a well chosen, value oriented bottle can make a simple meal a great one. That brings me to the current and frequently misunderstood state of Syrah in the USA.