The Southwest Voice

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As promised, here is a continuation of my thoughts and comments about Syrah, a great new red wine to lots of you. If you like wine at all, you need to become familiar with this varietal because it has become very popular in the wine world. As a Bakersfield resident, you also need to learn as much as you can about it as Syrah has become the great wine of the Central Coast. Our dearly loved wineries on our route to the Central Coast beaches have become destinations to wine lovers world-wide. Move over, Napa!

The Syrah grape comes from an area in Southern France divided into Northern and Southern regions connected by the Rhone River. It is the predominant red grape in the Northern Rhone and seldom are other wines blended into it. Hermitage and Cote Rotie are the most famous wines. Grenache is the major red grape in the South, but most wines are blended with Syrah or Mourvedre. Chateauneuf du Pape is the most recognizable name.

Petite Sirah (not the same grape) was grown here in California by 1880, but no one paid any attention to Syrah until a group of winemakers in the 1980s started producing wines from the Rhone. People started paying attention to these Rhone Rangers, but only a few good Syrahs made it into the ’90s where 400 acres were being cultivated in the state in 1992. Then the explosion of this decade — now there are 19,000 acres planted to Syrah.

Why? The experts say it’s because we finally planted the grape in the right locations and we imported the right clones. That made it taste better and people like me started drinking more of it!

So, what does it taste like? It is a big, deep and rich mouthful, almost chocolatey in the warmer areas. It will smooth out and be truly elegant in the cooler regions. I also get deep blackberry and boysenberry fruit with a variety of levels of spice and pepper. Yes, pepper! You can taste sweetness from the oak and also get a wonderful impression of violets. The wine literally has something for everyone.

It’s being grown all up and down the state but our own Central Coast has the most acreage planted to the Rhone varietals. Very, very drinkable Syrahs will be in almost every tasting room on your next trip to the beach.

The greatest Syrahs I have tasted thus far have come from Ojai Vineyards, Sine Qua Non, and Tensley from Santa Barbara County, Alban and Saxum from San Luis Obispo County, and DuMOL, Lewis and Rosenblum (Kick Ranch Reserve) from Napa and Sonoma. These wines are next to impossible to find. The top price among them was over $100, but most are under $75. So why do I mention them? Because if you see one of them, grab it. You need to see for yourselves what really great wine tastes like so you can then compare it with the rest. You have to have a frame of reference.

Very good Syrahs you can find here at home at a price we can all afford for anytime drinking are Beckman, Bogle, Cline, Four Vines, Gallo Family Reserve, JC Cellars, Kunde, Smoking Loon, and other Rosenblums. The highest is $26 and the lowest is $11. Enjoy!

Incidentally, do not forget to go on the Internet and look for a specific wine that you would like to either know more about or purchase. A lot of hard-to-find wines are just a few clicks away. Also, know that wineries are aware heat is the worst enemy of wine and will hold your order until the weather is more favorable. I do not take shipments from late May to early October.

I’ll close today by acknowledging that some of you are going to call me about the omission of Rhone wines/wineries that you know I love and my response is: they’re blends! That’s a whole other column for another day.