The State of Syrah 2009

If only Robert Parker were the omnipotent force he was five and ten years ago!  Am I really saying that?  No, not really.

But one does wish that his opinions held a bit more sway over consumers who are still overpaying for a huge number of overpriced California wines when excellent quality Syrah from every corner of the state gathers dust on retailers shelf.

From the latest issue on California I quote the big man:

“1.  Who will continue to purchase Chardonnays over $50 a bottle, Pinot Noirs over $75, and Cabernet Sauvignon and Bordeaux varietal blends over $150?
2.  With a great vintage, 2007, in the wings for northern California, especially for Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon, what will become of 2006?
3.  Has the Pinot Noir bubble finally burst? Higher and higher prices, and generally mediocre quality except for the top four dozen or so producers, suggest that the days of reckoning are upon us.
4. In contrast, why can’t the ocean of very good Syrahs find favor with wine consumers? Probably the most consistent wine of high quality across all price levels, Syrah is being dumped by wholesalers and retailers unable to sell it. This may be the most inexplicable scenario in the domestic wine market given how good and reasonably priced most Syrahs tend to be.”

Imprinting this fact further into my head is the staggering number of bargains I have seen out and about while peddling my wares.  Retailers are indeed rarely taking on new Syrah’s, and those they do take on are culled from a vast number of amazing ones.  For instance, the 2007 Neyers Old Lakeville Syrah, which just received 94 points from Spectator and 91 points from Parker, is apparently barely moving even though it retails at a very modest $28 a bottle (a price I have seen from both JJ Buckley and K and L).  I know that Tadeo Borchardt, the winemaker at Neyers, fermented the 2007 with 80% whole cluster and very little new wood– making an elegant, aromatically fascinating, wine that staggers most Pinot selling for two or three times the price.

What confounds this issue even further is that virtually every wine buyer I meet loves Syrah.  In fact, so do most consumers, as long as they do not know they are drinking Syrah.  Somehow though, this fascination and adoration is not seeping across to many consumers.

It seems to me that Syrah heretofor has lacked a populist outburst– something experienced by both Zinfandel and Pinot Noir.

Zinfandel, which is the state grape (whether the douche-nozzle Governer agrees or not), was uniquely situated as being an interesting grape with history just as the popular wine-boom of the early 90’s got going.  It was able to ride the wave of being an eminently approachable grape that was not taken so seriously as the sombre Cabernet and its sycophantic crowd– and organizations such as ZAP worked further in promoting its approachable and fun image.

The Pinot Noir bubble, which like any boom, has begun to deflate itself, received the ultimate populist surge– that of cinematic advertising.  Ironically, the thirst for such a delicate grape that thrives in so few areas of California, has led to the mass consumption of frightening numbers of horrible examples of the varietal.  The combination of outrageous prices for sub-par wine, combined with the current tanking economy, is swiftly deflating the Pinot bubble and the many producers that overpaid for bad fruit, and the many growers who completely forgot the lessons of previous boom and bust cycles in the industry and planted the fickle grape in areas not good for it, are going to pay dearly.  This is not to say that the post-Sideways boom has not helped in discovering new and fascinating terroirs that are yielding the highest quality Pinot Noirs yet made from our Golden State; I am merely speculating that these gems are getting lost in the mudslide of expensive wines lacking charm and a reasonably quality to price ratio.

Thus, here it is.  Syrah is loved by growers– it is a high vigor varietal that typically yields balanced fruit at 3-4 tons per acre.  It is loved by winemakers for its fascinating aromatics, its deep color, and its ability to be made in many different ways (little to lots of oak, 0% to 100% whole cluster).  It thrives and makes excellent wines from the toes of the Sierra Nevada to the coastal hills of Mendocino all the way down to Paso Robles.  And, since it is underappreciated by most consumers the price vis-a-vis the quality is typically good, if not great.

Somehow though, and particularly in these tough times where folks are trying like hell to maximize what they get for their dollar, the message that Syrah is the vinous golden goose for just about everyone is just not getting across.

Go figure.