2014 Fog Head Syrah

We were wrapping up lunch with the kids and decided to finish things off with a little treat: fresh blackberries. Turns out it was a great idea. They were ripe and sweet, with none of the sourness we've come to expect. We immediately thought of Syrah (and Grenache, but that's a story for another time 😉). 

We're big fans of Rhône reds, so Syrah has been a staple of our wine diet for some time. We've had our fair share of Shiraz, too. They're totally different experiences. Rhône reds are somewhat dry, earthy, and have more subtle fruit flavors. Outside of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, we haven't run into a lot of heavy oakiness either. Shiraz is big, rich and full of dark fruits and pepper. Both have their place as food wines AND cocktail wines. We've never really been swept off our feet by their American counterpart. They're always okay, but...

Anyway. We don't recall having any Washington Syrah, and that's supposed to be pretty damn good. Maybe that'll be the American Syrah that changes our minds. On to our tasting notes!

Note the careful presentation and staging.

The 2014 Fog Head Syrah is a perfectly fine wine. It paired well with our dinner. It's reasonably priced (we picked this bottle up for just under $20). It's very American. We'd guess a lot of new oak.

The aromas and flavors are what you'd expect from the combination of grape and region. Blackberry jam on the nose. Blackberries, vanilla, nutmeg, oak & a bit of menthol on the tongue. Dark violet in color. It left almost black stains on our lips and tongues. Medium body. We could say "subtle tannins", but, really, we didn't notice any. It's a bit sweeter than we prefer. We can say the same for a lot of other American reds.

This isn't exactly what sprang to mind when we tasted those blackberries this afternoon, but It's close enough. This is a nice, fruit forward Syrah that's a little heavy on the oak. We won't buy it again, even though it's fairly priced. We only go back for seconds with the all time greats.