California Syrah Starts to Show What It Can Do

Syrah, the grape behind the great reds of Hermitage and Cote Rotie in France’s Northern Rhone, is just now catching on in a big way. West Coast plantings have increased so fast that the 1999 vintage, the most recent on the market, only represents something like 25% of the present acreage.

In all the excitement, it’s important to remember that the better part of Syrah’s story is yet to be tasted. It takes three to five years for a vine to bear fruit, and then it’s 18 to 30 months before the wineries release their finished wines.

The early days of planting a new variety are always an interesting time. Without any firm information about where the variety will do well, vineyardists tend to plant it everywhere. When that happened with Cabernet Sauvignon during the early 1970s, it turned out that many of their guesses were expensively wrong.

Now we have a Syrah planting boom, with grapes going in everywhere from the cool Carneros region, which straddles Napa and Sonoma, to the very warm Lodi area of the Central Valley. Logic and past experience tell us the variety will probably not succeed equally well in both places.

Still, as the wines recommended here illustrate, Syrah seems to be amazingly flexible, making good wines in a wide variety of locations, with the possible exception of the very coolest sites.

* 1999 Bridlewood Winery “Winners Circle Selection,� San Luis Obispo County, $22. This Syrah has been blended with 20% Viognier, a technique used in France to lighten the wine, but you can’t really tell here, because ripeness overrides all else. Tastes of blackberry jam and chocolate together with sweet oak provide plenty of richness, and the nominal tannins will need just a few years to soften.

* 1999 Bridlewood Winery, Central Coast, $18. Brighter at first blush than the reserve selection, this one is also fairly tight. While less expensive than its mate above, it will probably last longer in your cellar.

* 1999 Brophy Clark Cellars, Santa Ynez Valley, $16. Showing the gamy side of Syrah, this wine is long and outgoing with vibrant fruitiness firmed up by crisp acidity. It shows intriguing touches of minerals in its lengthy, lightly tannic finish.

** 1999 Cakebread Cellars, Carneros, Napa Valley, $45. Yes, it is expensive, but Cakebread’s lovely Syrah needs mentioning, not just because of its quality but because it hails from the cool Carneros District--not usually associated with Syrah. It smells of rich oak spice, optimally ripened blackberry fruit and complex accents of clay and loam. So rich and outgoing that it’s tempting to drink it now, this wine will get better with some aging.

** 1999 Columbia Crest Winery “Reserve,� Columbia Valley, $25. The wineries and growers of Washington have made a massive commitment to Syrah. We are seeing just the first of those now, and the results are promising. This wine earned star ratings, as did wines from McCrea Cellars (the 1999 “Amerique� especially), Cayuse Vineyards and Hogue Cellars. They all impress with balance and depth, though none of them matches the Columbia Crest’s pure blackberry fruit intensity.

*** 1999 Lewis Cellars, Napa Valley, $55. Here is the deepest, most exciting Syrah of the 120 tasted. Winemaker and former Indy racer Randy Lewis has crafted a delightful, delicious wine focused on complex fruit smelling and tasting of ripe berries, black plums, sweet cream and roasted vanilla beans. Despite its fullness of body, it retains good balance throughout.

* 1999 Paraiso Springs Winery “Santa Lucia Highlands,� $22. The Santa Lucia Highlands near Monterey are better known for Pinot Noir, but this tasty effort and the ** 1999 Testarossa Vineyards “Garys’ Vineyard,� $24, make a strong case that the warmer parts of the area may also be Syrah territory. This wine has the fruit and the spice of Syrah while steering clear of the gamy aspects of the grape that can show up in many California and Washington Syrahs.

$* 2000 Rosenblum Cellars “Abba Vineyard,� Lodi, $13. The Lodi growing region, between Stockton and Sacramento in the Central Valley, is awash in new plantings and boasts more acreage under vine than the Napa Valley. Of course, it is not as successful as Napa, and Lodi’s hot climate and very deep soils may mean it will never challenge Napa for greatness. But this wine, one of the few Lodi Syrahs to cross my tasting table, is ripe, rich, somewhat soft but tasty. It’s well suited for current drinking.