With Hart, Brandon, QH, and Jeff at Bar Cicheti. Wine was courtesy of Brandon.
What a TREAT. This is basically an extinct wine, after JL Grippat retired and sold his land to the Guigals. Yes, that Guigal. Arguably one of Northern Rhône’s top terroir.
This was a roller coaster of an experience.
Freshly uncorked, I had the pleasure of trying the wine first. Surprisingly for the first time in my life, I suggested that this was wide open, didn’t need decanting and could be left to sit in the bottle. The nose was that good: just pure dark fruits, intensely aromatic.
In the glass: a daaaark ruby garnet, with a deep opaque core.
Initially, the nose was pure blackberries, and had a very deep savory note to it. High intensity, lean and not jammy at all. To be frank, I couldn’t tell it was a Syrah aside from that very savory raw note. Mild oak.
On the palate and exhale: that’s where the Syrah is. Spices, pepper, and a tinge of cedar. I LOVE that it is lean, and in spite of how it looked in the glass, was so pleasantly mid- bodied in the palate. Very pretty. Age has also done its job, rounding off the tannins till it was just peeking about in the background.
However throughout the mains (pasta and a lot of light sauces/gravy with seafood), I was super confused. The nose and palate got increasingly flat. Notes of cedar wood dominated the nose and the fruits were just dull. I thought we had seriously fucked up and over-aired the wine. Gutted. Disappointed.
When we were finally done with the pasta and had time to reset our palate, suddenly the wine was back in full bloom.
Nose of just pure blackcurrant and blackberries. Pepper. Cloves. Touch of spiciness on the palate. That elegant touch on the tongue. Very pretty.
However I would say that this is a wine that has begun its decline. The acidity has certainly started dropping off a bit of a cliff.
If ALL Syrahs were elegant like this instead of the overly jammy monstrosity seen all too often, I think I might end up being quite a Syrah fan
ALSO, this is the first time a meal has derailed such a good wine to such an extent. I feel low key guilty for knee-capping the wine with our choice of food. 🙁
