I have not been in the CA syrah scene for a while, if ever, but sales have been slowing down significantly over the past 5 years. It’s just a fact, and I am sure CA Syrah producers can attest to. I did not find much, if any fault in Eric’s column. He made concise and in my opinion true statements about Syrah, especially regarding alcohol levels and oak. This guy, below, was not happy.
This is the first time I can remember one wine columnist writing an article ripping another wine columnist’s column. Does anybody else think he was way too hostile and everything he said has to be looked at with caution and trepidation as I think he severely hurt his reputation, if he had any, as a journalist?
Be interested to hear people’s thoughts. Full Disclosure - Eric is a friend.
I appreciate different points of view about wine, but to personalize the issues was both unprofessional and unnecessary in my opinion. While I agree with Asimov that the best domestic Syrah is made from higher altitude, cooler climate vineyards and in a lower alcohol style, I can respect those who appreciate Syrah made in other styles. As a professional wine writer this guy should have been able to deliver his opinion without personally attacking Asimov.
This caught my eye yesterday when researching a wine, from the website of Fromm winery in NZ:
“In Marlborough Syrah is a marginal variety (because of the cool climate) yet it surprises us time and time again. Its flavour spectrum is attractive at many levels of ripeness. At the lower level it has that classic white pepper character as found in many northern Côte du Rhône wines. As it gets riper in hotter climates it becomes richer and bigger, showing more “sweet” fruit and losing some of its varietal identity.”
So yeah, not a well written article, but he does make a point. There are plenty of people around here that clamor for the huge SQN’s, Saxums, etc. For Asimov to say that cooler climate Syrah is the only good Syrah is just expressing his own preferences. If you like a particular style, you should drink it.
The Examiner is a collection of semi-professional writers and amateurs. The guy may have been paid. I’m not sure. But the standards are not real high to write for the Examiner. Just about any one of us could be the Examiner wine columnist in our city.
The Denver Examiner exists in CyberSpace. There’s no Examiner printed in Denver.
If fact, we could set up a board member in an out-of-the way place and make him/her an Examiner wine columnist for that city or town. Pretty much all you need is an IP that tracks back to that city. Any suggestions? Any board members in say Nebraska or North Dakota?
I am going to go out on a limb here and say that I agree with some of the things that this guy said.
Living up here in Humboldt with relative wine novices there is not a lot of wine trend following. Nobody talks about Syrah being a tough sell and our local Syrah sales have been strong and even picked up in the last year. I mentioned that Syrah sales are slow to one of our local buyers last year and he had not heard or noticed such a thing. I realized at this point that I need to quit saying it as there seems to be a bit of a “wag the dog” phenomena. I just went to deliver wine to this same guy this week and there was that article by Asimov spread out on his desk. I just wondered if we are making things better or worse for Syrah by continuing the party line about Syrah being a tough sell. I know Syrah is not the hot sell that Pinot is but the author is right that Pinot was not an overnight success.
We are all trying to figure out why Syrah has not gained the notority that we thought it would and too many styles has been put out as a possible reason. Again, I agree with this author that there are differing styles in every varietal.
California Cabernet has many styles and people have figured out where they like their Cab from as well as their Pinot and this will happen with Syrah. Again, this guy mentioned that Syrah is young and we need to be patient.
I am excited by the different styles of Syrah and the new directions that people are taking it. We will just focus on quality and exposing people to Syrah. This is a debate John and I had recently so do not take my opinion for his. I bristle everytime I hear John tell someone that Syrah is a tough sell. I told him to quit saying it as he creates it everytime he says it. He told me to face the facts. So there you have it, journalists disagree, husband and wife disagree on this Syrah ?.
OMG! That totally answers my question about a certain person who writes for the New York Examiner. I worked with this person in retail and then this person shows up as wine columnist for the NY Examiner and I was shocked because this person is so grossly under-qualified that I was trying to figure out how they were a wine writer. Thanks.
Wow ! I’m kind-of shocked at the comments here. As far as I can tell Mr. Caparosa wrote an editorial piece for the Examiner. I believe the idea is that he was supposed to express his opinion.
Other than the title and opening paragragh he seems to be making a case for something he believes - end of story. Isn’t that what Asimov did - make a case for a POV ? BTW, I don’t see any personal attack on Asimov just an attack on the POV expressed in this one piece.
Some of you may disagree with Mr. Caparosa’s POV - that’s fine. Go ahead and discuss the whole high-alcohol issue for the 10,000th time but calling him names: “amateur”, “Blobber”, “The Examiner has low standards” seems to me to be over-the-top.
BTW, I enjoy Asimov’s pieces - they are informative and have a POV so I hope he would be o.k. with another writer expressing a POV. I expect he would.
The guy from the Denver online thing sounds like he has a bunch of big, overdone bottles of syrah/Shiraz in his cellar, and got all sensie-pooh that Asimov called out this style of wine being a source of slow sales around syrah.
I live in Washington, I have seen more oak slathered syrupy nonsense selling for plus $50 than I can bear. This style of wine tires quickly and becomes almost impossible to sustain- recipes for bad sales. Asimov nailed the situation in his article and his list of producers is excellent as well.
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