If you want to lock up capital for a long period of time, Syrah is a great way to do it.
Todd, do you mean for the wine buyer or the winemaker? 
West Coast Syrah, like Pinot has a pretty massive disparity between full throttle and restrained. One manâs pleasure is anotherâs poison. There should be little argument that SQN, Saxum, Shafer Relentless and the like are well made. Youâll never find me buying or recommending them.
RT
Has anyone mentioned Carlisle??
Most distributors I worked with wouldnât even want samples to try, I feel itâs a narrow audience that seeks out Syrah. I sold all of mine, but it took a long time.
Nate M wrote: âMon Apr 20, 2020 11:39 am
Todd Hamina wrote: âMon Apr 20, 2020 11:33 am
If you want to lock up capital for a long period of time, Syrah is a great way to do it.
Todd, do you mean for the wine buyer or the winemaker? >
Most distributors I worked with wouldnât even want samples to try, I feel itâs a narrow audience that seeks out Syrah. I sold all of mine, but it took a long time.
That is a shame. I think the average wine consumer would prefer Syrah over a oaked out Cab.
That really is a bummer. It seems to me that there can be a lot of diversity among Syrah from fruit bombs to light/meaty/peppery with some acid. It would seem like the consumer would like it a lot like Zin as there are many styles of that as well.
Exactly
Well, Berserkers are not most folkâŚ
So go and buy Syrah from all of these producers!!!
Truth.
I am tryingđ
As you can see there are many excellent Syrahâs available from many producers. If I were to be limited to only one, I would pick Carlisle. Excellent and age worthy Syrah at very fair prices. That said, there really is no reason to pick only one. I have Syrah in my cellar from over 20 producers and have enjoyed many others that I no longer have cellared.
Rhys had big problems. Despite all the clamoring for their other wines, customers were just passing on the Syrahs. They were able to build up enough demand to keep going with Horseshoe, but grafted over the excellent Skyline. The Alesia one-off they did was great, but didnât sell well on the first offer. A few of us strongly urged people to try it when it came around again, priced to move.
Ed said he originally priced his (Sandler) at $35 and it didnât sell, so heâs had it at $20 since. Maybe thatâs played to peoplesâ prejudices, hurting sales further? Someone just posted how well the '13 is drinking in the Has Anyone Been Drinking BerserkerDay Wines Lately? thread. Itâs a back up the truck wine.
I noticed a couple producers I was going to recommend stopped making it. Thatâs really sad. Syrah is a buyerâs market. Halcon would be my nominee for âbestâ and theyâre cheap - and cheaper through BD and the current event deals.
Waxwing can get away with Syrah because of his business model. He sells mostly through his weekly open houses and the wine club memberships that generates. So, the customers have tasted it first, or his Syrahs in general, before buying. He does adjust how much of what he makes based on sales.
Eric Lundblad (Ladd Cellars) made a very nice Syrah from Las Madres his first vintage. He told us that on one of his trips to pour wines for a wine shop, the owner or manager said âSyrah? Well, I think two bottles of Syrah were sold in Marin county last yearâ.
-Al
Booker
Carlisle
Lucia
Paul Lato
Donelan
I love Syrah. Seems every winery wishes they could sell it though. Merlot tooâŚ
Some of the most complex wines I have had have been Syrah. The problem is there such a wide range of quality, flavor profiles, etc that the average wine drinker doesnât know a Syrah from a Merlot. Everybody can tell a Pinot or a Cab, but Syrah gets lost. Too bad.
My favorites: Jaffurs, Ojai, Bedrock.
The other âlostâ varietal is Grenache. Iâve had some stellar ones of those too.
I have bought a lot of Carlisle and Tensley, and they age well and always over-deliver.
Edâs syrah is great. The 2013 Connell Vineyard is drinking great right now and I just purchased some more from him so I guess he still has some to sell. It is a great buy.
The Kevin White syrahs are some of the best values out there. I wouldnât call them northern Rhone in style though.