OP, you said you’ve yet to find one yet you drink them often?? I think your palate is widely different than mine then because I think it’s considerably difficult to find any syrah that is NOT a fruit bomb unless you go to France N. Rhone etc.
Pax, Qupe, even higher elevation California sites still make very fruit forward BIG wines and those are tame compared to many others…Geez even Copain is fruity to me and they’re supposed to be more traditional styled.
You must be looking for a 16% ABV bottle and I’d suggest going to Australia
As it should be IMO. Pinot Noir and Syrah great BBQ wines, depending on outside temperature and style of BBQ. In the old days we drank Marquis Phillips, Hazyblur, Oliver Hill, Rusden, Henry’s Drive and Hahn Prestige before they went out of favor, out of business or were no longer imported. Somebody ^ up stream mentioned the Molly Dooker Velvet Glove. It is a kick A Shiraz but has a $199 a bottle price. Consider super high end BBQ steaks with it instead of hot dogs, hamburgers, ribs or pulled pork.
Probably agree with you our palates are different. I drink a lot of Pinot Noir from Sonoma (Williams Selyem, Sojourn, etc) and probably what some consider to be fruit bomb pinot noirs. Was just curious since I always saw syrah mentioned more often as a fruit bomb and wanted to know what people generally thought those were so I could compare. I’ve had one tasting at Copain and didn’t click with the wine, further supporting your hypothesis!
All of which I own, so this is not an AFWE critique:
Australia:
Almost anything from Clarendon Hills
Kay Brothers Block 6
d’Arenberg Dead Arm
Mitolo GAM
Branson Coach House.
Greenock Creek.
The 1998s are really coming around beautifully right now. I have to go to a yoga class to gain equilibrium in the wine wars, but when I’m back, I’ll add a Cali list.
I think Sine Qua Non consistently has great fruit expression along with lovely texture. At a less expensive price point, I find the Booker Fracture to be quite fruit-driven.
I’m paring back my Syrah purchases because I find too many that are overly heavy on the black olive, smoke, and meaty notes. I have a hard time drinking more than a glass of those. I prefer a Syrah with some nice fruit to it.
Absolutely, Etienne Becheras’ Crozes-Hermitage and St.-Joseph, Pierre Monier’s St.-Joseph and Xavier Gerard’s St.-Joseph have beautifully pure and forward fruit (and other good things), but they are cool and fresh (and not warm and alcoholic). Your question is likely rhetorical, John, and you no doubt have your own that you can offer.
Agreed. Fruit “bomb” has a fairly negative connotation - i.e., unbalanced. There are any number of fruit-forward Syrahs that are well-made with relatively lower alcohol. Souhaut in the Old World is fruit forward with generous youthful fruit (ABV around 13%). Carlisle’s Syrahs are quite forward and rich (ABV around 14%). Lot’s of examples in that category if the OP is looking for fruit-forward vs. true fruit “bombs”.
I have had Saxum and Bedrock and can agree with you there! As someone else mentioned, I don’t think I tend to click with “meaty” notes in a syrah and found Saxum to not be up my alley for that reason.
It wasn’t really meant to be a rhetorical question. I assumed the OP was probably looking for New World wines and I should have specified that that’s what I was asking about.
I’ve drunk a lot of Barou’s St. Joseph and Vin de Pays in recent years. Those are partly carbonic maceration and have a delightfully fruity quality. I was wondering if any of the new school of California producers who are getting fruit from cooler areas might be producing something that plays up fruit without being overly ripe.
By the way - I left out Aubert pinot. Although I think it is “just” a superb pinot that allows you to enjoy the beauty of the grape decades before some unforgiving French pinot is ready to drink, a few here who have tasted my Aubert pinot blind have consistently called “Cali Syrah.”
Imagine your horror when you discover the ONLY thing you’ve been drinking are fruit bombs Syrahs!!! And these wines you thought were balanced are the fruitiest in the land! How wrong you have been!
Sorry BPP, and Jay for that matter, I have just been “borged”. I have assimilated. Just went to a Chuckles Wagner tasting, following by dessert, Quilceda Creek. My thin weedy stuff will never feel the same. True story, they were passing around gourmet dark chocolate to try before each red wine tasting. I kid you not. I was the only person in the group of 30 or so that apparently did not get it, felt like the chubby kid on the playground that wasn’t getting picked to play ball. It was truly bizarro-world. My wife and all her tennis friends had a blast.
And by the way, when did Rose become so popular in America? No BS, but 1/4 of this retail store, and some of the prominent shelves, were all Rose. Even Matua - a New Zealand Sav Blanc - is making a Rose now.
So back to the more important question, do we get to see a pic of Jay in LuLus? I’d pay for that privilege.
i) try eating a teaspoon of IHOP Blackberry* Syrop™** before each wine next time and you’ll ‘get it’
ii) everyone knows you don’t pick the chubby kid in jai-alai***
III) this tennis cabal sounds concerning
there is a lovely new rose out now where you get two bottles together, one white and one red, and a that that holds both bottles upside down with plastic tubes running to your mouth – in your mouth, and hold on to your shorts because this is so good it’s almost MAGIC – in your mouth they combine to become ROSE (which you never see). This is perfect for sporting events like catamaran**** regattas.
Jay doesn’t do off-the-rack yogawear. He had LuLu Lemon LeMans location measure him for his unique yellow yogitard with surgeon’s***** codpiece.
* not actual blackberries
** not actual syrup
*** not a real sport
**** not a real boat
***** Jay is not an actual surgeon, he just plays one in bars
nota bene: this is not a real post
