I think Syrah is a bit mysterious for people, not that it has any mystical quality. There simply doesn’t seem to be the same level of comfort with it as some other wines. Cabernets or Merlots are names even novice wine drinkers are familiar with. Perhaps these varietals really are more approachable for the average wine drinker than Syrah. Maybe they simply haven’t tried enough Syrah or found a region that produces a style they enjoy. These were the driving questions behind putting together this feature.
Thus, over the course of a weekend, the FBWorld tasting panel sat down with some friends and over 30 Syrahs from several different California growing regions. None of our invited guests were serious wine drinkers. They certainly all enjoyed wine, but they were all fairly unfamiliar with Syrah, or at least, did not drink it very often. We were eager to find out what impressions these “average wine drinkers” had of the bottles before us. Every Syrah was tasted blindly, and at the conclusion of the flight, we asked people for their overall impressions and for their favorite bottles. Over the next two weeks, we’ll be sharing both our panel’s impressions (and scores, of course), along with the preferred bottles of those not on the panel. We’d encourage everyone to try any of the featured bottles for themselves and to share their feedback. When it comes to wine, we figure, the more opinions, the merrier.
A bunch of Syrah grapes.