Sunshine from Sonoma

I found a great new website – winealign.com.  I’ll save the specifics for a later post, but it’s helping me find new wines at my local LCBO.  Check it out.  This week, I found a sub 30 dollar Syrah from Sonoma that kicks some pretty serious butt.

 

ARROWOOD LE BEAU MÉLANGE SYRAH 2002  VINTAGES 64550 | 750 mL bottle

 

This needed a quick decant to really open up.  Now that it’s rocking, I get a really interesting nose.  Serious oaky spice – vanilla, white pepper, dark chocolate and spice cake kind of aromas.  Along with those comes blackberry, black cherry, and some faintly floral notes – think walking by the flower store in the grocery store and getting a whiff of faint flowery something.

Lots of fruit up front, all black cherry, deep dark raspberry, dark chocolate, some coffee like notes.  I get great flavours throughout – mid palate transition is peppery through to a nice long cherry finish with some interesting hints of minerality in the end.  There is a lot of oak in this glass, but I think it’s really well applied.  This clocks in at 15% alcohol, and it’s there this isn’t a wine for the faint of heart.  This ain’t no fragile pinot this is a big strappin’ wine.  I wouldn’t set fruit bomb, but on the edge.  I’m not sure I would rate it way up to the 90 pt range like a lot of other wine critics, but I would definitely score it high if I was in the business.  If you want to go big this is your wine.  Given the price point I gotta say this is a great buy – well balanced, lots of fruit, intriguing aromatics.  Go to it and bring some Sonoma sunshine into a dreary February night!

Tagged: california, lcbo, ontario, syrah, tasting, wine, wine tasting

Posted in: tasting notes