This fortified Syrah from Washington State's Columbia Valley tries very hard to be a port. Its deep maroon color, inky translucency and heat are right on target, but it has the distracting attribute of coating the tongue and throat in a licorice-black color. It's quite fruity, with blackberries coming on strong at first, followed by an astonishingly accurate rendition of Harry & David's chocolate covered blueberries and cherries. Unfortunately, it also comes with a slight metallic taste. There's plenty of tannin but little structure -- this wine might improve with 3 years, but certainly not 8 or 10. The body is thin with lots of the aforementioned sediment -- had it not seemed like table wine I would have decanted.
NV 4 of 10. At $12/500 ml bottle, it's fine for a party where no-one cares, especially if you can hold onto the convenient sized bottle for future use.
2004 Barnard Griffin Syrah "Port"
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Anything but Port, this includes all non-Port fortified wines even if they call themselves Port. There is a search facility for this part of the forum.
Anything but Port, this includes all non-Port fortified wines even if they call themselves Port. There is a search facility for this part of the forum.
- SushiNorth
- Martinez 1985
- Posts: 1341
- Joined: 07:45 Mon 18 Feb 2008
- Location: NJ & NY
- SushiNorth
- Martinez 1985
- Posts: 1341
- Joined: 07:45 Mon 18 Feb 2008
- Location: NJ & NY