For the first time
we have a co-winner of our Icon Wine of the Year award; two excellent Syrahs
with a similar story:
The Story
Both Syrah hail from
estate wineries best known for producing big, bold, Bordeaux-styled, iconic red
blends (Painted Rock's Red Icon and Black Hills' Nota Bene) yet, over the past
few years, it is the house Syrah that I have found made a more lasting impression
and are wines I would most often recommend, not as a consolation to the
sold-out blends, but as a signature of quality for the winery and as an example
of the heights this peppery, Rhone Valley grape can achieve in BC.
Syrah is handled
with care in the vineyard, by both wineries, where the quality of the future
wine is determined. Syrah needs constant care in the vineyard as it can grow
wildly if left to its own devices and can get hit hard by BC's harshest
winters.
Talking to vineyard
staff about growing Syrah in BC is like discussing the ailment history
of a self-diagnosing hypochondriac: you'll get a laundry list of
complaints about keeping the vines healthy - even in good-weather years.
Mention a particularly cold season to a vineyard manager, like the frost-heavy
2008 winter, and from the horror stories you'll hear, you'll be amazed that the
vines survive at all.
Red Icon and Nota
Bene have earned the hype these wines receive, but there is more to their
producers than these well-promoted, 'flagship' wines, and it's their Syrah you
will secretly crave and collect.
The Wines
Black Hills Estate
Winery 2015 Syrah - 92+pts
Fantastical
concentration in this Black Sage Bench sourced Syrah with deep, black cherry
and sensual, floral aromas on the generous nose and oak-kissed layers of black
cherry, mint, pepper, tobacco and blood orange flavours on the smoky, fine
tannin palate. Simply gorgeous.
Painted Rock Estate
Winery 2015 Syrah - 92-93pts
This youthful Syrah
displays ripe cherry and plum fruit with integrated white pepper, pepperoni and
floral aromas followed on the dry, grippy-tannin palate with similar flavours
and added layers of blood orange, mint and vanilla.
Previous Winners
- 2016 - Cassini Cellars 2013 The Aristocrat
- 2015 - Le Vieux Pin 2012 Équinoxe Syrah
- 2014 - Painted Rock 2012 Red Icon
- 2013 - Stag's Hollow Winery 2010 Cachet No. 03
- 2012 - Painted Rock Estate Winery 2011 Chardonnay
- 2011 - Fairview Cellars 2009 The Wrath
- 2010 - Stratus Vineyards 2007 Red
- 2009 - Blackwood Lane Winery 2006 Alliance
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