The nose has ground espresso and cocoa powder, blackberries, and some leather. The palate comes at you with waves of flavors. Blackberries and coffee, plums, all make up the attack. Fruits sweeten on the mid-palate, adding some blueberry to the blackberry. The espresso changes to unsweetened cocoa. There is interesting minerality that expands from the attack through the finish. Leather shows up at the end of the mid-palate and lingers with black fruit on the finish. This is really good wine. It is not Aussie Shiraz, all jammy fruit. It is also not Northern Rhone Syrah, all earth and olives. This has good fruit, earthy coffee and chocolate, and great terroir minerality. For David’s full two day review visit his blog, 2 Days per Bottle.
WHO: Dutton-Goldfield
WHAT: Syrah
WHERE: Russian River Valley, California
WHEN: 2005
HOW MUCH: $36
