Que? Syrahs

1) Esca Syrah Napa Valley 2003
As pleasant as any suprise I've had recently is the spicy and intense Esca Syrah. 100% Syrah from Napa, with 21 months in french oak, the Esca displays classic dark berry and cherry flavors, a subtle hint of smoked bacon and spicy pepper and cocoa tones on the nose. On the palate, the texture is plush and dense with loads of ripe black cherry fruit and an intense gripping finish that lasts. This is a relatively new project for Anna (Bryant Family) and Mario (Quixote) Monticelli and it looks like they are off to a great start. Retails just north of $20
91 points

2) Rosenblum Syrah "Base Camp Vineyard" Santa Barbara County 2003
Rosenblum has a tendency of late to make wines that are just a bit too homogeneous for my palate, but that being said, they are hardly ever BAD, so I gave this one a whirl on a whim. While I found it a bit unexciting for its $25 price tag, it was juicy and satisfying in a straightforward manor. All splash with a hefty dose of slick new oak and jammy fruit, it had just the faintest hint of smoked ham on the nose, with a more dominant blast of cola spice and caramel. On the palate this is juicy and ripe, flirting with over ripe. This will be very pleasing to loads of warm climate syrah lovers.
87 points

3) John Anthony Syrah Napa Valley 2004
A darker and more brooding option, this syrah is made by Alison Doran, the former oenologist at Lewis Cellars and she shows some real talent for the varietal. Very spicy with loads of black pepper, cola and darker bacon notes. Very rich and intense on the palate with a mountain of plum, black berry and raspberry fruit. Firmly structured, this warrants some time in a decanter before consumption, or better yet a few years in the cellar...Best from 2008-2012 Retails around $50 and very worth the effort of hunting it down.
93 points

4)Pure Love Wines "Layer Cake" Shiraz Barossa 2005
This is the first vintage for Jason Woodbridge(owner of Napa cult cab producer Hundred Acre)'s new Pure Love Aussie project. These wines (there are a few including the "Layer Cake", as well as "Maverick", Barossa Jack" and "Desert Eagle") are all fantastic. The "Layer Cake" is inky black with a tremendous intensity of dark dark cherry fruit as well as plum and blueberry on the nose. Dense and broad across the palate with subtle hints of eucalyptus and spice, this is a classic Barossa shiraz and is an absolute steal at $17-20 if you like intensely flavored, high alcohol aussie shiraz (you know you do, stop lying...)
92 points

Some thoughts on service, what to expect as a guest...

While I'm the first to speak out on bad service when it rears its ugly head, I wanted to spend a few paragraphs outlining what actually constitutes good and bad restaurant wine service. I posted a bit about this and a few people have asked me to elaborate on what they should expect from wine service when they are out at a restaurant. This is likely to be a bit dry, but informative and I promise some new reviews and more fun topics in the coming week. You see, the problem is that lots of people misunderstand the ritual of wine service and what elements are necessary and which are simply for show. To that end I'll give a (somewhat) brief description of wine service basics.
Stemware.
There is no excuse, in this day and age, for a restaurant with a wine list...any wine list...to not have, at the very base level, acceptable stemware. This does not have to be top shelf, varietal specific Riedel or Spieglau crystal (although it's nice to be certain). Simple stemware with a relatively large bowl suffices and is now available on the cheap from every restaurant supply store and catalog. You should be able to pour six ounces of wine in the bowl and leave it only half full or less, allowing room to swirl. If it is the sort of restaurant that has an extensive wine list containing multiple vintages of first growth bordeaux, you can expect more, but if not, be satisfied with a glass you can swirl without recoloring the tablecloth and your girlfriend's new blouse.
Presentation.
This is where it gets tricky, as all sorts of different types of service get involved, but I'll stick to the basics here.
The server should retrieve the wine in a timely fashion and show you the bottle first, pointing out on the label the five necessary pieces of information; Vintage, Winery, Varietal, Appelation and Vineyard (or Proprietary Name when applicable). This prevents any confusion about which wine was ordered. If you're not sure that the bottle presented is the one you ordered, stop, look at the winelist again to confirm. This can save confusion and money (the wine might be a different vintage than the one you ordered and many times the price), so be thorough.
When you're satisfied that it is indeed the correct bottle, you should gesture to the server to begin opening the bottle. The server should use a waiter's tool with a knife to remove the foil from the bottle, below the lip, not on top of it (shards of foil do not taste good, trust me). The server should not spin the bottle as they do this, they should cut around the stationary bottle to prevent strirring up any sediment that might be resting calmly at the bottom of the bottle.
The server should then remove the cork, again NOT spinning the bottle, keeping the bottle as stationary as possible. There should be no audible "pop" as a bottle of still wine is opened and there is little need for flourish here. Champagne is another matter, but you still should only hear a brief hissing sound.
If the server hands the cork to you, and this is NOT necessary, feel it to ensure that the end which was in the bottle is indeed moist. This will tell you that the wine has been stored properly, on its side, not vertically. You can smell it if you want to, but it's not going to help too much...corks smell like cork.
The server should then pour a small amount into your glass (about one ounce) for you to sample.
This, people, is your moment to shine. At this juncture, it falls on you to ensure that the wine is free from flaws. To put this in the simplest terms, the wine should not smell like wet cardboard (cork taint, or TCA), nailpolish remover (volatile acidity), rotten eggs (sulfur dioxide) or burnt rubber (mercaptan). It should also not smell like vinegar...
If you're pretty sure the wine contains one of these flaws, simply inform the server that this must be an off bottle, and please bring another. If you have any doubts, or don't trust your palate completely, ask the sommelier or manager to sample the wine, this is common practice and certainly nothing to be embarassed about, assuming that you're not making a scene.
If you are satisfied that the wine is showing nicely, gesture to the server to pour around the table. The server should serve the ladies first, then the gentlemen, pouring last to the host, or the person who selected the wine. Now you get to relax, enjoy the wine, eat your steak and try to ignore your in-laws slightly off kilter political leanings...
Oh, one last thing, if you order multiple bottles during the course of a long dinner, this process should be repeated for each and every bottle. Never, I repeat, never allow a server to pour from a new bottle until you have tasted it, even if the wine comes in a screw cap. And yes, it's ok to drink wine that comes in a screw cap, even red wine...but I'll make my arguments for alternative closures at a later date...
Cheers
TRC

A quick rant about bad restaurant wine service...

I'm going to spend just a moment ranting here about a very big pet peeve of mine. Restaurants that allow their wine lists to become outdated and/or just plain wrong. Making a wine list can be a daunting task for a restaurant manager who doesn't have a wine background, but there are consultants to help if you're not up to the task. If you call yourself a sommelier, you'd better be up to it. The list, regardless of size, scope and format should list the following information for every wine.
Varietal, Winery, Appellation, Vineyard (where needed), Vintage and Price. This is very base level of information for any guest, from novice to Master of Wine to make an educated decision. Please please keep the list updated. There is no excuse for not updating the list at least once a month to keep vintages correct and remove items no longer available. These sorts of errors reflect very badly on the restaurant. I ordered a bottle of Alain Graillot Crozes Hermitage Blanc 2004 (a white Rhone fave of mine) from a notable Bay Area restaurant lately and was brought (after fifteen or twenty minutes to chill the bottle to an acceptable temperature without showing me the bottle) a bottle of 2003 Guigal Crozes Hermitage Blanc. So let's review, I waited without wine for almost twenty minutes for a bottle of wine that was both the wrong wine and the wrong vintage. The waitress seemed stunned upon presenting the wine to discover that A) I knew the difference and B) I seemed to mind. Oh, but the wine they DID have was the same price... Hallelujah!
You wouldn't present a menu to a client where nine out of the ten items are mispriced and come with french fries instead of the wasabi mashed potatoes would you? No, and you most definitely would not bring out a well done steak when the guest had ordered a veal medium rare.
I can't fault the poor waitress, the manager/sommelier never bothered to show his face at the table to apologize, and the waitress had obviously never been trained properly.
So please, keep the list current- does it take time? Yes. But trust me, it is very necessary.
Cheers,
TRC

New Kobalt Cab

Speaking of wines that can ONLY be bought at auction...
This wine is simply impossible to find, but I've gotta put a word in nonetheless...
2004 Kobalt Cabernet Sauvignon
Met up with Owner/winemaker Kevin Carriker at the shop last week, and got a chance to taste the latest vintage of his super intense blockbuster cab. Made in partnership with Mark Herrold of Merus, from a variety of Napa vineyards, this inky black blend of 97% cab and 3% petit verdot is an absolute monster. Screaming black fruit, licorice and spice as well as hints of coffee, black pepper and a layer of sweet oak. On the palate the wine is weighty and dense with more than enough stuffing for the long haul. I recommend at minimum 2-3 hours in a decanter if you must drink this before 2012. Retail price if you can find it, uhmmm best guess is over $125, but don't quote me on that, just buy it if you see it...it's worth it, even from an online auction...
93 points