This month's experiment...2005 Hess Monterey Syrah:
Sample courtesy of gourmands, connaiseurs, and house guests extraordinaire:
Bryan Coats & Marcie Prince.
There will be more to follow on the exploits of last weekend, but this was a supermarket selection and an outright demand for me to get back on here and get back to this blog (sorry for the absence, I plead work, stress and too much mediocre wine over the last thirty days or so...a streak broken by their arrival). So without further ado, here is the review...
2005 Hess Monterey Syrah: Thirty minutes in decanter to start
Not half bad... not half bad. Pretty decent and drinkable. But not overly varietal. There is a good core of dark cherry and raspberry fruit here, as well as a hint of oaky toast around the edges. It lacks the telltale bacon and spice elements that make syrah so very attractive. Could easily be a heavily extracted pinot or a darkly fruited merlot. As this evolved it lost a bit of lustre on the front end and became a mid muddy. Still well fruited though and not without a simple charm, it did start to develop more secondary aromatics over the course of an hour. Allie's assesment "Fine, but unexciting"; I agree. If this were below the $10 threshold, I'd be a bit more excited, but for $15, I feel I could have had two bottles of yummy cotes-du-rhone or spanish red. $15 at retail.
82 points
cheers
TRC
