2009 Syrah "Identity Crisis"
	Quantity in Basket: none Code: SYIC2009 Price:$15.00 Shipping Weight: 3.50 pounds
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2009 SYRAH “IDENTITY CRISIS” Santa Barbara County Winemaker’s Notes: This wine is having a bit of a meltdown. It doesn’t quite know what it wants to be. On the one hand, it is Syrah and it is in a dark bottle. So, if you just grab it off the shelf and don’t really study it, you might think it’s a red wine; until you get it home and pull the cork. That’s when you start looking in the yellow pages for a wine psychologist. What is it? It’s not really rosé. For starters, it’s not really pink. And it certainly doesn’t exude that overly perfumed pink-wine fruit. Why is that? Probably because I put it through what no self respecting winemaker would ever put a rose through, namely a complete malolactic fermentation. I like to call it complexity, all that creamy, almost buttery goodness that malolactic can bring to a white wine, but let’s face it, with this wine it is definitely adding to the confusion. You know, with its slightly coppery hue, it does look like a Blanc de Noir, i.e. Champagne or sparkling wine made from red grapes . . . . except . . there aren’t any bubbles. Hmmmm. Remember that hideous genera in winemaking that took off about 20 years ago in response to the glut of Zinfandel that was out there? White Zin it was called. The wines were sterile, bleached out, thin and sweet. If they had any fruitiness, it was largely due to blending in something aromatic, like Muscat. A couple of the bigger wineries got real good at making them devoid of all color. Oh my gosh! Is this wine a White Syrah!? Well, not really; it’s bone dry, and it has those sort of creamy tones from the malolactic laced into its delicate, perplexing nectarine/pomegranate fruit with a hint of cinnamon. Right after pulling the cork it starts off with a pinch of spritz and then, as it sits in the glass, it develops this lovely soft texture on the palate, and it’s all really quite beautiful; but when was the last time you experienced something like this in a Syrah? I had a buddy in college. He was at McGeorge in Sacramento studying law while I was at Davis studying wine. We’d get together once a week or so and we would both study alcoholic beverages of some sort, but when it came to wine, he would say to me, “Why don’t you stop thinking about it and just drink it?” I think with this wine I’ll do just that. Cheers, Bryan Technical Notes: VARIETAL COMPOSITION: 94% Syrah, Estelle Vineyard, Santa Ynez Valley 3% Grenache, Vogelzang Vineyard, Happy Canyon 3% Pinot Noir, Babcock Estate, Sta. Rita Hills VINIFICATION: Stainless Steel Fermentation; 100% Malolactic Fermentation FINISHED WINE pH: 3.57; TA: 6.7 g/L; RESIDUAL SUGAR: Dry; ALCOHOL BY VOL.: 13.9% BOTTLING DATE: January 2009 RELEASE DATE: March, 2009 PRODUCTION: 1,013 cases 12/750ml Click Here for an Adobe Reader PDF version of Bryan Babcock's vintage note on 2009 Syrah "Identity Crisis".