WBW #30 New World Syrah/Shiraz: Chile's Errazuriz Estate 2005, Australia's Jacob's Creek 2004 and a California Pastiche

Looking down the barrel of New World Syrah/Shiraz ...and I see good and bad.

For this month's WBW theme, brilliantly resurrected by Tim at Winecast (who is always ready for for a WBW throwdown -- good job organizing Tim!), I wanted to taste more than just one rendition of New World Syrah.

Why? Well, I don't usually drink much New World wine, and certainly not its version of the Syrah grape, which in Australia is infamously known as Shiraz. Because I'm inexperienced with all but the Aussiest of versions, I wanted to try to cover all the bases and not come out of the event making a snap judgment.

So I tried for three, got confirmation that at least two of the bottles were majority Syrah, and then from there took away one solid winner.

First, let me introduce the third wine, the also-ran, which ended up seeming to be ineligible for this event. It is the Joseph Phelps Vin du Mistral Red Pastiche 2005 (see image at lower right).

The 2005 vintage of Pastiche is mostly Grenache and Syrah with some Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. The exact figures aren't released. I even tried calling the Phelps 1-800 number to get closer to the details on this wine, but no luck. The stuff lives up to its "table wine" vagaries, and I can respect that. Suffice to say, the Syrah can't reach 51% of the composition of this wine -- what with Grenache being listed as the first ingredient and then two other grapes added into the mix. Yet the Syrah does stake its claim in this winning blend, which is quite reminiscent of a fine Rhône cuvée. It is a dignified and delicious dinner wine (it goes beautifully with Jacques Pépin's roast chicken, which is a meal I posted about just a couple of days ago). This Pastiche possesses all the smokiness and bite that a great Syrah would.

In Quebec (where I write from) Red Pastiche has a new lower-than-ever price -- some three dollars less than the LCBO in Ontario, which is a coup. And now that it is under $20 (Canadian dollars, that is) this wine is both a great value and an impressive offering. Nothing short of a great Californian example of robust viticulture and ingenious winemaking.

Speaking of fantastic wine at attractive pricepoints, witness the first bottle you see at the top of this post. It is the Errazuriz Estate Shiraz Valle de Rapel 2005. Buy this wine!

A vanilla-sweet nose opens up into a dark and berry delicious full-bodied wine. From the very outset when I uncorked this bottle, it was hard to believe this was a $15 wine. On the palate you get strong anise flavour supported by a cream soda edge. It is perfectly calibrated and the acid and tannin here make this wine soft and round and totally worthy of $20 or more. The Errazuriz has all the savoury spice you'd expect from an Old World Syrah, all the charm too. Bolstered by a firm oak backbone, it's clear this wine has got the goods to make it big. You could say that it could go far. And yet, I am tempted to say this is something designed to be drunk young. Its vigor and mouthpopping attack demand it. That, and a great big hearty steak with fried onions in a red wine sauce.

If what Errazuriz produces can showcase great dimension and a nice viscosity in an affordable Shiraz, Jacob's Creek on the other hand makes a wine that washes down too much like water. Jacob's Creek Shiraz/Cabernet South Eastern Australia 2004, pictured second at the top of the post, is only $1 less than its Chilean counterpart. You will want to fling that buck you save right out the window.

This blend of at least 51% Shiraz does get better with aeration but that is about all I can say in its defense. I tried to put this wine through its paces and it tasted like grape juice in the face of the above. Light to medium body with little in the form of real personality. And that is a shame because I've tried the 100% Shiraz varietal from Jacob's Creek and it holds its own. Perhaps I could refer readers to that post and in so doing end this entry for WBW #30 on a positive note.

That is what WBW #30 deserves, because in my mind, this installment has been a really striking topic and one that an Old World wino like me finds rife with interest, surprise and tremendous wine value!

Viña Errázuriz, Santiago, Chile. 14%; Rowland Flat (South Australia), Australia. 13.5%.

WBW #22 Lite reds: Château Cahuzac 2003

Ultra zoom and the focusing in on a very very light 12%

For this month's WBW, which is being hosted wonderfully by Winecast, drinkers are asked to keep the alcohol to a minimum. Find a red wine that has no more than 12.5% and write about the impressions that this "once-traditional" level of alcohol has on wine and its flavour.

I think this is the most brilliant topic yet for this event. In many cases, it forces us to look beyond our usual everyday wines, which is always a good thing. But even better than that, Tim from Winecast is encouraging us to grapple with the idea that wine is more than the sum of its parts. Because, you see, alcohol does not have a taste. Yet no one can doubt its impact on wine when you drink the stuff.

So while you cannot taste alcohol itself, its proportions very much do make wine taste differently. There's a sensation or a bigness lent to a wine with high alcohol that you can definitely sense.

In a total coincidence, I tasted Casa Lapostolle's Sauvignon Blanc as apertif to the WBW festivites last night. My friends and I were preparing dinner and decanting my low-alcohol red, when it hit me: a whopping 14.5% white wine attack. This is an interesting wine, to be sure, but Sauvignon cannot support that kind of heat in the bottle. Despite all its flair and craft, Casa Lapostolle Sauvignon Blanc 2005 tastes too much like a distilled bar drink for my liking. (Did I mention that the Casa is actually run by Grand Marnier?)

But then, I am probably the least likely of all the bloggers in the WBW 22 sphere to drink 14%-plus wines on a regular basis. I opt primarily for Old World wines, and often lighter red ones, so it is not uncommon to see 12.5% reds populating the pages of Weingolb. A brief foray down my sidebar index reveals many of these "lite reds", and even a delightful French vin de pays with only 12% alcohol to boot.

How low could I go, I wondered, as I went off to purchase a bottle for today's event? Finding a 11.5% red was not too difficult. Both Marcillac and Côtes du Forez, which are French regional wines, are in that range. Since I didn't have a firm grip on the style in which they are made or the from which grapes they are blended, I decided against them. I didn't want to judge the success or failure of low alcohol by holding up for scrutiny a wine for which I had no comfortable point of reference.

So I found a wine called Château Cahuzac L'Authentique from food-friendly Fronton, a town north of Toulouse in southwest France. This is the area from which my absolute favourite bargain red originates: Le Montauriol tends to have about 13% in most of its vintages, but I never gave the number much thought. Until now, that is. I wondered whether lowering that percentage would in turn lower my opinion of this fresh and deft style of wine. Would the 12% value in my newly found Frontonnais infringe on enjoyment?

The 2003 Château Cahuzac Côtes-du-Frontonnais has nice ripened and mûr jam flavours. It is harmonious and smartly punctuated by a slightly bitter finish. Like the bottle says, warms tones of licorice and pepper are delivered. Nice balance, faint nose, not tremendously pigmented or extracted but not seemingly lacking anything. Pleasing all around. But I didn't find that this was the case at all upon my first tasting. I had just come off the searingly hot Lapostolle, and after clearing my palate with some bread, I found that this little red was sapped and dreary. It was like a faint echo of a wine, as if it had been watered down and painted on with fruit.

MORAL OF THE STORY: ARRANGE TASTINGS BY VINTAGE, BODY, SWEETNESS, AND... LEVEL OF ALCOHOL

Later, long after dinner was served, I returned to the wine. It wasn't faint or treacly at all. It even has what I would call medium body -- just less of it than the preceding white, which was whopping. And perhaps that's the greatest lesson of all in WBW 22: minimal alcohol is not necessarily equated with light body. And alcohol does not carry balance or concentration in a wine. It is more elusive than that. Yet it is there to jump out and bite you. Especially if your flight moves from a 14.5% white wine to a 12% red!

Tarn et Garonne, France. 12%