Wine Blogging Wednesday #30: 2004 Tanner Syrah

Tanner Vineyard, looking south with Twisted Oak across the valley
- click image for larger version - photo by El Jefe, 2005.

Tim over at Winecast invited me to review a Twisted Oak Syrah for his Wine Blogging Wednesday #30: New World Syrah. The obvious choice would be our Gold Medal 2003 Calaveras County Syrah - but I opted instead to taste our limited production 2004 Tanner Vineyard Syrah. This wine is 100% Syrah from the Tanner Vineyard right across the highway from Twisted Oak in Calaveras County. We aged it for 20 months in a mix of French, American, and Hungarian oak, and bottled it unfiltered and unfined.

Tonight I paired it with the family dinner of meatloaf and mashed potatoes. The meatloaf recipe I found on the Food Network web site and is attributed to Alton Brown ("Good Eats") - as you might expect it is a little non-traditional and has a distinct pepper and garlic flavor. I make it without a glaze so that it gets a nice crust. (The kids made the mashed potatoes...:)

With that pepper in the meatloaf the Tanner Syrah was a great pairing. This Syrah has its own pepper, along with raspberry and leather aromas. Our tasting notes refer to strawberry, vanilla, and rhubarb flavors - but tonight the vanilla seemed a little subdued (perhaps by the pepper) and I was getting some very strong blackberry flavors. The tannins provide great structure and the finish is long and actually sits more to the front of the palate than I might expect for a dry red.

You had to know that I wouldn't post a bad review of one of my own children (though I could tell you a few about my two-legged offspring - ask me about the "nightstand" if you meet me in person.) But seriously, this wine kicks booty.

Also, I'm probably jumping the gun a little, but this Tanner Syrah will be one of the Twisted Oak wines to be featured soon over at WineQ. Of particular interest is that WineQ already features a 2004 Syrah from the Tanner Vineyard, made by Smith-Wooton. This will be a great opportunity for side-by-side tasting of two Syrahs from an amazing vineyard!

(Oh, and the mashed potatoes were fluffy, light, and relatively lump-free - thanks for asking!)