Since I bought this wine years ago, it has traveled from Seattle to New Jersey, and then back to Seattle, all over a 7 year time. I first tasted this wine when I bought my two cases of '02 DuBrul Vineyard Cab, but I'm sorry to say that there is no cab left in the cellar, and I only have 1 of the Syrah left. There were only about 160 cases of the '02 Syrah made, so I felt it would be a great time to pull the wine out for the Owen Roe tasting at the shop.
After being in the bottle for 8+, maybe 9+ years, traveling over 7000 miles, this wine ended its life where it started...in Seattle! (Okay, Bothell, but who really cares?) The color of this Syrah was a lot darker than I thought it would be. Almost deep red but with a light garnet rim. There might have been some stuff floating around as I was showing people what we would be opening, and I was kinda excited. The kind of excitement when you turn 18 and you can finally get into a strip club. Yup, that excited although the wine was not a let down.
The nose had a stink going on, and just to make sure it was not funky, I asked a friend to come down and sniff for me. It's always good to have two wine nerds sniffing the same bottle as one might smell something off, while the other does not, then you can spend the next hour debating the qualities of the wine. She was sound as a bell with some great dark spices, solid earth notes, and something that reminded me of a light campfire smell. I already know what that was...there was a brush fire near DuBrul in '02 and some of the smoke got into the vines. I think it made the wine better. Dark fruit with some cooked brown sugar and dried herbs were sitting around as well.
On the palate this beast was amazing! The word I kept hearing as people tasted it was "holy shit". People were amazed at how well this wine held up, and how it was so soft but with solid tannins and acidity. There was some of that dark fruit and lush earth notes but the wine was doing everything she could do to impress us and she did not let me down one bit. All day people were stopping by to taste this once in a lifetime wine. One person even said, "I could be happy just smelling this wine as it changes throughout the rest of the night." Right there is when I realized I would never stop buying Owen Roe wines.
The night finished with Nicole and I talking about what to do with the last bottle. She made me pull it from the store shelf and keep it for us. I don't know what we will do with it, but I can tell you she will be opened with friends and family so everyone can enjoy David's wines. I only wish he knew how much all of us enjoyed his wines. Thank you for making this wine in 2002, David! You have gained about 20 more fans for your wines.
No comments:
Post a Comment