“Sexy Syrah” at Salty’s on Alki, 4/22/10: A Judge’s Perspective

For the 10^th consecutive year “Sexy Syrah” has been hosted by David LeClaire of Seattle Uncorked.  The beneficiary of this fundraiser  was FareStart, a culinary job training and placement program for homeless and disadvantaged individuals.  With the participation of Salty’s restaurant on Alki Beach, one amazing Seattle city view and fifty Washington wineries—the event was quick to sell out. If you missed it, it will be back next year. If you want to know the wines that stood out, read on.

Sadly for you this event is now over, however I’d like to offer you the names of the wines that I enjoyed most. To preface, I was invited to be a guest judge at this event; there was twenty of us.  We began tasting at 5pm and we had one hour before the event of 300, officially opened its doors. My mission was to taste roughly 80 wines throughout the evening, which included both Syrah blends; and single varietal Syrah bottlings.  I was to ultimately pick three wines for each category and give them medals of gold, silver and bronze.  This was a casual judging, in which we knew full well whose wine we were tasting, due to the fact that this was not a blind tasting.  This feature did however create its own challenges when rating the wines, because each winery had their own sales techniques. However for some wineries, there was little that could be done to alter my judgment—thank you spit bucket.  Here is a list of wines that I couldn’t help but swallow.

Syrah:

Bunnell Family Cellar – 2007 Boushey-McPherson  Syrah,  $43
Had it all going on, classic, complex, balanced

Gamache Vintners – 2005 Estate Syrah,  $28
Full throttle typicity, super meaty, glycerin,  great Syrah producer

Gilbert Cellars – 2007 Syrah,   $26
Biggest, most structured, young, nuanced

Kerloo Cellars – 2007 Les Collines Syrah,  $32
Not overdone, dark, winery to watch

Smasne Cellars – 2007 Block #3 Lawrence Vineyard Syrah, $35
Delicious, crowd pleaser, vanilla

Syrah Blends:

Bunnell Family Cellar- 2007 À Pic, $32
Good composition, balance, safe

Forgeron Cellars- Walldeaux Smithie, $16
Yum, juicy, thick, tasty, value

Rotie Cellars- 2008 Northern Blend, $35
Fantastic, firm acid, focused, fruit purity, cult wine in the making

Taste them, drink them, buy them, love them and read WINOMAGAZINE.COM on the regular.