California Syrah: a rags to riches story – and the top-scoring wines

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Individual AVA analysis and top California Syrah from:

Sonoma County, Mendocino County, Napa County & Sierra Foothills, Santa Barbara County, Monterey County, Paso Robles & San Luis Obispo

Plus: 10 great-value California Syrah at $40/£40 or less

Syrah often gets lost in the shuffle, with aromas and flavours not found in any other grape variety. Its supple, succulent fruit is set against an animalistic, often wild and gamey backdrop that can initially seem alien but soon turn into a haunting obsession.

Scroll down for Matthew Luczy’s top-scoring California Syrah wines

California Syrah is unusually accessible in its youth yet also evolves beautifully with age. Matt Dees, winemaker for Santa Barbara County‘s Jonata, praises the variety’s consistently impressive nature. ‘It makes vineyards and winemakers look amazing,’ he says. ‘From the fermenter it’s exquisite, out of barrel it’s exquisite, and out of bottle it’s exquisite. It doesn’t seem to falter. It is a steadfast miracle-worker!’

The grape arrived in California in the 1880s, but serious vineyards would take root a full century later. In the early 1980s, a loosely-organised band of producers known as the Rhône Rangers – Bonny Doon, Edmunds St John and Qupé among them – worked to popularise Rhône varieties in the domestic marketplace.

Plantings exploded in the mid-1990s, and Syrah was pegged as the next ‘it’ grape. However, many vineyards were poorly planned, situated in warmer sites tuned to ‘achieve ripeness’ in places that were all but guaranteed to do so anyway.

This coincided with the ‘Cult Cabernet’ phenomenon, resulting in formulas for making hedonistic wines being copied-and-pasted onto Syrah. By the 2000s, those that had invested in ill-informed plantings and practices found themselves struggling to move inventory as sales slumped.

The popularity of Australian Shiraz also influenced this movement, as Sonoma Coast‘s Andy Peay of Peay Vineyards points out. ‘Those wines came in big, cheap and juicy,’ he recalls. ‘Some people were looking for that, and some were looking for the Northern Rhône style. They never knew what they were going to get, so they just got something else.’

Changing location and mindset

This is a key factor in California Syrah’s reputation – or lack thereof: consumers didn’t know what it should, or could, taste like. Misguided producers made wine for clientele unfamiliar with the grape. Overripe examples tasted like ‘just another red wine’, and the wild, savoury examples that existed were completely disorienting to most consumers.

Starting in the mid-2000s, a cohort of producers began moving away from ripeness and power, eschewing the Cabernet model. Throughout California, they sourced and planted vineyards farther west towards the Pacific Ocean. Alongside this physical relocation, they altered their winemaking vision to the region that created many of their epiphany wines, France’s Northern Rhône.

Ehren Jordan, founder/winemaker of Sonoma‘s Failla Wines, lived in the Northern Rhône in the early 1990s and remembers the climate. ‘It’s a warm alcove in an otherwise very continental climate,’ he explains. ‘There are deep snows in the winter, so you better have a south-facing, steep slope or else your grapes aren’t getting ripe!’ He recalls: ‘In mid-September 1992, it was 85°F (29.5°C) and people were sitting in their open doorways, fanning themselves. That would be the coolest day of the summer in California!’

It took trial, error and growing pains, but the stage was set for Syrah to strike it rich in the Golden State. ‘There is no doubt that this is the best time in California’s history to enjoy a diverse array of Syrah styles,’ says Sonoma’s Duncan Meyers of Arnot-Roberts.

Eva Dehlinger of Sonoma’s Dehlinger Winery muses: ‘At this point, the people who are still in the Syrah game are pretty serious about it. It’s like separating the wheat from the chaff, and the wheat has now been weeded out.’

Debating ripeness and reduction

Northern Rhône producers continually influence winemaking practices. Whole-cluster fermentation is a major Syrah talking point, as grape stems can infuse floral and herbal aromas as well as contribute a silky, umami-like texture.

Producers debate ripeness levels, causing some to destem – partially for fear of introducing bitter flavours. However, stem-inclusion often functions counterintuitively to widespread narratives of physiological ripeness.

‘I don’t believe in excluding stems from the fermenter because they’re not ripe,’ says Duncan Meyers. ‘We use stems as green as tennis balls. They add a lot to the wine without adding bitterness. If they were fully lignified, they would.’

Reduction is also a common topic in Syrah discussions, the grape being particularly prone to it. Reduction occurs when proper amounts of oxygen are absent in various stages of the winemaking process. Using pump-overs versus punch-downs during fermentation is one method to counter this, as is racking the wine from one vessel to another during the ageing process. But there’s a balance: metallic, ‘funky’ aromas associated with subtle amounts of reduction can meld beautifully with Syrah’s savouriness.

While aromatically thrilling examples thrive in cooler climates, Syrah is impressively malleable at all ripeness levels. In the right hands, it handles opulence and high alcohol better than many other thick-skinned grapes. A voluptuous 15.5% Syrah can come across balanced and effortless while still retaining definition and nuance.

Syrah is simultaneously regal yet humble, as if it sits on a throne barefoot. Earthy Burgundy or graphite-laden Bordeaux can be high hurdles to jump for consumers early in their wine journey.

However with Syrah – arguably the most primal of varieties – the wild, exotic expressions are often the most eye-opening. And California has plenty that do just that.

California Syrah: the 14 top scorers from a recent tasting

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