The suspiciously cheap price of £3.37 from Asda, coupled with the fact I’d not tried a Syrah before made this too tempting to pass up.
I left it open for a while and tried to ignore my girlfriend’s comments so they didn’t prejudice me. This had a very light smell of synthetic strawberry (a bit like Hubba Bubba) and the slightest touch of chocolate. Surprisingly subtle compared to the powerful scents I’m used to with merlot.
Soft to the taste and very similar to the smell at first sip. Settling into it I felt it was strongly ‘creamy strawberry’; and much later on an apple note popped out too. Quite a bit of depth to my uneducated palate and surprisingly complex.
Wasn’t too tannic either-it had that drying action but not enough to make the back of your mouth curl up or your teeth go furry.
Reading up about this Syrah stuff, turns out I know it as Shiraz. Perhaps a whole new grape is opening itself up to me! Wikipedia (I know…) suggests that the choice of naming it either Syrah or Shiraz signifies a stylistic difference with the Shiraz supposedly being used for the ‘bolder’ New World flavours. I have no idea. I guess more ‘research’ is in order!
If this review was in any way helpful, please sign up (FREE!) to mySupermarket. It’s a useful website that lets you compare your grocery shopping list prices between the supermarkets.
Related posts:
- 2008 Veneto Merlot
- 2008 Domaine Boyar Cabernet Sauvignon
- Yellow Tail Shiraz 2009 – worth the extra?
- Blossom Hill Shiraz ‘Limited Release’
Martie
2010/09/10 at 02:36
I love the flavour, I did sense some oak in there. I would buy this wine repeatedly, I love a good Shiraz and this is one. On top of that it also states that it is vegetarian friendly which saved me doing the research. On the whole a pleasure to dring and even if it was to double or triple it’s price I’d still buy it. More wines should come with a V!
Dave
2010/09/10 at 08:16
I’m very new to this wine tasting business and I’ve had no training, so it’s highly likely I missed a few flavours! I’m glad I’m not the only one who enjoyed this.
Thanks for the comment Martie!