Fritz '05 Syrah: Saddle Up Your Horse For This Equine-Tasting Goodness

This wine is a sumptuous treat from the Dry Creek Valley in Sonoma. Syrah is a great grape, one that I think is highly underrated and although there are lots of servicable Syrahs out there, a lot of times they just miss the mark. But Fritz did not disappoint -- as far as California-style Syrah goes this is a winner, for sure.

The Wine: Fritz Dry Creek Syrah
Vintage: 2005
Price: $28, spotty distribution but it's available online too
Where It's From: Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma, CA

Normal Description: Every now and then I pop open a bottle from my very small and modest wine collection. To be perfectly honest, regardless of the bottle I always think it's going to be lame. Why? Because when I first moved to California and started buying, I bought a lot of wine but my palate wasn't as developed and my education on regions not as good as it is today, so I worry that I blundered (ok, and I'll admit that I made a lot of drunken purchases -- you need full disclosure). It's not always the case but, thankfully with this one, I did ok.

Nestled in a subterranean cave near Cloverdale in Dry Creek, Sonoma Fritz is a property that McIce and I stumbled upon towards the end of the day while tasting a few years ago. If you're not familiar with Dry Creek, it's north of the Russian River Valley and north of the awesome, cute town of Healdsburg (home of the Healdsburg Hotel, which has the most amazing beds in the entire world, and the Flying Goat, which has the most delicious coffee in the entire world). Dry Creek is a small valley but gets lots of sun and water from Lake Sonoma, so it's prime for vineyards. It's known best for lights-out Zin, but some producers rock out the Cab, Cab Franc, and Syrah too. I'm not a big fan of the whites, but Sauv Blanc is grown prodigiously here (not austere enough for me, but if you like figgy, melon-y stuff, go for it!).

Getting back to the matter at hand, the Fritz '05 Syrah was a pretty great wine. It was opaque, and nearly black in color -- kinda like blackberry juice. Typical and a good sign of a big, rich Syrah. Yum.

The nose can only be described as equestrian -- this thing smelled like horseback riding all the way. Yes, there was a plum and blackberry core to it, and it singed my cilia with the hot alcohol smell, but all the other aromas (which were overpowering) said Mr. Ed. Saddle leather, horse sweat, even a little manure. I loved it! It was so complex and every sniff was something new and cool. The nose was a complete standout and reminded me more of a Northern Rhone wine than a Cali fruit bomb.

The palate was great, but it just didn't deliver on the nose for me as I would have liked. On the plus side, this wine represents a great example of a wine in balance -- it was very tannic and acidic, but still it was plump, velvety, and fruity. It was well made and was not overpowering or sharp, which can happen with a grape as tannic as Syrah. From a flavor perspective, certainly there was blackberry, leather, lavender, and tons of oak influence that showed in a really strong tobacco and caramel flavor, but it was much less complex than the nose. Since I loved the all the stuff going on with the nose, I felt a bit cheated. I would have liked a little more pony.

Snap or crap?: Snap. This is a wonderful wine. Interesting and delicious, Fritz '05 Syrah is great. Although I did feel that the palate fell short of the aroma, I still loved the wine and would purchase it again in a New York minute.

Note: I know there is still some 2005 available through the internet and in stores, but Fritz does not make Syrah as a core varietal so we may have to wait a few vintages before we can direct order this jewel again (I think they only make it every so often).