I know it's been a while since the last post, but I have been SO busy, I just couldn't get a post off. Tonight I thought I would revisit one of my favorites from the Rhone Rangers tasting, from a great producer in Napa County, Bayard Fox. His Rousanne is always in stock at my house, and his Syrahs are legendary. I found a 2000 Syrah, Arroyo Vineyards at the Wine House the other day, and thought I should get it as a treat.
Here are my tasting notes:
Color: So deep, I can't see the bottom. And I like that.
Nose: It took 15 minutes or so to blow off the bottle gasses and open up, when it began to reveal blackberry, blueberry, bacon-fat.
Flavors: A real tannic beast at first, with explosions of fruit.
Finish: Huge finish that lingers of berries.
Seek out more of this?: Oh, yeah.
Food paring: It held its own against ribs that I had on the smoker all afternoon, french potato salad, and fresh corn. Yum.
So the whole point of this exercise, besides getting to know Renard's wines better, was once again to keep that palate in check. After the first half hour at a tasting like the Rhone Rangers, it's easy to have the oversaturated purple tongue, and shot buds that make the rest of the day really tough to judge objectively. Since Renard is in the "R"s at the tasting, it certainly wasn't the first thing I tasted, and I'm pleased to say that all my spitting paid off. My original judgement that this is an outstanding producer still stands. You owe it to yourself to seek out this kind of small wonderkind of a producer.
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