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• Cabernets and Blends
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Rob's "Wine of the Week" Archives

So here is my wine review for the week of April 24th, 2006...

JADE MOUNTAIN SYRAH 2003 NAPA VALLEY

Description: The Syrah boom continues as this is the new "it" red wine, replacing the Merlot craze of 5 years ago. Syrah is a fruity grape with a ton of body that ages like a Cabernet with full body, a few tannins and a ton of flavors in the mouth. Jade Mountain has done a nice job of making their wine accessible via warehouse stores and an easy to use website.

How to Get it: Sam's Club almost always has it, Bevmo usually does, the website is easy to use and many wine specialty stores and some grocery stores carry it.

How Much: It's about $25 per bottle .

My Thoughts: I am always leery of a wine label that proudly proclaims a bottle's "plum" flavors because it is a tough fruit to harness. Too much plum equals prune flavors which equals bad red wine. This wine borders on that but never quite goes there and does improve as it breathes. The initial flavor is dark, fruity and almost prune like. After 2 hours of oxygen, the last ¼ of the bottle represented a slightly fuller body with some dark chocolate and black pepper notes, a little tannic bite and some hints of a smooth but dry finish.


Overall Score: This Syrah needs to age for at least 2-3 years to be fair to it. Right now the flavors are simple and at the same time overstated, producing a wine heavy on body and light on character. There's far too much dark fruit dominating this wine right now. Whether or not it improves in 3 years is a gamble and at nearly $30 per bottle, not one I'm going to take. 2 vines.

Jade Syrah 2003 =