2006 Yangarra Cadenzia (68% Grenache, 27% Shiraz, 5% Mourvedre), Australia

Colored with three Crayola crayons…Ruby red fading evenly to garnet with flecks of black in the core

A lovely bouquet of…Black cherry, blackberry, plum, sugar

My tongue tells me…I don’t usually purchase Rhone Blends or any wine that features Grenache or Mourvedre. The reason being; I think they taste sweet. Yes I am using the term sweet, not fruit forward or “fruit bomb”; I think GSM’s taste sweet and cloying. This was recommended as I was purchasing the Wirra Wirra Catapult Shiraz/Voignier; now I know why. That particular Shiraz is “sweeter” than I would have liked, and this is a wine along the same lines. All of this begs the answer, is it a good wine and worth the buy? Setting aside my dislike for sweeter red wines, I will attempt to review this wine. It is a very smooth wine from start to finish, which is the only thing I like about sweeter red wines they tend to remove the tannins that might make the wine less palatable. This wine is the definition of a smooth, sweeter, dark red wine. The attack is all sugared dark berries and stone fruit; black cherry, blackberry, plum, raisin and grape. These flavors taste good even to me as they take on a slightly caramel/molasses flavor and blend into a very warm mid-palate. The mid-palate is nicely warm from the alcohol, not overly acidic and marginally astringent; creating a pleasant but minor segue from attack to finish. The finish is long in length and personified by more black cherry, blackberry and plum flavors, but now they are brought down to earth and tempered by some alcohol heat and flavors of crème brulee, vanilla and leather. This is a medium bodied wine, just edging into full bodied territory with an aftertaste of fresh plums mixed with wet leather.

Overall, this was originally priced at 20 dollars; yikes! But it was on sale for 10 dollars the day I purchased it. Is it worth 20 dollars? I don’t really know as I don’t have anything to judge this against. Is it worth 10 dollars? Very much so! I would say at 10 dollars this is nearly a great QPR, and a wine to purchase by the half case at least. Yes even though this is a rather sweet wine, it is very smooth and balanced, and moves nicely into an extremely pleasing finish that had me going back to the bottle for more as my glass emptied. I can’t review this wine against other GSM’s, but judging this wine on its own I would say this is a very nice wine; perhaps not worth 20 dollars but definitely worth more than 10.

Yangarra Estate Vineyard

2007 Waterbrook Syrah Reserve, Washington

Color – Dark purple with violet highlights on the rim

Nose – Blackberry, blueberry, black currant, molasses, licorice

Taste – Yet another recommendation from the Beverage Guru at Cost Plus, this wine was not on the top of my list as I chose my bottles. However upon opening and sipping all of my purchases, this one shot right to the top as the best of the bunch. This wine is not just big, it’s HUGE. Intense coloration, deep dark purple with violet and ruby highlights on the rim when held up to the light. Lots of fruit aromas pour forth from the glass with each swirl and underlying them is just a hint of molasses and licorice. And when the wine touches your lips and tongue, hold on because the flavors absolutely assault the palate. Sugared blackberries, black currants, and blueberries piled on top of licorice and vanilla that melt finally into very light notes of molasses, brown sugar and oak. The mid-palate is the only part of this wine that can be just a little rough as the astringency, tannins and alcohol push just a little too hard and bring out some pucker in the form of sour black cherry/blackberry flavors. But these soon give way to a nice long finish with leather, caramel, burnt sugar (think crème brule) and more oak. This is definitely a full bodied wine, I sipped the next to another full bodied red and the texture in this Syrah is much more mature and “heavy”. The aftertaste is quite pleasantly berry-ish with some sugar and a nice zing of alcohol.

Overall, this is a new favorite of mine. I am pretty sure I paid 13 dollars for this, and I think it’s worth every dollar plus about 7 more. I don’t even have to give it a second thought, this is a great QPR. The quality exhibited in this wine is truly a marvel. I was able to stretch this bottle over three separate tastings; once with a grilled top sirloin, the second with hamburgers and baked beans, and the third time all on its lonesome. Each time the wine held up superbly, though it tasted much better when it was warmer, this wine tightens up just a little on the palate when it’s chilled. I highly recommend this wine if you are a fan of fruit forward, big bold reds this wine is for you. If you are a fan of great tasting red wine in any form and want a great experience with a bottle of red then this wine is DEFINITELY for you.

Waterbrook Wine