It had been awhile since I last sampled a wine from the Columbia Winery in Washington, and a friend recently gave me a bottle of the 2007 Syrah to sample. I allowed the wine to aerate before giving it a try. The color of the wine in the glass was a dark purple, and the aromas were of dark berries, raisins, cherries, and pepper. The flavor profile was of blackberries, cherries, black raisins, plums, black olives, a savory note of bacon mid-palate, and a finish of black pepper. This Syrah was full-bodied, and it drank well with a nice finish.

Jon

Recently I was given a bottle of the 2009 Mollydooker “The Boxer” Shiraz to sample. Looking at the bottle, the label is quirky and fun, which reflects the winery owners take on enjoying good quality wine. The owners also do something unique with their wines, they inject nitrogen gas into the wine which acts as a natural preservative, and allows the wine to be drank young, instead of aging the wine. The nitrogen gas is used to protect the wine from oxygen so that they can reduce the amount of sulfites used in the wine.
When I poured the wine into the glass it had an incredible deep, dark purple color, and the aromas were intense. On the nose this wine had aromas of cherries, berries, dried black fruit, and spice. The flavors were incredible, with the cherries being the predominate flavor, followed by boysenberries, a hint of black currants, black olives, and pepper. The Boxer Shiraz had a nice jamminess to it, the tannins were light, and the finish was long and wonderful. This is a wine that you have to try, it is well worth it!

Jon

My wife and I enjoy drinking a glass or two of wine everyday, and my wife enjoys drinking red wines over whites, so I pulled out a bottle of the 2009 Rosemount Shiraz for her and I to sip on. The Rosemount Shiraz is an everyday drinking wine coming out of Australia, and is priced under 10$ for a bottle. The color of the wine was deep garnet, and on the nose the wine displayed aromas of blackberries, cherries, spice, and black pepper. However, in drinking this wine it was barely quaffable for me and my wife. It had characteristics of a cheap cooking wine, with a nasty bitterness on the front end. At first I thought it was just my palate as I had been sick for a few days prior to drinking the wine. But my wife concurred with me that this is a wine that was well below average for what we were expecting. I am one that will try to find something good in what I sample, but that is not the case with this wine. This would be a hard wine for me to recommend at all.

Jon

I was recently at a dinner party with my wife, and a good friend brought a bottle of the 2005 Terra Blanca Reserve Block 8 Syrah from Red Mountain, Washington. I have had the chance to sample a number of wines from the Terra Blanca winery, but never the Block 8 Syrah. The color of this Syrah was a deep, rich purple, with aromas of blackberries, black plums, dried fruit, wood, smoke, and spice. The flavors associated with this wine were of black plums, blackberries, dried mission figs, anise, old leather, smoke, and spice. This Syrah showed many characteristics of Syrah’s coming from southern France, but with a bit more of the fruit coming out in this one. The 2005 Block 8 Syrah exhibits a nice jamminess, and is a complex and full-bodied wine, with firm tannins, and a long finish. This is a wine worthy of its price.

Jon