Wine & Things

Syrah Society

Syrah Society July 1, 2010

The casual wine tasting event hosted by sbwinestore.com and held at the Los Olivos Café, featured 5 locally (SB County) produced Syrahs with various price points and styles. The featured Syrah’s were; Three Saints 2007 Syrah, Jaffurs 2007 Syrah Larner Vineyard, Stolpman 2007 Estate Syrah, Bernat 2005 Estate Syrah, and Zaca Mesa 2006 Estate Syrah

Twenty-one participants paid $15 to taste and rate the nuances of these wines with a customized rating table. Most of the participants were tourist/wine enthusiasts, there were also a couple of local wine industry people.  You may purchase the Syrah Society 5-pack online with a 10% discount.

Wines were graded into 4 categories: Fruit, Acidity, Nose, and Tannin. Participants were asked to rate each wine by these 4 categories using a 5 point scale. The purpose of the event was not to pick a winner, rather to help the casual wine crowd decide which wines represent the characteristics that they are looking for.

Entries were calculated into averages, for example; 3 Saints 2007 Syrah received a 3.33 average score for fruit, a 3.01 for acidity, 2.93 for nose, and 3.0 for Tannin. These averages were determined by adding up all of the scores selected from all 21 participants and dividing by 21.

Results of Each category in ascending order:
Fruit
1. Jaffurs 3.86
2. Zaca Mesa 3.8
3. Bernat 3.6
4. 3 Saints 3.33
5. Stolpman 2.85

Acidity
1. Bernat 3.06
2. 3 Saints 3.01
3. Zaca Mesa 2.87
4. Stolpman 2.86
5. Jaffurs 2.53

Nose
1. Jaffurs 4.00
2. Zaca Mesa 3.53
3. Bernat 3.40
4. 3Saints 2.93
5. Stolpman 2.8

Tannin
1. Jaffurs 3.33
2. Zaca Mesa 3.13 Tie
3. Bernat 3.13 Tie
4. Stolpman 3.06
5. 3 Saints 3.0
 

Finally, nine of the 21 participants took it upon themselves to rate their favorites and even labeled the tasting sheet 1-5. We took the liberty to also average out these votes. In this case, tasters rated their favorite as #1 so a lower average score is better.

Voting results: Wine (average score)
1. Bernat 2005 Estate Syrah (2.14)
2. Jaffurs 2007 Larner Vineyard (2.42)
3. Stolpman 2007 Estate Syrah (3.00)
4. Zaca Mesa 2007 Estate Syrah (4.5) Tie
5. Three Sainst 2007 Syrah (4.5) Tie

Purchase Syrah Society 5-pack.
 

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