These were six easy drinking Syrahs with great fruit and spice but not big tannic monsters. There were good representatives of all of the major Syrah flavor profile. Although they all had good body, none of these were what you would consider representative of the really big and bold, tannic Syrah style. These were all nicely balanced and were wonderfully delicious. This was the closest group of wines based on their quality and body making it hard to come up with a clear winner, although the Scribner Bend and Bella Piazza were the sipping favorites; wines to be sipped in the evening after dinner.

This six wine format and closeness of the character and body made this challenging, but great fun. Although these are all be wines that would work well with a wine range of foods, none really needed food to tame them. We finished the tasting with grilled pork tenderloin, roasted potatoes and Tuscan bread salad. The wines were able to stand up to the bolder body and cooking method of the pork, but the acidity present in the wines and slight earthiness worked very well with the balsamic dressing and more acidic nature of the salad.

The following grid is the composite results of the input of all of the tasters. These are all fairly easy wines to find for sale, but in California the vintage variation isn't as great as other places, so pick the next year if that is all you can find and see if you agree with our results.

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