First of all it is a real treat to go for a tasting at Cowhorn. Nestled off a windy road outside of Jacksonville, the team of Barbara and Bill Steele take their wine-making very seriously. They do a great job of honoring the Rhone-style winemaking tradition as well as working with the wonderful terrior of the Applegate Valley (They are the only certified organic and biodynamic estate in southern Oregon). It was awesome to go through the current offerings with them and they had some great recommendations for other wineries to visit in the area.
This Syrah has quite a pretty nose dominated by cherries and grape candy with a touch of mesquite smoke. Mistakenly, I sensed a bit of Viognior on the nose. Barbara stated that they were indeed going for that northern Rhone-style but that they Syrah had a powerful enough nose on its own. The flavor profile is certainly dominated by the purity of the fruit with a touch of nice soft acids on the end. Still it’s all about sweet strawberry and fig with a long drawn out finish. Fruit forward and fruit medium and fruit finish! Good stuff for sure. If anything its only shortfall was that I felt like the wine could hold up to a bit more time in barrel or a higher percentage of new French oak.
This is fun to read. I like wine too. But my favorites are usually the expensive ones. I'm on a mission to find wines I love that I can afford. So far I have a very short list.... We should drink some together sometime!
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