WTN: Havens Syrah - Carneros/Hudson Vineyards 2003

$27 from Wine Access. 14.5% abv.
If this wine were a car it would be luxury, a prestigious European company, but designed in California for the American market. It would have the softest most perfect leather seats, a beautiful burled wooden dash with a deep deep shiny finish on it, a premium sound system, a large silky smooth engine, all wheel drive with a computer controlled suspension, paint you could peer deeply into. Ah, the smells of the all the fine materials that went into the interior! A car that might turn a few heads, and get you respect from the valet Parkers (pun intended). And after you had it for a day's worth of driving you might say to yourself, you know, initially I was wowed by this car, it has such a luxurious feel to it, it's so smooth, it's so powerful, it makes me feel rich! But by day's end you end up feeling that it's just not you, it's too much, it speaks too much of conspicuous consumption, (you after all are a more down to earth person) - nice for that certain special occasion, but not something you really need in your garage.

I think I need a garage full of wines like that....cause I'm worth it!

Drew

You find this a Parker wine?

Wow. I've had too many Cali Syrahs that are all fruit (and all alcohol) and haven't found the Havens Syrahs that plush. Interesting.

You find this a Parker wine?

Wow. I've had too many Cali Syrahs that are all fruit (and all alcohol) and haven't found the Havens Syrahs that plush. Interesting.

A Parker wine? Perhaps the temptation of the pun was too much for me. All fruit and alcohol it is not. Still, I think he'd approve. Plush? Absolutely. Plush might be the main descriptor, and I don't mean that as a negative. But it is always interesting to me to judge wines after I've had the whole bottle vs just a taste or 2. I was totally wowed by this one at first. It was luscious and rich and had a nice progression from dark plumy fruit, through a deep kind of vanilla/cedar/sort of syrupy stage, to a nice spicy finish. Still in the end, I found it a bit too...what? slightly too sweet and syrupy and obvious, perhaps might be the way to put it. With wines I really like, I'm sorry to see the end of the bottle and want to have them next night again. This one I can put away for the right occasion to serve guests, because its initial impression is so lush and I think it would go over well, but I have little urge to have it for dinner with my wife anytime soon. Don't get me wrong. It's an impressive wine and I enjoyed it a lot, but something about its style didn't quite sync with me in the end. Hence the Parker reference. But you know more than me about these things. I'm just here to learn.