Steve Edmunds Makes Gourmet....

The new edition of Gourmet magazine just came out. The Drinks editor, James Rodewald, who's been writing some very good stuff the last few yrs, has an interesting article on Syrahs around the world. He was not a big fan of the Calif Syrahs, save for....the Edmunds St John (W-F '01 and Bassetti '03). Gave a nice description of what Steve does and a good plug for Organoleptics. Nice to see Steve get some recognition for his style of wine.
I've been impressed in the improvement of the quality of Gourmet magazine over the last few yrs. I wish Gerald Asher were doing more writing of articles for them like he did in the days of old, but James Rodewald has been writing some very good articles in his Drinks section. This Syrah article was particularly good.
Tom

Hi Tom, Syrahs around the world. Sounds interesting. Does NZ get a mention?
Cheers,
Sue

Durn tootin' (Kansas colloquialism for damn right). In fact, NZ Syrah gets the lion's share of the article. James' article was prompted by his judging a flight of Syrahs in a competition there in NZ a yr or two ago. He relates how he didn't think much of the young Syrahs, but found they badly needed a few yrs of age to really show there stuff. Lots of good stuff on NZ Syrah in the article. Worth tracking down a copy, not on the Web that I can find.
Tom

Tom,
Nice to see Steve getting some love. He and his wines deserve it!
Bill

My copy finally arrived yesterday. It sure is good seeing ESJ getting some ink and it's nice to see a plug for non-spoofy "New World" syrah.

Hi Tom, Done some searching and found that James Rodewald was a judge at the Hawkes Bay Regional Wine Show in 2003. There's some good syrah coming out of Hawkes Bay, but also some very good stuff from further north too. I quite like what the 2005 vintage has produced - a bit after James' time here.
Have never seen this magazine in NZ, not at a standard magazine store at least.
Cheers,
Sue

Sue,
They do put some of the magazine on-line at http://www.Epicurious.com. But Rodewald's column is not included.
It used to be a pretty stodgy magazine. Gerald Asher used to be their primary wine writer and he used to write some outstanding columns. I learned a lot from Gerald over the yrs. He has a book out based on many of his Gourmet columns.
Nowadays, the magazine is vastly improved over the old days, but Asher seems relegated to the margins.
Tom

Sue; Jim talks, in the article, about being a judge at the the tasting you refer to. He says that what he's learned is that the wines seem much better after just a few years in the bottle. What a good idea!