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750ml - Case of 12
Bottle:
$15.94
A terrific value in Syrah from the Northern Rhône, the 2014 La Champine offers notes of violets, raspberries and...
750ml - Case of 12
Bottle:
$53.41
Bright and concentrated red fruit on the nose and palate. This wine is an opaque ruby color with a medium body and...
750ml
Bottle:
$388.20
The 2014 L'Ermite comes from a charming, moderately concentrated vintage, but you wouldn’t know that by tasting...
Pre-Arrival
Araujo Syrah Eisele Vineyard 2014
750ml - Case of 3
Bottle:
$206.78
Syrah was first planted on the estate in 1978. After making wine from the few remaining vines in 1991 and 1993, a...
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Cayuse Vineyards Syrah 'Cailloux' 2014
750ml - Case of 3
Bottle:
$277.74
Incorporating a touch more Viognier than normal, the 2014 Syrah Cailloux Vineyard is 93% Syrah and 7% Viognier from...
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Chateau Grand Boise Syrah 'Liberte Cherie' 2014
750ml - Case of 6
Bottle:
$53.28
A very balanced wine, with powerful aromas but also a lot of finesse, revealing floral notes, red fruits, scents of...
Pre-Arrival
Delas Freres Cote Rotie La Landonne 2014
750ml - Case of 6
Bottle:
$223.95
Youthful purple. An exotically perfumed bouquet evokes candied cherry, black raspberry and olive, along with...
750ml - Case of 6
Bottle:
$131.59
Glass-staining ruby. Vibrant, mineral-accented dark fruit and floral pastille scents are complemented by hints of...
Pre-Arrival
Delas Freres Hermitage Les Bessards 2014
750ml - Case of 6
Bottle:
$146.67
Dark purple. A powerful, highly perfumed bouquet evokes ripe black and blue fruits, candied licorice, olive paste,...
1.5Ltr - Case of 6
Bottle:
$157.93
Pretty, with an alluring core of gently steeped cherry, plum and blood orange fruit flavors, carried by gentle cedar...
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Domaine Jean Louis Chave Saint Joseph 2014
750ml - Case of 12
Bottle:
$89.81
Fresh in feel, with light bay leaf, pepper and dried violet notes leading a core of gently steeped plum and bitter...
750ml - Case of 6
Bottle:
$103.50
Solidly ripe, with a ball of cassis and blackberry puree forming the core, laced with bright, mouthwatering sanguine,...
Pre-Arrival
E. Guigal Cote Rotie La Landonne 2014
750ml - Case of 6
Bottle:
$236.57
Rated 98-100 - As always, the 2019 Côte Rôtie La Landonne is all Syrah that was not destemmed and will spend four...
Grenache Mavrodaphne Syrah 2014
The Grenache grape holds the honor of being the most widely planted wine grape varietal on earth. It has a long and impressive history, and has been the backbone of the some of the planet’s most respected and famed wine regions, blended with Syrah in regions such as Chateauneuf du Pape, and in certain other Loire and Languedoc regions where it reigns supreme as a single varietal wine grape. In other key areas, such as Spain’s La Rioja (where it is known as Garnacha Tinta), it is blended with Tempranillo to make that country’s signature red wine, and is widely used as a blending grape in other old and new world countries, due to its unique character and jammy, fruit forward character.
For a long time, the Grenache grape was somewhat looked down upon as an ignoble varietal, incapable of producing wines of any particular interest. However, times are very much changing - in the right hands, Grenache grapes result in astonishingly intense and complex wines, full of fascinating features, and capable of achieving plenty of expression. For a while now, Grenache has been a major player in Australian wines. While not yet quite as extensively planted down under as Shiraz is, the Barossa Valley is bringing out some of the finest examples of this grape’s wines in recent years.
In the Archaea region, high in the Northern Peloponnese mountains, the predominant grape varietal grown is the prized Mavrodaphne. Meaning 'Black Laurel', the Mavrodaphne grapes have extremely dark skins, and ripen slowly under the Greek sunshine, helped by the mineral rich soils the vines thrive in. This grape varietal is mostly used to produce the opaque, inky fortified wine of the same name, which is popular all over Greece and elsewhere in the world. This fortified wine allows the grapes to really show off their complex and fascinating flavors, which range from a rich marzipan to flavors of bitter chocolate, sweet coffee, dried figs and prunes, as well as plenty of jammy fruit notes.
Mavrodaphne is produced in a traditional method which involves leaving the grape juice exposed to the sun in large vats, before having its fermentation halted by the addition of various distillates taken from previous successful vintages. This mixture contains plenty of residual sugar, which gives the end result its characteristic sticky sweetness, and also helps with the next fermentation process, which typically takes place in large underground cellars. The final product is a heady drink, absolutely bursting with unusual, rich and sweet flavors and carried in a dark and slightly viscous Port-like liquid.
Mavrodaphne grapes are also used for the production of still red wines, but are generally blended with varietals such as Agiorgitiko or imported grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon. Mavrodaphne grapes are excellent for mellowing more acidic varieties, and producing deliciously rounded wines, which have taken the international market by storm in recent decades.
Additional Information on Greek Wines
Greek Wines
Ancient Greek Wines – A Brief History of Wine in Greece
The Myth of Dionysus, Greek God of Wine
What is Retsina?
Known as Syrah in most countries around the world, and Shiraz in Australia and certain other regions of the New World, this grape varietal has proven over the centuries to be one of the most powerful and flavorful red wine grapes there is. It is now one of the planet's most widely grown grapes, and is a favorite with wineries as a result of its robustness and versatility. It isn't easy to identify many characteristics of this particular varietal, due to the fact that it is highly versatile and shows significant differences in flavor and character depending on the terroir it is grown in, and the climatic conditions of the region. However, Syrah is most widely associated with full bodied, strong and loud red wines, packed full of fruity and spicy flavors, held in a beautifully deep red liquid.