Our blind tasting game—without the tasting! Can you identify a wine just by reading its tasting note? We post real Wine Spectator reviews. You use clues such as color, aromas, flavors and structure to figure out the grape, age and origin. Good luck!
Tasting Note: Shows the racy, leaner profile of the vintage, yet has a bit of cushion, with supple plum, violet and grilled alder flavors. Reveals angular tannins and a graphite-laced beam of acidity that take this in an austere direction, with nice black pepper and violet details.
And the answer is...
Variety
Our mystery red is racy and on the leaner side, with angular tannins and supple plum, floral, grilled wood, mineral and pepper notes. Let’s figure out what it is!
We can begin by eliminating Trollinger (aka Schiava), which tends to make lighter reds with low levels of tannins, moderate to high levels of acidity and fresh red fruit, rose and citrus notes.
Cabernet Franc is next to go; while a Cabernet Franc could show our wine’s tannins and plum, wood and mineral notes, we are missing that grape’s hallmark green bell pepper and chile pepper flavors. Let’s move on.
A Pinot Noir could have angular tannins with plum and violet notes. But our wine’s pepper and alder notes don’t sound quite right for Pinot Noir. This grape has to go too.
Malbecs often show plum and violet notes. Bullseye? Not quite. While we’re close here, our red is missing Malbec’s characteristic tobacco, vanilla and chocolate notes. Maybe another grape works better?
When on the leaner side, Syrahs can show angular tannins and rich dark fruit, floral, mineral and smoky wood notes with a hallmark pepper accent. We have a winner!
This wine is a Syrah.
Country or Region of Origin
Syrah is an international grape that grows across the globe, but you won’t find much of it growing in Germany, Hungary or Uruguay. One foothold for the grape is California, where winemakers tend to make riper versions (owing to the state’s warmer weather) with plump textures, rich fruit preserve notes, baking spice accents and plush tannins. Meanwhile, in France, winemakers tend to make leaner Syrahs more focused on the grape’s mineral, floral and pepper characteristics. This sounds much closer to the mark.
This Syrah is from France.
Appellation
We know that our Syrah is from France, so we can eliminate Germany’s Baden, Hungary’s Eger, California’s Monterey and Uruguay’s Montevideo. This leaves us with two French appellations: Fixin and Côte-Rôtie. Located in Burgundy’s Côte de Nuits subregion, Fixin is an appellation well-known for complex red wines; however, these reds are made exclusively from Pinot Noir. Farther south in the Northern Rhône Valley, Côte-Rôtie is an area celebrated for its Syrah reds, which frequently show violet, pepper and graphite notes. Our choice is clear.
This Syrah is from Côte-Rôtie.
Age
Our Côte-Rôtie’s fruit notes are still fresh, rather than dried, and it isn’t showing any significant signs of age for Syrah, such as mushroom and leather notes. Bearing in mind that Côte-Rôtie domaines generally age their Syrahs for at least two years, let’s take a look at the Northern Rhône Valley’s most recent vintages to figure out our red’s age.
Northern Rhône Syrah suffered in the cold and rainy 2021, and that year’s harvest volume was reduced by frost and mildew. While many Syrahs reflect these challenges, exceptional reds are complex and lean with a mix of graphite, violet, pepper and plum notes. 2020’s harvest was one of the earliest on record for the Northern Rhône, which allowed Syrah to ripen evenly while maintaining freshness. The resulting wines are chewy and exuberant with ripe fruit, chocolate, coffee, spice and smoke notes. Windy conditions at flowering season reduced Northern Rhône crops in 2019, and that year’s Syrahs are round and powerful with polished tannins and pronounced fruit preserve, cherry and iron notes. Of this group, 2021’s Syrahs sound closest to the mark.
This Côte-Rôtie is from the 2021 vintage, making it three years old.
Wine
This is the Les Vins de Vienne Côte-Rôtie Les Essartailles 2021, which scored 90 points in the March 31, 2024, issue of Wine Spectator. It retails for $96, and 624 cases were made. For more on Northern Rhône wines, read senior editor Kristen Bieler’s tasting report, "The Rhône Cools Off," in the March 31, 2024, issue.
—Collin Dreizen, assistant managing editor
