Wine Review - 2007 Glen Carlou Syrah: Jammy Wine That Doesn't Taste Like a Sugar Cube...Finally!

As you might had figured out from the title, we are not against Jammy wines.  In fact, quite to the contrary, we love big and delicious red wines.  The part we have trouble with is when they are big jammy wines and have a crap-load of residual sugar still.  That's when jammy just means jam...sweet, sweet jam.  Now, given the trends we have seen in the wines from Australia and other countries, we might now be in the minority.

Enter Glen Carlou Syrah....it is definitely a jammy wine on the nose.  It smells super oaky and has tons of strawberry and raspberry jam in there.  So much so you begin to think it will taste like sweet Aussie Shiraz.  So, it is super welcoming to find that it is a dry red wine in all the best ways.  There is tar and leather and all those characteristics but it tastes like a big, bold red wine.  Really nice.

From the descriptions we have read it is aged in oak and is picked from a lower yield vineyard.  They say black currents and even herbal tea and we will buy into all of that.  It is a dark wine that certainly sticks to the glass on the swirl so you can tell there really should be some body in the wine and there certainly is.  It is a good food wine but would be great on its own.  We got this wine on sale at $22 locally and on sale it makes a lot of sense.  At the higher price ($25) it is still worth a taste.

	Tasting Notes:	Score:
Sight (0-5)	Dark wine in the glass that sticks to the glass.  Looks like a thick wine.	4.0
Smell (0-5)	Oak, tar, leather, and ripe jammy fruit.	4.0
Taste (0-10)	Complex and big red wine, that is dry and fruity all at once.  good overall balance with tannins that are front of palate but not overwhelming.  Solid wine.	8.0
	Total:	16.0 / 20  (80%)

Shannon commented that the South African wines we have had thus far in the year have been fairly good as a group.  That may lead us to try more.....and why not.

Keep on drinking!

Chris & Shannon