Trione 2007 Russian River Valley Syrah

Being that they have a tremendous identity problem American Syrahs can be very problematical. Are they the bruising, fruit bomb wonders similar to Australian Shiraz, or are they delicate and nuanced cool climate wines like the Northern Rhone's Cote Roties and Hermitages appellations. With Zinfandel becomming America's preferred fruit bomb wines and  Pinot Noirs from the Sonoma Coast being our nuanced ones, where does that leave Syrah.

Perhaps in the middle. Last week, while attending an industry function, I had the distinct pleasure of trying the 2007 Russian River Valley Syrah from Trione Vineyards. Some of you might remember that the Trione family used to own Geyser Peak Winery, and sold it several years ago. That winery has undergone several rounds of ownership changes and rumors have it that it is on the verge of bankruptcy.

After selling the winery, the family regrouped, and now operates out of the the old Canyon Road Winery location down the road from Geyser Peak. Only producing around 5000 cases they use only the blocks from their own vineyards, making all their wines estate produced and bottled.

This Syrah is magnificent. It has all the sleekness of a northern Rhone, comoplete with the tell tale roasted meat/bacon nose, and some very interesting, and liberal sprinkling of black currants and plum fruits with just enough earth to make this have a very interesting nose. The surprise is the juicy acidity that starts in the mid pallet and works its way to a long finish with some very integrated, and deliciously chewy tannins. This combination makes you want to drink more. I'd match this wine with roasted and braised red meats, or some interesting cheeses.

All in all, this is a very successful syrah that seeks to stake out its own territory in the American Syrah landscape. If more wineries followed the Trione family's lead, the question of where American Syrah falls in the wine world will be a question that is well on its way to being answered. And at $32 a bottle, it presents a great value as well.

V. Sattui?

I, and probably half the wine drinking world, have probably dismissed V. Sattui as being totally a tourist attraction not worthy of wine drinkers time and efforts. A recent visit to the tasting room has convinced me that the time has come to reassess this opinion.

And if you look at their vineyard sources, this makes total sense. They have wonderful vineyards in Rutherford, Russian River Valley, Carneros and throughout northern California wine country. If you can't make good wine from these sources, you should hand in your winemakers certificate.

What turns off most wine lovers is their business plan, they have a wine for all tastes, including muscats, gamays and the whole enchilada of what are considered non-serious wines. Skip those and go right to the locally produced, vineyard designated wines. These are quite good and represent some of the best values in the entire Napa Valley.

I loved their Carneros Merlot, the Russian River and Dry Creek Valley Zins and the numerous cabs from Rutherford. These wines were all about $50 and under. And everything is sold Direct to Consumer so these products are not available elsewhere. As a side note, even you you don't want to taste their wines, they have the best, and best priced cheese store and deli in the valley. Food for thought.

What's A Winobot

The simple answer is that Winobot is one of the coolest wine based apps available for the IPhone.

In this space, I usually blog about some of the great wines that I've sampled over the past several weeks. Today, its about a great wine app that I've been playing with on my new IPhone. What makes this app different from most others is that it is geared towards wine lists in specific restaurants, and guiding each user to select a bottle off that restaurant's wine list that fits their preferences.

So, last week I took Winobot out for a spin. Using it is easy, you sign in with your Facebook page (there will be connectivity in upcoming releases) and then choose whether to manually search for a restaurant, or to use your phones GPS to select on for you. I selected Il Fornaio in Corte Madera, near my house, as the test restaurant.

After your restaurant is selected, a short list of featured wines appears on the screen, followed by several reels on that allow you to select up to three criteria for narrowing your search. Since I was having Veal Osso Buco, I selected meat. and using my past preferences and selections, Winobot suggested four selections for me to try; Franciscan Napa Valley Cabernet, Tiganello Super Tuscan from Antinori, a Brunello from Canlicchio and Ridge Three Valleys Zinfandel.

All very good suggestions, but I wanted something Italian. Tiganello, a blend of Sangiovese and Cabernet is one of my favorite wines, but at $185 it was a little out of my price range. So I went back to Winobot, put a $50 limit as my price range, and hit the select bar again. The choices were three Chiantis, and since I love Antinori's Tiganello, I selected the Peppoli Chianti to have with dinner.

The next screen describes the wine, allows you to rate and review the wine, and comming soon will be direct links to the winery and/or importer web sites to buy your wine and arrange for visits and to be included on any mailing lists.

This sounds complicated, but its not. The whole process took about 30 seconds. The app is free, and the developers tell me they are currently adding restaurants from all over the Bay Area and wine country as well as direct links to many Northern California wineries.

Check it out at http://www.winobot.com/. If nothing else, its a great source to check out wine lists at your favorite restaurants.