Montes Alpha Syrah

- C
- C.L.
  
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posted
20 years ago

Tue, Jul 8, 2003 2:07 AM

I bought a bottle of this a couple months ago (sorry, vintage escapes me but it was recent) and drank it the other night with dinner (sorry, the menu escapes me as well!). Got a good write up in WS (which I realize doesn't mean a whole heckuvalot) and I tend to like all syrahs.

This one left me a little "blah." Anyone else tried this that feels the same way? It seems to have a certain smokiness that is a little off-putting (or is that the particulate remnants of my grilled pork chops from yesterday?). Ther is also a certain sweetness that reminds me of port, but not in a good way. That's as good as I can get with my tastings and hopefully someone will know what I mean and show me the BS-wine-tasting. . . er. . . . more eloquent way of putting it. ;)

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- dante
  
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posted
20 years ago

Tue, Jul 8, 2003 5:20 AM

Earth and truffles This isn't a wimpy syrah. The first vintage I tried was 99, bought a bottle, a couple of tenderloins, portabellos, morels.... Pepper steak with a mushroom sauce..... I guess that when the wine is a perfect match for the meal you don't forget. I enjoyed it. Bring on the smoky, nasty Syrahs.

Just my > I bought a bottle of this a couple months ago (sorry, vintage escapes

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- jcoulter
  
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posted
20 years ago

Tue, Jul 8, 2003 6:05 PM

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com (C.L.) wrote in news:a3662045.0307071807.75db87d8 @posting.google.com:

While I by no means think that Montes is as good as the hype I got from the sales rep and my first bottle was the king of bad corkage, I have tried it since and would agree with dante that the smoke is in the wine and the body is full. I paid 11USD for my last 2 bottles (since they couldn't sell it at 20) and feel I have excellent QPR. I would rather buy a Northern Rhone at 20USD.

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- C.L.
  
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posted
20 years ago

Wed, Jul 9, 2003 1:37 PM

As far as Rhone-style wines go, I'd much rather have a French as well. I wanted to clarify that it isn't the big syrah part of the MA I didn't like. That's what I was hoping for. But stylistically it was a bit different from what I was expecting.

I've got several bottles of Guigal CdR I picked up for about what I paid for the MA. Think I'll stick with them. Even cheaper is the Vielle Ferme which I happen to like more than it's $7 price tag would assume. :)