Madroña Syrah 2006: C

Two nights ago the whole greatjuice gang gathered at chez wilson/hale for a pre-oscar wine and dine experience. paola and i were in charge of salad and the hosts whipped up a spectacular Moroccan lemon chicken with couscous. when we arrived beck and josh were already half way through this bottle of Madroña syrah that they had received through their wine club. so here's the thing about wine club wines - i feel like they often send you wines that they know most people will like. i would join a wine club, not because i expect to like every wine, but because i want my palate to be expanded and would even expect to receive some bottles that I downright hate. Unfortunately, in my experience this is not the case. It seems like lots of clubs say that they give you a wide variety, and by that they mean they send you all sorts of varietals, but if they all taste like something that i could get at my local grocery store, i am not sure what good that does me.

but i digress... so we hopped in on the drinking of the Madroña and really had very few complaints, but i don't think anyone was blown away either. Becky seemed to think that it tasted moldy and sharp, then realized that she had chased her sip with a chunk of blue cheese and recanted her characterization. she did detect a slightly floral nose. josh concurred and added that he liked the deep purply color (i agree) and thought that this was a rather well rounded and balanced wine.

as for me, i thought there was a subtle spice to this one that was rather pleasant and a bit of blueberry on the nose. In terms of tannins, both paola and i agreed that there was a minor bit of tannic cotton tackiness in the mouth, but it wasn't at the back of the mouth where we usually feel it, rather near the front. overall not an unpleasant experience, but i am not sure we will be ordering a case anytime in the near future.

as a last note/questions, josh notices that this wine, like a couple others he has tasted, induced in him a trance-like state. as weird as this sounds, i think i know what he is talking about. i would like to think that something in certain wines makes me stare off into space, or at the kitchen counter for unacceptably long periods of time, but I suspect it may have more to do with the amount of wine consumed as opposed to some magic ingredient that certain wines have. then again, i have heard something about sulfites giving people headaches and such. any thoughts?