I decided to try this after seeing Steve from Notes From The Cellar reviewing some of Concannon Vineyards other wines and rating them fairly well. After speaking to him, I found out that he had not tried this wine yet and informed me that they make a few different levels. Unfortunately, I found this out after I had already purchased this bottle.
2006 Central Coast Syrah
The wine has a brownish ruby hue to it in the glass and is slightly transparent. On the nose I get aspects of cherry, leather and pepper. It also has a slight alcohol burn note too it. Overall the nose isn’t bad.
The palate is kind of jammy mixed with oak and dirt. The alcohol is still present and gives it a tad too much burn on the finish for my liking. There are some so-so tannins on the medium finish. I didn’t feel that this was a really well balanced wine. I paired the syrah with short ribs (tried to at least) and found that it didn’t hold up very well, other than cutting some of the alcohol.
Would I buy/drink this wine again? The Concannon Syrah is an ok wine, but even at the $6.99 price point I don’t think I could justify buying it again. With that being said, I am still going to look for the higher end Concannon wines and see if they can impress me a little more than this one did.
I am giving this wine 2 out of 5 corks!