Oh my, this was an interesting wine. We had this following a decent California Petite Syrah, and a rather terrible "Dracula's Blood" wine from Transylvania (it was Halloween). And without a doubt, this was the superior wine of the bunch.

First, it was complicated and a bit enigmatic. I pulled it from my "cellar" and we opened up just short of room temperature. So the wine evolved a lot over the course of the hour we drank it.

The nose started with a damp oak smell. Following those other wines, Andrew noted immediately: "there's no turpentine!" ... always a good sign. There was also that saw dust smell (sort of similar to damp oak, I suppose), and pepper.

The wine started off by Andrew's description as a "nice, rich vanilla taste". Madeline exclaimed: "Rosemary chicken!" She then proceeded to explain that "It's like a meal right when it hits your mouth!" Yes, the consensus was that this was a hardy and chewy wine -- and really smooth and rich.

The fruit flavors were a bit elusive and mysterious. Black cherry maybe? Plum perhaps? Blackberry? It was hard to discern exactly. Denise tasted cranberry, pomegranate, and tangerine -- but that's misleading as this wine was not sour at all. A bit later, the wives were tasting melon -- cantaloupe -- sandwiched in-between the mystery berries. That is, the berry hits immediately on the taste, then some of the melon, and then back to the berries at the end of the finish. However, the men found this whole melon taste perplexing.

Maybe the wine was still warming, or perhaps opening up, but it definitely changed over time. We discovered that in that berry finish, there was a really nice liquorice. And a bit later still, there was a distinct molases taste. No, I don't mean it was sweet in anyway. Maybe it was slightly resinous (but not in a bad way). And the nose developed leather and definite tobacco aromas. At one point Denise exclaimed: "orange blossoms". Yep, this was one of those really intriguing wines.

A Syrah from the WIllamette Valley? Perhaps not unknown, but not typical either. Well done, and yummy. If you haven't tried Emerson wines, they are really very nice.

Cost:    ($18 ... a serious bargain)

Rating:    9.0