Guess Your Palate! and Rhone syrah Outta St. Joseph

Ty Martin, from Cepage Selections blind tasted me on this Kermit Lynch wine. 

There's a disconnect between the customer and wine server in that, neither of us know each others' palate.  There are a few tricks I use on a day to day basis to gather information without seeming like a butt hole:

Are you interested in a red or white wine?

For Red: Would you like a light, medium or full-bodied red wine

2nd Level Red: Are you looking for a wine with more fruit or more earthiness?

For White: Are you looking for a dry or sweet wine

2nd Level White: are you looking for a wine with a fruity presence and a bigger style or one with more delicacy and zesty-ness?

This way, we get to the bottom of that person's desires without saying directly "new world, old world, fruit forward" or "oakey" which can offend.  If there's one thing that I would like to see more from other sommeliers is an acceptance that no matter how fruity a particular wine from Vacqueyras or Chinon is, it's still going to be a earth-bomb.  

Ty Martin stopped by while I was having this epiphany and poured a mystery wine into my glass.  Looking at it's color I couldn't help but think one thing... SYRAH!  But instead of jumping to conclusions, doing a proper analysis makes a much stronger argument: 

Mystery Wine:

APPEARANCE: 

Clarity: hazy/murky

Brightness: Dull / Opaque

Intensity: Lots of extracted color, High-intensity

Color: Deep Purple/Violet to light pink meniscus, low rim variation indicating a younger wine

Viscosity: Medium, estimated 13.5% 14% alcohol 

NOSE: 

Condition: Sound and clean

Intensity: Medium plus, lots of big things happening in the aroma

Aroma/Bouquet: Young smells of fruit, not any bottle aged, yeast bouquets

Fruit: Black cherries, black olives, slight raisin 

Earth: Yes, revealing gravel

Wood: Yes, slight spice characteristics including clove, but not overly so, perhaps a blend of used oak

Other Aromas: a herbal nose with oregano, tarragon and slight notes of gardenia flowers

PALATE: 

Sweetness Level & Body: Dry with a Full Body

Fruit: Olives, Cranberries, Cherries, Sour Plums

Wood: a light spice layer makes me think it's with used French Oak

Other: herbal notes of tarragon

Tannins: Medium Plus, dryness on the roof of my mouth, with a gravelly feel

Alcohol: Medium, possibly 13.5% or lower

Acidity: Medium, moderate acidity

Complexity: Interesting palate that evolves from an initial sweetness to sourness and tannin character, medium-plus complexity

Finish: acidity clears finish, raisin characteristics remain, medium length finish

INITIAL CONCLUSION:

Old World wine, from a cool to moderate climate, probably syrah or mostly syrah about 2-5 years of age

FINAL CONCLUSION:

Because of the olive aromas and color, I really think it's a Northern Rhone unfiltered/naturally produced Syrah from the 2007 vintage.  I also would guess it's retail at around $45. 

Wine: 2006 Domaine Faury St. Joseph Red Wine (Northern Rhone Syrah!) Retail for $27 at Kermit Lynch. 

I would pair this wine with a braised portobello mushrooms and roasted potatoes with tarragon and a mint compote. a side of crispy kale would be a nice way to compliment the herbal characteristics.  The mint would bring out the fruitiness in the wine and the portobellos to accentuate the body.