The Auswine Forum

After you have been instrumental in identifying the origins of some of the greatest old wine varieties, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Syrah, and most recently Zinfandel what do you do for an encore? You help your significant other make wine! The Lagier Meredith Vineyards produce just Syrah. Their first commercial bottling was in 2000 (although there were previous vintages). (EDIT: The first release in 2000 was of the 1998 vintage.) With a vineyard that is at 1,300 foot elevation and a wine making process that uses old French oak barrels there is heavy emphasis on making sure that the grapes provide a lot of the flavors. Production is limited, just 550 cases of the 2002, and most sales are via mailing list. They are not likely to make their way to Oz, but it sure will be interesting tasting them against 2001 and 2002 St Henri.

Lagier Meredith Mount Veeder Napa Valley Syrah 2002 $50USD
Dense cherry red with red edge. Sweet perfumed fruit and mint. Developed into rich chocolate and vanilla. Medium weight with excellent mouthfeel, firm tannins on the finish. The big characteristic of the wine is its bright acidity across the palate. At 24 hours a little dusty oak evident. The wine is a little disjointed at present. Definitely not in the style of an Aussie shiraz. 2, 2, 4.0, 9.8 = 17.8 (89), 14.7% alcohol. Tasted March 22-23, 2005.

Lagier Meredith Mount Veeder Napa Valley Syrah 2001 $50USD
Dense cherry red with red edge. Very aromatic with vanilla, blackberry and pepper. Developed a nutmeg note. Full bodied and very well balanced with good acidity and soft tannins that firm up on the finish. Excellent length to the finish. There is more richness across the palate than the 2002. At 24 hours the acidity became a little sharp, but not unpleasant. 2, 2, 4.1, 10.2 = 18.3 (92), 14.3% alcohol. Tasted March 27-28, 2005.

Mike

Mike,

I was presented with bottles of 1999 (pre-commercial release? based on your info- I didn't realise) & 2001 Lagier Meredith Syrah both of which we drank this year.

In both cases I was disappointed with the alcohol heat which was emitted and in the case of the 1999 it was disjointed. Even the 2001 - which was the better wine- was heavy and did not come together with extended breathing in glass.

Overall COMPLETELY different from St Henri and I thought the latter better vintage still rather clunky.

I wonder whether the US fetish with shiraz pushes them toward a zinfandel style of shiraz rather than a savoury fruit -friendly style?

Note, when I spent time in US in early 80s there were few if any shiraz producers there.

I do not expect that we shall see much US wine here in terms of the sheer cost equation (even with the better exchange rate bulk exports to Oz are expensive and the wine equalisation tax WET makes them very much more expensive). Having enjoyed Stag's leap, Shaeffer, Screagle etc over the years they are just vfm here....

regards

fred

Fred

Interesting. Thanks for the comments

I've not had the '99. In the link to the previos vintages in my post a tasting of the '98-'02 puts the '99 as the most "massive"wine. There is another link to a TN to the '01. A lot of folks seem to rave about these wines. I think they are interesting and certainly different in style to Aussie shiraz and even to other California Syrah. But most of the Syrah here is relatively new and I think there may still be a bit of a struggle going on about what style of wine it makes in California.

I'm not sure I'd put the Lagier Meredith in the Zin style, but then it depends on what Zins you have had because Zinfandel can be used to make a pretty broad range of wine styles. But you are right the LM should be different to the St H. Its really Syrah versus Shiraz. My point is that both wines are not influenced by oak to any great degree, and so its fruit and winemaking that carry the style, and that comparison should be interesting.

Mike

Just a follow up on the commercial vintages from Lagier Meredith. The information I have is confused about this. As my initial post points out there are vintages going back to 1998, and as Fred has noted he has had a bottle of the 1999 but other information I’ve been given says 2000 was the first commercial bottling. The web site is not clear on the subject as it says "We bought our property in 1986, planted our first vines in 1994 and released our first wine in 2000.” The 2003 will be released around October this year (2005), so a first bottling in 2000 could well mean the bottling of the 1998 vintage. To clarify this I emailed Carole Meredith and she confirmed that their first release was of the 1998 vintage and it was released in 2000 – all 78 cases! I’ve edited the original post to correct any confusion.

Mike