Dark in color with a lovely nose of red berries waiting to greet you. On the mid pallet the wine displays some lovely red berries to match the nose. It’s reasonably complex. On the finish the wine displays a smooth finish, with some tannins and some nice dryness. All in all a pleasant food friend easy sipping wine. I would say they have correctly called this a Syrah vs a Shiraz. There’s no pepper at all on the finish. I would give it an 89 or so. Very nice. Now at $48 a bottle this one sure ain’t cheap. Yikes …
From the LCBO web site (for a different year than I tasted)
STRATUS SYRAH 2009 VINTAGES 307629 | 750 mL bottle Price $ 48.20
Made in: Ontario, Canada By: Stratus Vineyards Release Date: Feb 5, 2013
12.5% Alcohol/Vol. Sugar Content: 7 g/L Sweetness Descriptor: D – Dry
Tasting Note
Another collaboration wine between Hobbs and Groux. This is a difficult varietal in Niagara in the best of vintages but Stratus crops to less than a tonne an acre and made only a paltry 72 cases from the ’09 vintage. It’s a Rhone-style Syrah with a smoky, bacon-fat and peppery nose bolstered by raspberry and other red fruits, earth and forest floor notes. It is rousing on the palate with firm tannins, structure, spice and firm acidity through the finish. Drink or hold. Score – 90. (Rick VanSickle, winesinniagara.com, April 25, 2012)
