Frick Syrah 04

Frick? Um, maybe that doesn't have the same connotation for the vintner, ... his name is Frick. The bottle is one of those painted enamel types with a stylized paint brush and paintball motif. To our eyes, it is ugly (or at least from a past abortive trend), but it is in the "Syrah" shaped bottle.

Syrah, Owl's glide, silence. (Uh, right.... Whooo was drinking during the marketing meeting?)

The bottle was a 2004 Sonoma County, Dry Creek Valley, Estate bottled Owl Hill Vineyard. The bottle had a composite cork (not plastic, but not natural) with the signature paintball splot on the top. 12.9% alcohol.

Deep red in the glass. The nose had strong alcohol, berry, and oak. This wine seemed more like a Cabernet than a Syrah and was better with food. It had berry and strong vanilla on the palate. The finish was full of oak and tannin. We were surprised that the labeled alcohol by volume was so low based on how it drank. This is a big, bitter wine.

At $4.99, this was a mid price wine for our local Gross Out. The "elsewhere" price was $20-30, which is the only reason we picked up a bottle that looked like this. This wine needs some appropriate strong food to be enjoyable and should be decanted (to hide the bottle...:)) since it has some sediment and needs to breathe.