Prepping the Guest Rooms

1643.  2005 Sandhill Syrah (VQA OkanaganValley)

Guess we'll simply call tonight a bit of a clean-up. We've got a couple of Aussies - blog "regulars" Merlot Boy and Margarita - arriving tomorrow and their rooms to be still need a good shot of sprucing up. There's no way I was about to tackle that empty handed; so, we decided to kill two birds with one stone and clean up the "cellar" by choosing a somewhat of an older bottle.

Sandhill has long been one of my favourite BC wineries and its winemaker, Howard Soon, is an ever-intriguing and all-around nice guy. That being said, I probably should have opened this bottle some time ago. Granted, Sandhill standardly offers two Syrahs - its Small Lots premium bottle and this general release offering - and this bottle isn't particularly made for ageing. I'd guess that the winery sees this bottle being purchased by your regular wine buyer who, on average, ages his wines 30 minutes before the cork is pulled. I doubt too many folks lay these bottles down for six or seven years.

I think my original thought when buying this bottle was that I'd age it for a bit and do a mini-tasting with one of the '05 Small Lots Syrahs to compare the two. That doesn't seem to have happened.

All this is leading up to the fact that the bottle was past its prime. We've been very lucky with our cellared Okanagan reds as they start to get a bit of age on them. No one was willing to swear on the ability to age BC wines a decade a go, but I think it's now safe to say that the well made bottles are doing just fine. Thank you very much.

The Syrah didn't quite live up to the same degree of ageing. It still had a brilliant nose on it for an older entry level wine but the finish wasn't nearly as nice as I think it would have been five years ago. Not a lot of fruit on the palate to match with the structure that remained and the balance just didn't live up to my regular expectations for a Sandhill wine.

Then again, maybe the task at hand - housecleaning - just left everything in my life a bit bitter for the moment. I probably should have cleaned with a martini.