Day 19: Santa Rita 120 Syrah

Guest post by Robin Shreeves

Today’s wine is courtesy of my niece, Olivia. We met the other night for dinner at a local BYO, and she brought a bottle of Santa Rita 120 Syrah from Chile to share with me. I didn’t catch the vintage on the bottle, but I imagine it was only a year or two old.

“I don’t know much about wine,” she said, almost apologetically, as I looked at the bottle.

“Do you know what you like?” I asked.

“Yes, I do,” said Olivia.

“Then you know a lot more than you think you know,” I told her.

I think the most important thing to know about wine is what you like. Olivia likes red wine, she doesn’t like it to be sweet, and she enjoys oak. The wine she brought was right in line with what she likes.

The 120 Syrah is medium-bodied and made from 100% Syrah. It’s a very dark grape and the wine in my glass was a beautiful deep purple. I tasted chocolate and cherry at first, and then the chocolate faded and the wine stayed fruity with a strong plum taste to it. It was dry and had soft tannins. I liked it (the most important thing), and when one of the best burgers I’ve had in a long time was placed in front of me, I had a feeling the wine would be really nice with it. I was right. Olivia enjoyed the wine with her linguine with chicken, mozzarella, tomatoes, and pesto (Caprese style).

Syrah and its Australian counterpart Shiraz — same grape, different names — is a wine that goes with so many different foods. The Santa Rita 120 Syrah complemented both our meals and we enjoyed it as we talked the night away. The wine may have cost only $8, but the experience we had as we ate, drank and caught up on life was priceless.

That, to me, is what makes almost any bottle of wine, whether it’s blue collar or tres expensive, magical. When you share it with someone, not only does the wine flow, but the conversation flows, too. The price of the bottle doesn’t matter when it comes to the magic that pours out from inside it.

Quick Background Note: The Blue Collar Wine Guide is a 30-day, 30-wine experiment that looks at some of the world’s most popular, consumer-friendly wines. The idea is to take off my wine-writer shoes and stand instead in the shoes of Jane-and-Joe-in-front-of-a-wall-of-wine. Thank you for reading today’s post!