Mas des Aveylans Syrah

Dark purple color, no bricking. Dark plum flavors with a silky texture. Tannins velvety but still going strong. Fairly long finish. Great QPR. Can last at least a couple more years.

Purple color. Big nose of dried cherries, chocolate, overripe plums. Palate is rustic, simple but meaty and enjoyable. There's still lots of fleshy fruit buttressed by tannin and acid to help this one go another few years.

Deep purple. Plummy, a bit on the side of Amarone. OK, but not my style. Three days later: is it possible this wine got better? Sill the fruit forward style of SYrah, but held up quite well and actually tasted more complete.

($12) A Bobby Kacher wine and definitely in my top 10 for best values ever. I would love to put this into a Cote Rotie tasting. The nose has overtones of apricot and lime, like Viognier blended with cool climate Syrah, then an undercurrent of red berry fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with more red berry fruit and late suggestions of tar and sap. Maybe a little flat on the palate, but delicious stuff for the money.

($12) Deeply colored with just a hint of translucence. Aromas of toasted wood, dark fruit, hints of vanilla and black fruit syrup. Loaded with nice blackberry fruit. I would call it concentrated, but it doesn't really stand up to the Clarendon Hills Grenache I tasted beside it. Solid mid-palate with a few hard edges still to resolve. Perhaps a little one-dimensional in the mouth, but wow! What QPR this is. Wish I had bought more, because I have not enjoyed …

($12) Wow this wine rocks! Deeply colored, aromas of creosote, spice, honey suckle, liqueur, pepper. Medium to full in weight with rich, balance sweet, dark fruit. Bravo Value!

($12) Nice little wine that shows ripe red and black fruit with a toasty oak quality and a hint of honey and stone fruit which reminds me of Cote Rotie. Lush, thick, and balanced. Nice. Excellent QPR.

($13) Cote Rotie and Hermitage at MoMo's: Screams Aussie at me. Candy, rich fruit syrup. Sweet caramel. Nice for the style. Very Nice for the price. I can't believe I missed this. It was quite different from the other two bottles I had of this wine.