Malm Cellars Shiraz Dunnsden Vineyard Syrah 2003 Reviews

Malm Cellars Shiraz Dunnsden Vineyard Syrah 2003 Tasting Notes

Malm Cellars handcrafts its wines out of Healdsburg in the Russian River region of Sonoma County. Opening their 2003 Dunnsden Vineyard Syrah irritated and consternated me. They have a thick red plastic seal over the enclosure, presenting a false image of a traditional wax seal for added protection. What a pain, and I’m lucky I didn’t remove my thumb along with the obstinate seal. Usually a wax, a real wax seal, implies an expensive wine where the producer went the extra mile to ensure a tight seal to protect the wine. At first look I thought the seal was wax and I’d have to go through the usual cutting and chiseling to get it off. When I discovered the wax was actually plastic I thought life would be easier. Au contraire, no, no, no. This red plastic was an obstinate foe. If the French had used this red plastic in their Maginot Line, then Hitler’s Panzers would never have made it to Paris. I cut, I sawed, I ripped, I hacked, and none of these efforts could get more than a sliver off the bottle top. I abandoned my usual wine tools and pulled out a Wusthof serrated knife and began sawing away from the bottom of the seal. A half hour later I was ready to abandon the project and switch to beer, but a friend took over my shift and whittled further away at a crack I had created. Finally, exhausted, we had it open. The wine? Well, it was a big gulp of a red with a lofty Syrah-like perfume of dark berries, herbs, spices, and earthiness. In the mouth, the Syrah was flush with ripe blackberries and raspberries, thyme, white pepper, and smoked oak flavors. There are noticeable tannins with big shoulder acidity. This should serve it well to age and help it improve over a few years. Overall, this is a sophisticated rustic Syrah, a sort of a metrosexual Paul Bunyan. In fact, it might be helpful if Paul brought his axe along to help uncork the next bottle.