INSIDER'S PICK: 2018 THALVIN/ALAIN GRAILLOT 'SYROCCO' SYRAH ZENATO MOROCCO $29.99

Even though we will not be doing the public tasting portion of the Insider's Pick until further notice, we will still be offering the wine for purchase with the usual 10% discount. The wines will still be ones we highly recommend, and the tasting notes will still be our own. We will be returning to doing just the one wine on Thursdays and Fridays until further notice. We hope you are able to come by and get some wines to enjoy.

At this point in the Summer it sometimes feels like it's as hot here as in Africa, and it can make you wonder how there can possibly be a wine growing climate temperate enough to grow wine anywhere but at the southern cape in South Africa. Yet here we are, able to talk about a wine of this quality from Morocco, a study of micro-climates and a bit of circumstantial luck. Noted Northern Rhone/Crozes-Hermitage and St. Joseph winemaker Alain Graillot was on vacation and cycling many years back in the Zenata area of the Atlas Mountains, when he came across some vineyard parcels. The setting of the vineyard and the uniquely cool aspect of this subzone intrigued him enough to pursue more about the potential here, eventually establishing a partnership with the vineyard and developing his own wine project. You would think that Syrah grown in Morocco would have a much heavier, Southern Rhone or Aussie aspect to it, but at the expert hands of a Northern Rhone specialist like Graillot, the wine turns quite the trick of a North-meets-South character. Warm red and black fruits on the nose, slightly tarry with some sweet spice to it, but also some savory notes as well. The palate is where the Northern Rhone influence really shows itself, far less extracted than expected and a fine vibrancy from the natural acidity, bringing out the blue fruit tones. North Africa is famous historically for heady high test wines, but this is tempered at only 13.5%abv, creating a reserved, refined overall character. Tasty with rich meat dishes that have a bit of spice, or osso buco, something with some heft to it.

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