Sourced primarily from Klipsun and Hedges (and with 12% Cabernet Sauvignon) the Sparkman 2008 Syrah Ruckus smells of stewed cassis and blueberry laced with smoked meat and caramelized wood resin. A bitter and green edge such as exhibited by other Sparkman reds I tasted keeps this a bit harmonious without to my sensibility generating any positive tension or invigoration. The finish grips without offering any primary juiciness or saliva inducement. I would cellar cautiously if at all.
Chris Sparkman is among the numerous former sommeliers and wine buyers to end up as a Western U.S. vintner. His wife and fellow-vintner Kelly’s background in biology was not with plants, much less vines. They started their Woodinville winery in 2004 to achieve a life style conducive to raising their two daughters and were able to immediately benefit from personal contacts in the viticultural community to tap-into some of Washington’s foremost vineyards. The results I tasted were (in red) dominantly cooked-fruit without being seamlessly ripe, as well as unremittingly – at times downright ferociously, and almost surely superfluously – tannic, a characteristic that evidently wasn’t mitigated and might even have been exacerbated by the Sparkmans’ practice of early lees-stirring and relatively long elevage. Given how much at odds I am with glowing received opinion about this young winery’s accomplishments, I must in fairness call readers’ attention to that fact, as well as encourage them to consult next year’s report to see whether I determine that I was being too hard on these wines or that they (or the taster) were having a bad day (actually hour) this July.
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