This was a single blind syrah tasting held by the Fresno Oeneology dept. club. The wines were rated and ranked. All I can hope is the graduates will make better wines than how they rate the ones they taste. Point scores are mine.

2001 J. Lohr Syrah
Medium garnet, opaque core, ruby rim. Medium intense nose of blackfruits pepper, blackberry, earth and plastic (tupperware). Medium body, medium intensity and medium acidity. Blackberry, blueberry, earth, oak and blackpepper. Flabby. 78pts (Group #1)

2002 Oliver’s Taranga McLaren Vale Shiraz
Medium plus ruby core, watery rim, pigmented tears. Reticent nose (at first) of blackberry, blackfruits nad earth. Medium body, medium plus concentration and medium acidity. More blackberry, black pepper and earth with drying wood and fruit tannins. 86pts. (#3)

2001 Tolosa Edna Valley Syrah
Medium ruby core, watery rim. Medium intense nose of blackberry, blueberry, cinnamon, nutmeg and earth. Medium body, medium plus concentration and medium acidity. Black fruits, blue fruits, oakspices and earth with drying wood tannins. 85pts. (#4)

2001 Rosenblum Fess Parker Syrah
Garnet with light oranging and bricking, noticeable sediment. Medium nose of earth, leather, black pepper and black fruits. Medium body, medium plus concentration and medium acidity. Blackberry, earth, pepper, spices, leather and oakspice. NR – obviously by the color and sediment their was something not right about this wine. (#5)

2003 Jim Barry Clare Valley Shiraz
Purple with a watery rim. Medium intense nose of grape jelly, black berry, blueberry, mint and vanillin. Medium plus body, medium plus intensity and medium acidity. Mint, jam, blueberry, black berry, vanillin and cinnamon. 84pts. (#2)

2003 Alban Central Coast Syrah
Medium plus ruby, medium plus intense nose of bacon fat, black berry, blueberry, pepper, meat and fresh laid asphalt. Medium body, medium plus intensity and medium acidity. Black fruits, bacon fat, meat pepper and another plastic note. 87pts. (#6)

Are you saying that the FOCers thought that these wines were much better than you thought.?

Pretty much. Their #1 wine that they went on and on about I would never want to put in my mouth again.

I've heard that there are high hopes about Fresno becomming a very good oneology school.

I'd bet (or like to think) that they haven't been able to taste some very good wines. Does the professor furnish what they drink (assuming it is a group taking a college course) or do they bring their own wines.

You should give your sister a nice wine to bring them and find out what they thought.

Fresno is really on the up and up. I toured wine country with my sister 2 years ago and she asked every winemaker whether they would recommend Davis or Fresno. They all said Fresno, so there she is. The bottles are all purchased with the dues that the members pay. I just felt I was tasting completely different wines than some of the 60 people.

The comments remind me of the days when we hired 20-25 engineering graduates each year and I was one of the 2 engineering managers in charge of selecting the colleges. The ones we hired from Cal Poly did very well in the first couple of years and were highly sought after, but their careers peaked quickly. The ones from the highly rated universities did not do so well in the beginning (ego has a little to do with it), but their careers continued to blossom well after. The ones that worked for me directly were typical. 20 years later, the ones from Cal Poly are still working as journeyman engineers whereas the ones from the good universities either started their own companies or work at the VP, Director, or General Manager levels in Fortune 500 companies.