If you are visiting us for the first time, Welcome! The Wine Spies feature one exceptional wine each day – and we only bring you wines that we ourselves seek out and love. Always, the wines are great. Sometimes greater than great, as is the case with today’s wine from Peters Family Winery.

Its April Fool’s Day today, but our featured wine is no joke. Enjoy our honest review below, followed by our could-be-true mission report.

SUPERIOR WINE ALERT!

We always feature great wines, but today’s 2002 Syrah is exceptional! Grab some, Operative, before we run out

Savings Alert!

Shipping Included on 6 bottles or more. Enter this coupon code at checkout (discount will be shown before you complete your order): SUPERSONOMA

SUPER SONOMA WINERY ALERT!

Some of the best wines in the world come from wineries that are right here in Sonoma County. We frequently feature great Sonoma wineries so be sure to check back every Tuesday, when we always feature one great Sonoma County winery.

Mission Codename: The Miracle Syrah?

Operative: Agent Red

Objective: Investigate claims that drinking Peters Family’s 2002 Syrah has magical properties that cures ailments, makes you levitate, increases you intelligence – and more!

Mission Status: Accomplished!

Current Winery: Peters Family Winery

Wine Subject: 2002 Syrah

Winemaker: Douglas Peters

Backgrounder: The Wine Spies return to Peters Family Winery today to investigate claims that Doug Peters has created a Syrah that performs miracles. Will today’s wine really make you rich, regrow your hair, make you (and others) more beautiful, increase your I.Q., and more? Read Agent Red’s tasting report for a sincere assessment of this wine, followed by his interesting Mission Report.

Wine Spies Tasting Profile:

Look – A beautiful ruby red with a deep garnet heart, great clarity and sparkling edges, with a bouncy surface and chubby, widely-spaced legs

Smell – Deep aromatics of raspberry, blackberry, cherry, light vanilla, and earthy plum

Feel – Cool and light, initially, with a soft wetness that is soon accompanied by the wines soft tannins that dry the lips

Taste – Rich and dark with layers of deep flavors of smoky cherry, raspberry, dark blueberry and subtle smoked dried meats

Finish – Long and lingering with huge smoky fruit flavors and great acidity and flavors that change as they fade slowly

Conclusion – This is a deep, delicious and big Syrah that has unique flavors, great mouth-feel and wonderful aromatics. More and more, I find myself admiring California Syrah. Done right, this varietal can provide you with a very rich and stimulating drinking experience. Doug Peter’s may not be able to perform bonafide miracles, but he comes ever so close with his wines. His 2002 Syrah is a ready-to-drink wine that will only improve with age. Decant this wine for a few hours for maximum enjoyment.

Conclusion 2 – I returned to a bottle of this wine after it had been opened, recorked and cellared (57 degrees Fahrenheit) for 24 hours. What an amazing difference! The wine deepened in aroma and in flavor while also softening and drinking in a more balanced manner. I recommend at least 4 hours of decant on this wine for maximum pleasure.

Mission Report:

It started last week. First I got this email from a (usually) reliable filed asset:

Agent Red: I just tried a wine that you * really need* to know about. Its an ’02 Syrah from Peters Family Winery, and its great. – Agent Grenache

That’s fine. Its the sort of email I get from my network of informants all the time. However, the messages started to become slightly unusual:

Hey Red, The Peter Syrah that Agent Grenache telling you about… I tried some again last night. I think that it cured my flu. Agent White had some, too, and he says that he no longer needs glasses! You have to secure a shipment of this wine for your Operatives!! – Agent Pinot

Later that same day, this message:

“Greetings Red. Peters Syrah. Some of the other Agents gave me a bottle. I need more. Now! I just drank my last glass last night. You know how I sometimes play the lottery? Well, last night I didn’t buy a ticket. Instead, as I drank a glass of the Peters Syrah, just for fun, I wrote down a hypothetical set of lottery numbers. Guess what? They came in! Can you get me a few bottles? A case?” – Agent Riesling

From there, the messages became even more bizarre, extolling the extraordinary effects of this wine. Pets long-lost were found, hair long-lost was suddenly regrown! People were falling in love, becoming smarter, healthier and even wealthy as a result of tasting this wine.

Here’s what I know about this wine:

Douglas Peters makes great wine, and this is the finest example of his wines that I have tasted. This 2002 Syrah is really an amazingly great wine. Does it do all of the things listed above? I don’t know, but I do know that I love this wine – and I am certain that you will, too.

If this wine does happen to boost your net worth or give you the ability to fly, please let me know…

Wine Spies Vineyard Check:

The location of the Clements Hills AVA where the grapes for today’s wine were grown can be seen in this satellite photo.