Carneros, CA; 14.5% ABV
$6 at the Berkeley, CA store on 11 July
I bought a bottle of this, and, when I got home, I saw that Seedboy had posted a note about it: On first opening it smells funky but that blows off, leaving a wine that seems more alcoholic than the 14.5% claimed on the label. I’ll try it out again tomorrow but right now, it is a return. And on What’s New?, he said simply: That Mulas Syrah is nasty. His description was a bit different from my experience, but unfortunately my conclusion is similar.
It started out with promising Syrah flavors of red fruits and earth, but also contained unpleasantly shrill acid, especially in the finish. The non-acid aspects of the wine developed nicely after 60-90 minutes in a decanter into a wine with a delicious nose of rather brooding dark plum, blackberry / blueberry, and dark spice and earth, and a lot more of the same on the palate. However, that implacable acid (even with food) spoiled the whole thing. Since it seems like there may have been a lot of bottle variation, did anyone out there try a bottle they liked?
The magical world of wines from Grocery Outlet 
Berkeley had this wine today
I bought a bottle at the Santa Rosa CA store and it was great, went back for more a couple of days later and it was all gone….the cork fell apart when I opened it (which has NEVER happened before in several years of using my Campagnolo corkscrew) and expected the worst but was pleasantly surprised….so maybe a bad batch of corks and I got lucky??
Greetings Boethius and welcome! I’m glad to hear this wine was good for someone, and apparently for more than you since it was unfortunately gone when you returned for more. Maybe Seedboy and I just got a bad batch in Berkeley? My bottle had so much potential… 🙂