The Wine Knows

Hey everyone!

I have a question for everyone. Several, actually... Tonight, we had a bottle of The Magnificent Wine Company (Charles Smith) Columbia Valley syrah (2006).

It was really an interesting wine, with gobs of sour plum flavors coming through and just a hint of a funk normally associated with Walla Walla fruit, which I found interesting. On the finish, this wine had a very distictive note. I liken it to green wood, almost green pine. Some might describe it as perhaps a stewed rhubarb or something - it seemed green without being vegetal, and had that drying quality to it without being sour. I immediately recognized the flavor as being just like what I have noticed from the Canyons Edge Winery Estate Reserve cab sav that we used to buy quite a bit of when it was always on sale at Yokes for $12. This flavor is not a negative to me at all, but I am curious if anyone knows what I am talking about and if they have ever tasted it before. Again, my best descriptor is green wood - not fully cured. Ever cut down a pine tree and get that green smell from uncured wood? To my palate, that is what this note tastes like.

My thought is that it is from cheap American oak that was not fully dried, but I am not sure. I know French oak imparts more vanilla, coffee, toffee, etc flavors, and American oak tends to impart more spices - cinnamon, licorice, root beer, cola, Asian spice, etc. This flavor has me stumped. And I will say one final time, the flavor was not a negative, but very distinctive.

Can anyone help me with this? And, if anyone else has noticed any unusual flavors that aren't necessarily flaws, this might be a good time to bring them up.

Cheers, and thanks in advance for any education anyone can give me!

Tim