Winemaker Notes
Inviting, Intriguing, brooding and vivacious. Black cherry, wet earth, grilled meats, fireplace ash and black pepper take you there and then beautiful notes of seaweed, camphor and black tar finish it off in time for another sip and more exploration of this wonderful wine.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2018 Syrah Olsen Brothers Vineyard, from a site in Yakima Valley, is a mix of clones that were not destemmed, and it was brought up mostly in neutral oak. It's a classic Yakima Valley Syrah with its full-bodied, rich, meaty style as well as ample darker fruits and notes of smoked game, chocolate, tapenade, and spice. It reminds me of a great vintage of Jaboulet's Domaine de Thalabert and should keep for 15 years.
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James Suckling
Lots of smoky and grilled-meat character to the ripe-berry highlights. It’s full-bodied with round, juicy tannins and lots of flavor and intensity. Yet, it remains fresh and vivid at the end. Vanilla touches make it even more interesting. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Intoxicatingly seductive, the 2018 Syrah Olsen Brothers Vineyard rolls out of the glass with elegance, focus and sweet red fruits packed with red flowers, potpourri and red and black peppercorns. Medium to full-bodied and impeccably balanced, flavors of spiced red tea, iodine, umami and cured meat sway across the mid-palate with food-friendly tannins. Concluding with a long, lingering finish, this Syrah will be perfect for barbecue and will have no problem aging well past its 10th birthday.
Marked by an unmistakable deep purple hue and savory aromatics, Syrah makes an intense, powerful and often age-worthy red. Native to the Northern Rhône, Syrah achieves its maximum potential in the steep village of Hermitage and plays an important component in the Red Rhône Blends of the south, adding color and structure to Grenache and Mourvèdre. Syrah is the most widely planted grape of Australia and is important in California and Washington. Sommelier Secret—Such a synergy these three create together, the Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre trio often takes on the shorthand term, “GSM.”
As the first recognized wine-growing region in the Pacific Northwest, Yakima Valley is centrally located within Washington’s vast Columbia Valley. The region also includes Washington’s oldest Cabernet Sauvignon vines, Otis Vineyard, planted in 1957, and Harrison Hill Vineyard, planted in 1963. Yakima Valley contains three smaller sub-regions: Rattlesnake Hills, Red Mountain, and Snipes Mountain and is ideal for both red and white wine production. In fact, Yakima Valley is Washington’s most diverse region, boasting more than 40 different grape varieties over about one hundred miles.
The cooler parts of the valley are home to almost half of the Chardonnay and Riesling produced in the state! Both are made in a wide range of styles depending on the conditions of the vineyard site.
But its warmer locations yield a large proportion of Washington’s best Merlot, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon. The finest Yakima Valley reds are jam-packed full of red cherry, currant, raspberry or blackberry fruit, as well as cocoa, herb, spice and savory notes, and exhibit a supple texture, great body, focus and length.