Winemaker Notes
The 2017 Syrah La Côte Rousse marks our first time utilizing a traditional technique of co-fermenting small amounts of Viognier (3%) along with the Syrah, the goal being to subtly affect aromatic lift and color vibrancy. And what color! Magnificent, deep, dark purple leads out to an almost impossibly brilliant magenta rim. The aromas are a blend of familiar and exotic; black and red raspberry lead the way for sweet and savory salted plum, chamomile tea and white pepper. Weighty but fresh, the palate adds peat smoke and leather with a hint of cocoa powder filling out the package. The finish is saline, lengthy and broad. This is classic Red Mountain Syrah, with precision, brightness and terrific structure.
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Syrah La Côte Rousse was made from co-fermenting Syrah with Viognoeir to help lift the nose and add to the structure of the wine. Medium to full-bodied, it boasts beautiful floral notes and a dusty finesse of Red Mountain with a powerful mineral-driven kick that lingers on the focused palate. The La Côte Rousse is finessed and delivers expressive, elegant tart blackberry fruit and soft oak spices, followed by a lingering finish with soft black pepper tones and a rustic, dusty earth essence. Only 450 cases were made.
-
Jeb Dunnuck
Moving to the top Syrahs, the 2017 Syrah La Cote Rousse is always 100% Red Mountain fruit (92% from the Ciel du Cheval vineyard) and saw 30% stems and 13 months in French oak. Fabulous notes of bloody blueberries, lavender, dried herbs, and ground pepper as well as tons of minerality emerge from this full-bodied, concentrated, masculine Syrah. Compared to the La Serenne, this cuvée also shows a more savory, mineral, structured profile and benefits from short-term cellaring. It’s going to keep for over a decade.
Rating: 95+ -
Wine Enthusiast
For the first time, this wine is blended with a touch of Viognier (3%). It was partially fermented in concrete, and the aromas are lifted with notes of huckleberry, raspberry, herb, orange peel, black pepper and abundant minerals. The blue-fruited palate is silky, soft and fresh, with a fine sense of acidity and tannin structure. It brings a lot of finesse as well. Best after 2024.
-
Wine Spectator
Silky and elegantly complex, with expressive violet and black raspberry aromas that open to refined and polished black cherry, smoked pepper and licorice flavors, dancing toward fine-grained tannins. Drink now through 2027.
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.”
A coveted source of top quality red grapes among premier Washington producers, the Red Mountain AVA is actually the smallest appellation in the state. As its name might suggest, it is actually neither a mountain nor is it composed of red earth. Instead the appellation is an anticline of the Yakima fold belt, a series of geologic folds that define a number of viticultural regions in the surrounding area. It is on the eastern edge of Yakima Valley with slopes facing southwest towards the Yakima River, ideal for the ripening of grapes. The area’s springtime proliferation of cheatgrass, which has a reddish color, actually gives the area the name, "Red" Mountain.
Red Mountain produces some of the most mineral-driven, tannic and age-worthy red wines of Washington and there are a few reasons for this. It is just about the hottest appellation with normal growing season temperatures commonly reaching above 90F. The soil is particularly poor in nutrients and has a high pH, which results in significantly smaller berry sizes compared to varietal norms. The low juice to skin ratio in smaller berries combined with the strong, dry summer winds, leads to higher tannin levels in Red Mountain grapes.
The most common red grape varieties here are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Syrah, among others. Limited white varieties are grown, namely Sauvignon blanc.
The reds of the area tend to express dark black and blue fruit, deep concentration, complex textures, high levels of tannins and as previously noted, have good aging capabilities.