Winemaker Notes
The En Cerise Vineyard when literally translated, means "cherry," appropriate since this 10-acre vineyard planted in 1998 was a cherry orchard in its former life.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Ripe black cherries, darker raspberries, sappy flowers, shiitake mushrooms, and a kiss of black pepper all define the 2021 Syrah En Cerise Vineyard, an incredibly pure, seamless, elegant Syrah from this estate. It's always a perfumed, exotic wine, yet the 2021 shines for its incredible purity, precision, and length.
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James Suckling
Arresting wood smoke and cured ham aromas lead to incredibly concentrated, earthy, meaty flavors matched by blackberries and black pepper that seem to swell on the palate and accelerate through the finish. Co-fermented with a small amount of viognier and aged in mostly neutral French, larger-format oak casks. From biodynamically grown grapes.
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Vinous
Wickedly fresh, the 2021 Syrah En Cerise Vineyard opens with a dark mix of wilted violets, ashen stones, rubbed sage and musky currants. It's juicy and round with masses of black cherry fruits underscored by saline minerals and exotic spice, as a core of vibrant acidity maintains amazing lift despite its power and size. This leaves a balsamic and cocoa tinge, tapering off long and staining with edgy tannins and a resonance of black olive that lingers.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Syrah en Cerise displays a medium ruby hue with a soft garnet edge. It features sappy black cherry and sour plum notes complemented by spicy herbs and hung meat, offering an earthy, robust character. On the medium-bodied palate, dusty flowers and iodine unfold to firm, gripping tannins that lead to a finish marked by notes of smoked cherries. Best enjoyed with food. This Syrah spent 18 months aging, with approximately 20% of the wine resting in new French oak.
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Wine Enthusiast
Blackberries were no surprise. The aromas of meat and caraway seeds uniting to create a pastrami perfume however, were. The wine’s blackberry-compote, rosemary and lavender-water flavors are equally captivating. The En Cerise shows a deft hand, with restrained alcohol, crisp acidity and velvety tannins. The En Cerise does not roar, it purrs.
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Wine Spectator
Dynamic and polished, with multilayered raspberry and blackberry flavors laced with river stone, licorice, bacon fat and black olive as this builds richness and tension toward well-buffed tannins.
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.”
Responsible for some of Washington’s most highly acclaimed wines, the Walla Walla Valley has experienced a surge in popularity in recent years and is home to both historic wineries and younger, up-and-coming producers.
The Walla Walla Valley, a Native American name meaning “many waters,” is located in southeastern Washington; part of the appellation actually extends into Oregon. Soils here are well-drained, sandy loess over Missoula Flood deposits and fractured basalt.
It is a region perfectly suited to Rhône-inspired Syrahs, distinguished by savory notes of red berry, black olive, smoke and fresh earth. Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot create a range of styles from smooth and supple to robust and well-structured. White varieties are rare but some producers blend Sauvignon Blanc with Sémillon, resulting in a rich and round style, and plantings of Viognier, while minimal, are often quite successful.
Of note within Walla Walla, is one new and very peculiar appellation, called the Rocks District of Milton-Freewater. This is the only AVA in the U.S. whose boundaries are totally defined by the soil type. Soils here look a bit like those in the acclaimed Rhône region of Chateauneuf-du-Pape, but are large, ancient, basalt cobblestones. These stones work in the same way as they do in Chateauneuf, absorbing and then radiating the sun's heat up to enhance the ripening of grape clusters. The Rocks District is within the part of Walla Walla that spills over into Oregon and naturally excels in the production of Rhône varieties like Syrah, as well as the Bordeaux varieties.