Winemaker Notes
Critical Acclaim
All VintagesGorgeous Bing cherry and blueberry fruits as well as tobacco, peppery herbs, iron, and mushroom notes all emerge from the 2019 Syrah En Chamberlin Vineyard, another medium to full-bodied, incredibly seamless, flawlessly balanced Syrah in the lineup. I love the overall mix of savory, classic Rocks style with its beautiful core of fruit, and it has incredible tannins, beautiful balance, and a great, great finish. Flirting with perfection, this straight-up incredible Syrah will evolve nicely for 25 years or more. Best After 2022
And my top choice of the range this year is the 2019 Syrah en Chamberlin Vineyard. It has an impressive array of aromas on the nose with nuances of a butcher shop, dusty dark-fruited essence, sausage, sawdust and elegant purple flowers. The wine is a masterclass in the expression of site, with a focused frame of black raspberry and blackberry fruit tones and spicy and meaty flavors that sway with a savory essence. Medium to full-bodied, the wine continues to grow in complexity, revealing layers as it somersaults to a long, winding and ever-evolving finish with lasting flavors of bacon brulé.
A wine with dimension and detail, this Syrah is both structured and polished, with raspberry and blueberry flavors framed by river rock, black olive and bacon fat accents as this builds tension and richness toward medium-grained tannins.
Dark, brooding almost animalistic in the glass, the 2019 Syrah En Chamberlin Vineyard grumbles up with a savory mix of plum sauce, sage and scorched earth. While silky and supple on the palate, it slowly saturates with mineral-laden dark red berries complicated by green olive and savory spice; yet through it all, an inner sweetness keeps me coming back for more. This tapers off structured, potent and long, teasing the senses with a reverberation of residual acidity, as hints of salted licorice and spiced citrus peels slowly fade. En Chamberlin is youthfully poised and possesses an Old World feel. Lose your bottles in the cellar for a number of years. Rating: 97+
An intriguing nose of hot stone, rosemary and sliced plum. Medium-to full-bodied with soft tannins. Excellent spiced, herbal complexity. Pure, ripe red and black fruit that’s expertly balanced and expressive. Delicious finish. From bio dynamically grown grapes.
An adventure in the new world
Christophe Baron grew up among the vineyards and cellars of his family's centuries-old Champagne house, Baron Albert. His sense of adventure, however, led him to become the first Frenchman to establish a winery in Washington State.
While visiting the Walla Walla Valley in 1996, Christophe spotted a plot of land that had been plowed up to reveal acres of softball-sized stones. This stony soil, this terroir, was just like that of some of the most prestigious French appellations. The difficult ground would stress the grapevines, making them produce more mature, concentrated fruit.
He named his vineyard after the Cayuse, a Native American tribe whose name was taken from the French cailloux--which means, rocks. Hours of back-breaking work later, Cayuse Vineyards has become five vineyards encompassing 41 acres.
The majority is planted with Syrah, and the rest dedicated to Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache, Merlot, Mourvèdre, Roussanne, Tempranillo and Viognier. All of the vineyards are planted in rocky earth within the Walla Walla Valley appellation. Cayuse was the first winery in Washington State to use biodynamic farming methods.
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.
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.”