Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Focused, intense and detailed, with layers of flavor on a taut, lively frame. Offers star anise, tar, floral and dried sage overtones to the blackberry, Italian plum and espresso flavors, lingering enticingly on the energetic finish. Best from 2013 through 2018. 1,400 cases made.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2008 Signature Syrah contains 2% Viognier with 70% of the fruit coming from Red Mountain and 30% from the Boushey Vineyard in Yakima Valley. Aromas of pomegranate, black raspberry, smoked meat, game, and pepper lead to a complex, succulent, velvety-textured Syrah with exceptional balance and length. Drink it through 2023.
Doyenne is DeLille’s sister label used for Rhone-style wines. This year’s releases include two white wines.
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Wine Enthusiast
Cofermented with 2% Viognier, this elegant Syrah rests on a base of toast, coffee grounds, loam and savory herbs. The fruit—pie cherries and plums—is subservient to the details of earth, mushroom and leather. All is beautifully integrated, balanced and long. A wine to savor.
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.