Winemaker Notes
Very bright and fresh on the nose. Leading with notes of boysenberry and huckleberry. Fresh mountain berries with forest aromas all around. Earthy, forest floor, and spruce tips. Very pretty saline, umami character that is a dead ringer for having a healthy dose of rocks fruit. Nori and black pepper provide nuance. Dark chocolate and city roast coffee beans also add more complexity to this intriguing aromatic profile. Plush tannin and acid-driven on the palate. A great length, long finish, and a saline quality that immediately makes you want another sip. This wine encapsulates the truly unique terroir that the Walla Walla Valley has for growing Syrah.
Blend: 99% Syrah, 1% Viognier
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
More approachable than many of Gramercy’s 2019s, its extra year of bottle gestation has given this wine a supple elegance. It’s mildly smoky, mildly spicy from whole clusters in the fermentation, the flavors of purple plum and mint and olive bearing a quiet hum of energy, held in check by fine, polished tannins.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2018 Syrah Walla Walla is a beauty, giving up lots of red and black fruits as well as peppery stem notes. All Syrah from the Forgotten Hills, Les Collines, and Holy Roller vineyards, it’s lightly textured, beautifully balanced, and medium to full-bodied. It’s a great example of the style of wines from this team and will keep for 7-8 years.
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Wine Enthusiast
Black cherry and strawberry fruit aromas get a lot of support from bursts of back fat, violets and straw. This wine's smooth, luxurious texture is like curling up in satin sheets, with flavors of blackberries, lemons, thyme and sweet black tea as your bedmates. What a pleasurable wine.
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Wine Spectator
Svelte and refined, with detailed black cherry, pepper and grilled anise flavors that slowly unfurl toward fine-grained tannins.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Displaying a classic ruby core, the 2018 Walla Walla Syrah opens with a soft, elegant and shy nose. Dusty cherry, plum skin and blackberry essence waft out of the glass with a juicy, red-fruited notion, black pepper, baked earth and dusty lavender. Medium-bodied, the 13% alcohol on the label rings true with a delineated mouthfeel and elegant mid-palate that delivers a delightful and food-friendly expression before lingering onto a ripe, dusty and floral finish with bright acidity. Made with almost 60% whole clusters, the wine spent 17 months in French oak, 9% new.
Rating: 90+
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.