Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
More iron, beef blood, and foresty, mushroom, almost metallic notes all emerge from the 2019 Syrah High Contrast Vineyard, another savory, powerful, incredibly impressive wine in this lineup. Deep purple/plum-hued, this full-bodied beauty has both black and blue fruits, ripe, building, yet polished tannins, a great mid-palate, and one heck of a gorgeous finish. There's a liquid rock-like minerality as well as a meaty, leathery character that's not far off a great vintage of La Chapelle. It's certainly the richest and most concentrated of the trio of Syrahs in 2019. Give bottles 3-5 years and enjoy over the following 25-30 years. Best After 2025
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James Suckling
Aromas of nutmeg, black cherry, blackberry, smoke and stone. Full-bodied with melting tannins. Very concentrated and layered on the palate. Crushed dark fruit and coffee. Lovely baking-spice complexity. Savory. Balanced, with excellent intensity and depth. From biodynamically grown grapes. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Coming from sandy loam and rocky soils, the 2019 Syrah High Contrast Vineyard is soft and savory with a focused nose, showing aromas of worn leather and fresh dusty red fruit tones in the glass. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is firm with flavors of cured meat before shifting toward savory herbs with a mineral tension as waning fruit tones take a backseat. Seemingly a little moody now, the Syrah offers hints of olive and turned earth before ending with a long, spicy, meaty finish.
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Wine Spectator
Plump and potent, with supple blackberry and blueberry flavors that take on smoked meat, licorice and olive accents as this builds structure toward refined tannins. Drink now.
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.