Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Beautiful notes of red and black raspberries, tobacco, plum sauce, loamy earth, and loads of floral notes emerge from the 2017 Syrah The Tribe Vineyard, another tight, closed wine that’s going to benefit from bottle age. Medium to full-bodied, with notable freshness as well as plenty of underlying structure, it reminds me of Cote Rotie from the Cote Blonde lieu-dit with its incredible floral character as well as its seamless texture. Beautifully done and one of the standouts in the lineup in 2017, give bottles a healthy decant if drinking any time soon, and my money is on it benefiting from 2-3 years of bottle age and evolving for 15-20 years or more.
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James Suckling
Intense yet subtle aromas of dried strawberry and black peppercorns with some cloves. Tar as well. Medium to full body. The firm, silky tannins are integrated and poised, melting into the wine. Lovely now, but better in a year or two. Try after 2021.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Syrah The Tribe Vineyard begins with a firm, tight nose of rustic dark red fruit and soft aromas of worn leather, black spice and dust-covered violets. Medium to full-bodied, the wine is still tight in its youth, but it remains approachable and food-friendly now. The wine has a bolder mouthfeel than the rest of the range and is balanced with firm tannins that will ensure it will last for years to come. It concludes with a long, drawn-out finish with an essence of dark red fruit and a soft, lingering spiciness.
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Vinous
Bright full red. Pure but subdued nose hints at blackberry, black pepper, violet and menthol. In a very dark, juicy, savory, tight style; reveals a sexy hint of sweetness but quite bound up today and in need of time to soften. Peppery black fruits are complemented by a subtle floral character, which makes this wine livelier and more delineated than the High Contrast Vineyard Syrah. Finishes with firm but suave tannins and rising violety length. This beauty has the most mid-palate energy and the most explosive length of Horsepower's trio of new Syrahs but is quite backward and in need of patience. Rating: 94+
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Wine Enthusiast
Initially brooding crushed violet, ember, moist earth, herb, green-olive, wet basalt and smoked meat aromas are followed by a velvet hammer of olive and other savory flavors, coating the palate in waves from end to end. A long lengthy, flower- and olive-filled finish caps it off. Its power and appeal are in its elegance, subtleties and sophistication. Editors' Choice.
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Wine Spectator
Supple and elegant on the surface and brooding at the core, featuring bold blackberry and blueberry notes, laced with smoky meat, garrigue and black olive details, building toward fine-grained 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.