Winemaker Notes
Blend: 100% Syrah
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is ripe and meaty, with attractive purple fruit, cocoa, sage and wet earth. Full and dense with firm, chewy tannins and a broad, chalky texture. Structured and muscular with a long blue-fruit finish. Better from 2025.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The only Syrah vinified in stainless steel, the 2020 Syrah Milbrandt Vineyard is 100% varietal that was not destemmed and spent 16 months in 20% new puncheons. Ripe blackberries, black cherries, ground pepper, and bouquet garni notes all flow to a medium to full-bodied, pretty, elegant, yet fruit-loaded Syrah that has soft tannins and tons of up-front charm. It will evolve for 7-8 years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Firm, smoky and meaty, the 2020 Syrah Milbrandt Vineyard starts with a dusty core of crunchy red fruit and blackberry skin before spicy aromas waft out of the glass. Medium to full-bodied, the wine is fresh and juicy on the palate, with a fine mineral mouthfeel and bacon and pink peppercorn flavors. The wine continues to evolve and uncoil, ending with a spicy, mineral-laced finish. The wine spent 16 months in barrel, 30% new French oak. Give it a try.
Rating: 92+
Located at the base of the Blue Mountains in Walla Walla Washington, K Vintners opened its doors to the public on December 3rd, 2001. The property at 820 Mill Creek Road where the winery sits was homesteaded in 1853 with the adjacent farmhouse built in 1872. The winery grounds with Titus Creek flowing through the lawn and the old pioneer planted trees, is a little slice of heartland Americana. The Winemaker: He loves to drink wine! Charles Smith, proprietor and winemaker, comes to Walla Walla after 11 years in Scandanavia. Originally from northern California, he has been involved with wine personally and professionally his whole life. And did we forget to mention... he loves to drink wine! The Vineyards: K Vintners is producing wines from 2 distinctive viticultural zones: Wahluke Slope and Walla Walla Valley. Each of these areas are unique and awesome for Syrah and the Field Blends produced. In April '02 two seperate blocks of vineyards were planted to Syrah adjacent to the winery in the rocky dry creek beds that run through K Vintners property.
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.”
Distinguished by a broad, south-exposed, uniform slope and landlocked by the Columbia River to its south and Saddle Mountains to its north, the Wahluke Slope AVA of Washington holds 15% of the total vine acreage of the state and takes its name from the Native American word for “watering place.”
Incidentally the Wahluke Slope AVA has one of the hottest and driest climates of the state so irrigation is not only essential, but also allows complete grower control of vine vigor. On top of its arid and warm environment, strong summer winds blow across this broad slope and ensure both smaller leaf size and grape clusters. The result is top quality wines with great concentration, phenolic ripeness, body and depth of flavor.
Vineyards cover the AVA from 425 to 1,480 feet along the slope. Its deep soils of wind-blown alluvium and sand with a depth, on average, of more than 5 feet along the continuous grade allow optimal drainage for the vines.
Thriving varieties include Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Riesling, Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc.
Merlots are rich in sweet, ripe cherry, red currant, raspberry and cocoa. Syrahs tend to express black and blue fruit along with savory notes. Wahluke Cabernets are rich in stewed red and black berries.