Winemaker Notes
#13 James Suckling Top 100 Wines of the World 2025
Intriguing, tantalizing and desirable. Expectations turn into surprises of white pepper, black plum, potpourri and fresh pine needles. Melds and twists of complexity - fresh sage, grilled herbs, orange zest and nori notes.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The famous McCrea Cuvee Orleans came from this vineyard, and the 2022 Syrah Motor City Kitty continues the site’s reputation for greatness, offering a ripe style and lots of wood, but showing something very special in its spicy, meaty, herbal complexion, memorable particularly for its sense of purity and balance. Made in a dense, brooding, full-bodied style, it spent time fermenting in concrete tank on its skins for 45 days before settling into 500-liter puncheon for 15 months on the lees. Dark fruit and spicy dried herbs accent the core of the wine, which will benefit from further aging, 10-12 years.
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James Suckling
This is an extremely complex, smoky, terroir-driven syrah that offers crushed wild berries and plum skins layered with hints of white pepper and cured meat. Broad, mouth-filling and full-bodied, it has a mineral, peppery edge and dusty, very fine tannins. Long and persistent, showing hints of crushed herbs and ashy soil in the end. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 MCK Syrah comes from the Boushey Vineyard and was matured for 20 months in new French oak puncheons. It has layered aromas of blackcurrant, resinous herbs, camphor, cracked pepper and mint. The full-bodied palate offers concentrated, herbs-laced flavors. It’s framed by chalky tannins and vibrant acidity and has a long, latent finish. It will benefit from at least five years in the cellar.
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Wine Spectator
Burly yet retains a sense of finesse, with deep flavors of blackberry, bitter chocolate, black olive and smoked meat that gather structure and tension on the finish.
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.”
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.