Winemaker Notes
This bold, concentrated Estate Syrah exudes balance, marrying luscious fruit and savory aromas, including blackberry preserves balanced by baking spice and black olive. The complex palate shows further flavors of violets and juicy black plum notes. The style is generous and silky, finishing with beautifully integrated tannins and a persistent finish.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
“Aromas of plums and brambleberries, together with cured meat, ground peppercorn and cherry chocolate. Full-bodied, firm and little tight on the palate, with a deep core of purple fruit, coated with layers of finely polished tannins. Long and persistent with a velvety finish.”
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Decanter
This wonderful single-vineyard Syrah shines a light on Walla Walla's savoury, umami spirit. From the aromas you take smoked game, wild fennel, sage and dusty blackberries in August. The palate is balanced and shows elegance to match the wine's power. Faint hints of mocha powder, cocoa nibs and black cherries are integrated into notes of soy-based umami and meaty, smoky flavours. There is a real depth to the wine's savoury character. Will only improve over the next five years in bottle.
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Wine Spectator
Dynamic and well-structured, with handsome blackberry, stony mineral and espresso flavors that take on tension and detail toward medium-grained tannins.
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Vinous
Darkly floral and refined, the 2020 Syrah Estate Seven Hills Vineyard opens slowly with a dusting of exotic spice and earth tones, giving way to dried blackberries and ashen stones. This is like pure silk on the palate, seamless, without a hard edge in sight, with polished red and black fruits elevated by a pinch of sour citrus toward the close. It finishes with medium length and is only lightly structured, leaving a licorice tinge as minty herbal tones slowly taper off. The 2020 shows the soft nature of the vintage yet without sparring complexity.
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Wine Enthusiast
. Restraint and finesse win the day with this pretty Syrah. Fruitforward aromas of dried strawberries and ripe black cherries unite with bits of leather and violets. Brawny tannins support copious amounts of blackberries and bacon fat.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2020 Syrah Seven Hills Vineyard Estate delights with notes of black raspberries, olives, nuances of red and black peppercorns, dried lavender and hung sausage. This medium-bodied Syrah boasts a balanced structure and a juicy and dusty mid-palate that promises to remain food-friendly until the end of this decade.
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.