Winemaker Notes
Beautiful, deep garnet color. Aromatically there’s this mysterious harmony I can’t fully describe but leaves me repeatedly placing my nose deep in the glass to simply enjoy each moment. With time to awaken in the glass, notes of cranberries, pure raspberry extract, rose petals, and newly sharpened pencils emerge. This delicious Sangiovese is rich and ripe with red and blue fruits, saline, and herbs. It is an elegant wine, showing more power than flash, and built to blossom with time in the cellar.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Dark cherries, olives, dark chocolate, bay leaves and a touch of cumin on the nose. Some walnuts. It’s full-bodied, firm and polished, well-framed, with broad and firm tannins encompassing the fruit. Classy rendition.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
While the 2021 Walla Walla Sangiovese will never mimic Chianti Classico, it boasts a broad-shouldered, larger-framed expression with generous dark cherry tones and hints of sour plum reduction. Offering its secrets slowly, it presents plenty of succulent acidity. Medium to full-bodied on the palate, it reveals fine-grained tannins with nuances of dusty violets, crème de cassis and dusty currant. It ends with a delightfully long, food-friendly finish. Though it may not be the highest-scoring in the range, it remains a guilty pleasure to drink. Rating: 91+
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Jeb Dunnuck
All varietal, the 2021 Sangiovese is medium ruby-hued, with a pretty, spicy, red-fruited style as well as medium-bodied richness and depth on the palate. With fine tannins, terrific balance, and just a charming, undeniably delicious style.
Among Italy's elite red grape varieties, Sangiovese has the perfect intersection of bright red fruit and savory earthiness and is responsible for the best red wines of Tuscany. While it is best known as the chief component of Chianti, it is also the main grape in Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and reaches the height of its power and intensity in the complex, long-lived Brunello di Montalcino. Somm Secret—Sangiovese doubles under the alias, Nielluccio, on the French island of Corsica where it produces distinctly floral and refreshing reds and rosés.
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.