Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2015 Foothills Reserve is 100% Syrah from the estate vineyard located around the winery. It’s one of the more tight and reserved in the lineup, yet has tons of potential. Ripe red and black fruits, spice, smoked game, tapenade, and peppery notes all emerge from this full-bodied, rich, concentrated Syrah that has sweet tannin and moderate acidity. Give it a year or two and enjoy over the following decade.
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James Suckling
Lots of blackberries, smoked meat and black-pepper character. Full-bodied, layered and very intense. Love the spices and dark fruits at the end, which is also combined with black chocolate and grilled meat. Drink or hold.
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Wine & Spirits
The Reynvaan’s Foothills in the Sun vineyard was in its fifth vintage in 2015, and already showing precocious character. This wine is complex and layered, with scents of tapenade, blackberry, carob and tar; the flavors reflect this array but as if on a narrow-gauge rail, the texture lean and taut, harmonious and intricate. It has the cut for the short ribs at Majordomo in Los Angeles.
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Wine Spectator
Impeccably polished and structured, with vivid raspberry and smoky pepper beef aromas that open to elegantly layered cherry, sweet anise and black olive flavors. Drink now through 2024. 425 cases made.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Syrah Foothills Reserve reveals an exotic, roasted bouquet of espresso, rich soil and grilled meats, with blackberry and cassis fruit lurking in the background. On the palate, it's medium-bodied, rich and very savory, with a fine-grained, saline and somewhat fleeting finish. This verged on being simply too savory even for me, and I don't think it's a benchmark vintage for this bottling.
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.