Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Another full-throttle, downright sexy wine is the 2014 Syrah The Psychedelic. Made from 100% Syrah that was fermented with 50% whole clusters and aged in a scant 10% new French oak (and never racked), it has loads of ripe dark fruits, lavender, peppered meat and olive to go with rock-solid concentration, sweet tannin and a killer finish. It’s already hard to resist and I see no need to delay gratification.
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Wine Enthusiast
Coming off The Rocks District, this wine displays somewhat reserved notes of ember, smoked meat, green olive, wet stone and smoke, leaning hard into the savory. The charcuterie, smoke and licorice flavors coat the palate, stretching out on the finish.
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Wine Spectator
Plump, ripe and supple, with a structured core and exuberant smoky blackberry, tapenade and anise flavors that linger on the finish. Drink now through 2022.
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Wine & Spirits
This single-vineyard wine tastes like Rocks to the max, its heady scents of olive and ash, bacon and smoke mingling with dusty flavors of mocha and dark plum. It’s rich, with the feel of high pH that is typical of the Rocks District doing its part toward a plump finish. For barbecue.
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.