Wine & Spirits - February 2021 - 40

Year's Best US Syrah & Rhône Varieties
and-rosemary-scented tannins. Drinking
beautifully now; serve with lamb. -P.J.C.
(W&S 6/20; 1,500 cases) §
522197

93 | Royal City

$120

2017 Washington Syrah ^ Royal City is
Charles Smith's flagship from the Royal
Slope, an area (now an AVA) he's been
drawing from for more than a decade for
the intensity of fruit he finds there. This wine
comes from a cobbly vineyard, Stoneridge,
and leads with a blustery whole-bunch spice,
smoke, tea and balsamic, with a palate as
sweet and smoky as barbecue sauce. For all
its mass and heft, the wine is balanced and
surprisingly precise in its delivery, a tour de
force for-what else?-barbecue. -P.J.C. §
522100

92 | DAMA

$50

92 | Gramercy Cellars

$65

90 | Pursued by Bear

$60

2016 Columbia Valley Baby Bear Syrah ^
The 2016 Baby Bear comes from three
vineyards-StoneTree, Lewis and Phinny
Hill. The warmth of those sites shows
through in this wine's sumptuous dark-berry
scent limned with a smoky backnote and a
rasher of oak. It's generous and plush, ready
for a steak. -P.J.C. §
522177

88 | Chateau Ste. Michelle $15

2018 Columbia Valley Syrah (Best Buy) ^
Pleasingly airy and juicy for an entry-level
wine, this leads with a whiff of carob and
black plum giving way to round, juicy, almost
sappy flavors. Pour with lamb stew. -P.J.C. §

92 | Time & Direction

$40

2017 Columbia Valley Old School Syrah ^
This wine combines fruit from Eritage
Vineyard in Walla Walla with a dollop from
Solaksen vineyard in Royal Slope, the newly
approved AVA. The scent leads with savory
notions, smoky and mildly spicy-cinnamon
and mace in a liquid smoke base. The flavors
are lean and detailed, the dark cherry flavors
limned with dusty tannins that feel firm but
nimble. -P.J.C. §
522078

91 | Nine Hats

$25

2016 Columbia Valley Nine Hats Syrah
(Best Buy) ^ Lean and a touch light, this
leads with mourvedre-like scents of meaty
red berry and cherry. The flavors are rich,
the red fruits providing lift, with tannins
fine enough for sous-vide chicken dressed in
rosemary. -P.J.C. §
522079
40

WINE & SPIRITS

FEBRUARY 2021

91 | Ambassador Wines of
Washington

$55

91 | Browne Family

$52

91 | Kiona

$30

90 | Ambassador Wines of
Washington

$42

90 | Januik Winery

$35

2017 Red Mountain Estate Plenipotentiary
Syrah ^ As wildly concentrated as Red
Mountain can be, this wine is compact and
warm. Its aromas hint at more airy aromatic
pursuits, with notes of pepper, carob, mocha
and rosemary. The fruit is mulled and potent,
as dense as a fig cake, the ground-pepperscented tannins providing a firm close to a
big wine. -P.J.C. §
522157
2017 Red Mountain Klipsun Vineyard
Syrah ^ From one of Red Mountain's warmest
sites, this wine is a big black ball when first
poured, its flavors as thick and round as
molasses. After a day, it becomes shapelier,
never shedding its mass, beating its chest
with a brutish intensity, but channeling
its black-plum and cedar aspects with
impressive, powerful drive. For all the power,
it feels balanced. -P.J.C. §

HORSE HEAVEN HILLS

2018 Columbia Valley Lonesome Spring
Vineyard Syrah ^ Tense and mildly smoky
with scents of dark plum and pine embers,
there's a minerality to this wine that reminded
one taster of oyster shells and added to that
initial tension. Much is still in play in this
young wine, suggesting cellar time before
serving it with braised beef. -P.J.C. §
522304
2017 Columbia Valley Lagniappe Red
Willow Syrah ^ Gramercy's Red Willow
bottling is tense and savory, a remarkably
cool expression of Columbia Valley fruit.
It leads with scents of olive and pine tips,
a bit of black plum and mocha which, with
air, becomes more biting, like espresso. The
flavors are savory, the fruit remaining in the
background for now, with a firm texture that
calls for something rich to offset, like pork
roast. -P.J.C. §
522288

with a dusty, satiny power that pretty much
begs for ribs. -P.J.C. §
522161

522113

92 | Alexandria Nicole

$28

2018 Horse Heaven Hills Jet Black Syrah
(Best Buy) ^ This is a big red that channels
complex savory accents through its
concentrated fruit. Scents of violet, carob,
plum and tar give way to dark fruit and the
textural richness of its extract. It's plush and
powerful, with the savor and complexity for
lamb. -P.J.C. §

R E D M O U N TA I N
522190

93 | DeLille Cellars

$75

2017 Red Mountain Grand Ciel Syrah ^
Impressive in its restraint, this wine starts
off with a brooding scent-tobacco, cured
meat, and loam-only to throw off that funk
to reveal a bright cherry core. It has plenty
of concentration, but the fruit feels lifted and
luminous, Luxardo-cherry bright, with the
tannins for duck breast. -P.J.C. §
522092

93 | Liminal

$75

2018 Red Mountain High Canyon
Weathereye Vineyard Syrah ^ This is a big
wine as Red Mountain does big, with levels of
extract and tannin that would seem excessive
if they weren't conjoined by the region's heat
and heft. This one smells of mocha and plum,
cherries and minerals, with a palate wallop
that's a single knockout punch, delivered

2017 Red Mountain Estate Bottled Red
Mountain Syrah (Best Buy) ^ Scents of ash
and mocha lead in this powerfully built syrah
from the warmth of Red Mountain. Its flavors
are dark-fruited and heady, with an in-yourface concentration of raspberry preserves,
poised for grilled pork loin. -P.J.C. §
522160
2017 Red Mountain Estate Syrah ^ The syrah
is dark and concentrated with scents of ash
and tar. The flavors are lush and plummy,
with enough juiciness and savory structure
to play off the core richness. -P.J.C. §
522087
2017 Red Mountain Ciel du Cheval
Vineyard Syrah (Best Buy) ^ Dark and inky,
this leads with scents of licorice and black
mint. Texturally, it's monolithic (it's Red
Mountain, after all) with a firm skeleton and
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Wine & Spirits - February 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - February 2021
