Grand Reve Vintners Project

Doubt if anyone outside of the PNW has heard of this effort, but curious to hear what you may think about it if you have had the wines or know about it.

For those of you who don’t know about it, it is essentially a terroir project, the wines being made from the same Red Mountain fruit source each year, but with a different winemaker at the helm each vintage.

http://www.grandrevevintners.com/

Took a flyer on a three pack of the Syrah Collab Series III. Havent popped one yet, but gets high scores on CT and from RP (FWIW). Would be curious to hear people’s impressions as well.

I drove over there back in November and tasted through their lineup. Call me impressed with their effort. My favorites were the Collaboration Series II, IV and the Reserve Syrah. I went with the intention of just tasting and I wound up coming home with a mixed half case of wine. I will be going back.

David

Like David, i enjoy the collab 2 and reserve syrah. impressed for a young operation.

They’re tasting these at McCarthy & Schiering tomorrow at both shops if you’re in the Seattle area and want to try the wines. 11am - 5pm (it was these Saturday tastings that really got me into wine… grr… )

mark et al… note that Ryan and Paul aren’t making the wines - they’re working with well regarded winemakers. What this means for the wines over the years is unknown, but I don’t know if the same winemakers will always be doing the same wines from year to year. That’s not necessarily bad, but it is something to be aware of, both in why they are good out of the chute and in watching them year to year.

I tasted one of the Syrahs out of barrel and it was interesting. Ben Smith of Cadence made the series I and II Syrah (Mark McNeilly made the series III) and it was, I think, Ben’s first foray into Syrah. One of the Grand Reve principals is the Ciel du Cheval vineyard manager (Ryan Johnson) and a nice guy.

Tanzer covered these in his recent WA issue I believe. Not sure if WS or TWA did.

Thanks to all for the kind words and interest in Grand Reve. GR has a lot of moving parts, so I wanted to add a few details to what has been already said.

We currently have 6 winemakers working with us; each is assigned a “Collaboration Number” that, much like a football jersey number, will be retired when that particular winemaker eventually departs from the Grand Reve team. The Grand Reve lineup as it now stands:

Owners: Paul McBride and Ryan Johnson
Grower: me
Collaboration I (2004-present) and Reserve Syrah: Ben Smith, Cadence
Collaboration II (2006-present): Ross Mickel, Ross Andrew Winery
Collaboration III (2006-present): Mark McNeilly, Mark Ryan Winery
Collaboration IV (2006-present): Carolyn Lakewold, Donedei
Collaboration V (2008-present): Chris Gorman, Gorman Winery
Collaboration VI (2009-present): James Mantone, Syncline

Sometimes the conditions in the vineyard are so perfect in a given vintage that we will also produce unique 2-to-4 barrel lots of reserve-designated wine on top of our regular offerings. That’s enough for now…

Thanks again!
Ryan

+1
Bought six back in October, and splurged and broke out three over the holidays; Collab II, Collab IV and the '05 Reserve Syrah. Enjoyed all three, but the Collab IV was drinking fab at the moment. Enjoyed the other two as well and would highly recommend, but will probably wait a year or two to try those again.

List me as a fan of GR!

Cheers,

Steve

So Ryan, I guess I had been under the mistaken impression that each of the Collaboration # were tied to a distinct vintage, but it sounds like there will be multiple vintages of each Collaboration #? So for instance, if I particularly like Mark McNeilly, he may have an '06, '07, '08 etc all labeled as Collaboration III?

Hi Scott-

Exactly right. We target each winemaker to craft about 200 cases each year, dependent on vintage conditions, which puts GR at an annual total production of around 1200 cases (not including Reserves). Part of the fun for us has been comparing a particular wine from vintage to vintage–the 2006 Collab III is quite approachable while the 2007 III (to be released this Spring) should not be opened around children, delicate women, or men of weak constitution .

Cheers!
Ryan