Eric takes a look at WashState Syrah:
WashStateSyrah
When he took a last look in 2005, he found them big/oaky/alcoholic. In this 2’nd look, over 10 yrs later, he grudgingly found there was some improvement, but too many still too powerful & generic. They’ve not shown the improvement that he found in Calif Syrahs.
Interesting read.
Tom
Hmm…
In honor of this post I opened a Gramercy Walla Walla Valley Syrah, 2010. It is outstanding, and getting better and better as the evening goes on. Oddly enough, this is my third Washington Syrah in the past week and a half and all have been really nice and quite different from each other. I guess if you go by my track record you would say that WA producers did get the message. But I guess I live in WA and get to pick and choose. And I don’t profess to declare a verdict on WA Syrahs as a whole based on a small sample.
First up this week was a Sparkman Darkness Syrah, 2012. Sparkman is definitely a winery that goes for the big and bold rather then AFWE, but the main discussion when we were tasting was whether the olives were green or black. Next up was W.T. Vintners Les Collines Vineyard Syarh, 2012. This was lighter on its feet. It was a wine that would really build flavor as you rolled it around in your mouth and it was fun to watch it gain weight as the evening went on. A really, really nice effort. And the Gramercy is in front of me is generous and savory all the way through, but it is more meaty then olivey.
I’ve never tasted wines from most of the wineries that Asimov reviewed in this piece. One exception is a winery that produced one of the wines that Asimov’s panel did not like. I didn’t taste that exact wine, but I didn’t enjoy their lineup as a whole, so I’m likely to agree on that one. I have a bottle in the cellar that does match one they tasted, but a different vintage, that I received as a gift. I guess we’ll have to give that one a try to see what we think.
2013 Sleight of Hand Psychedelic Syrah was the best widely available wine we tasted last year. I hate myself for only buying 6 bottles and I don’t care if Florence Fabricant hates this wine.
If I drank the Syrahs Asimov did I would not be terribly impressed by WA Syrah either. Pretty hard to pass judgment on a varietal from an entire state after sampling 10 random bottles IMO. He did get a few things right - many WA Syrahs are overpriced and the best Syrahs come from Walla Walla and The Rocks (which, as he noted, is technically in Oregon).
My opinion is that there are a handful of producers making unique, interesting Syrahs from sites that are distinctive, but the vast majority of WA Syrah is fairly pedestrian. As Washington winemakers continue to hone their craft and really focus on the areas where Syrah can thrive I think you’ll see better WA Syrah. Due to high pricing or scarcity outside of the Pacific NW, my guess is WA Syrah will never achieve mass market notoriety/success.
As for the producers I think make interesting Syrah - Cayuse, No Girls, Horsepower, Gramercy, Kerloo, Waters (at least the Forgotten Hills vineyard designate they used to make; Gramercy recently bought the vineyard and just released their first bottling), Maison Bleue, Rasa, Rotie, Sleight of Hand (Funkadelic). I’ve heard lots of good things about WT Vintners, but have yet to try.
Perhaps things have changed, but I laughed out loud that Asimov loved the K Vintners. I’ve had quite a few of their Syrahs, although none in the past few vintages, and found them big and monolithic.
Can someone paste the article? My phone keeps crashing it when I click read more.
I agree that prices CAN get stupid in Washington, but there are a billion smaller producers that should have gotten recognition based on consistent Syrah at fair prices. Washington is a big place.
I have tasted fruity Syrah, oaky Syrah, funky Syrah…
I could say the same about just about any type of region’s wines.
McCrea offers several Rhone-style wines and, yes, a couple are (or were) too heavily dependent on oak flavors. I think the near future will bring Washington into the world’s eye with exceptional, diverse selections of Syrah, Cabernet Franc, and possibly Tempranillo.
I love the Gramercy Mourvedre, have yet to try the Syrah bottlings.
Mark Ryan’s Board Track Racer "Suicide Shift was a good wine for $20-25. I still have a bottle of his “Crazy Mary” Mourvedre sitting around.
Pretty good list but I would add Betz and Force Majeure.
Tom
I found the point striking that he made about Maison Bleue. Many of the smaller production wines that I believe would show much better than that list aren’t available at retail in NYC.
I’m not an apologist for Washington wine at all. The idea that something from K wins a tasting makes me wonder what wasn’t in the tasting. The difficulty doubles down when the excellent California small production Syrahs (and nearly everything else) are readily available in NYC. Would we really put Ex Umbris & Dusted Valley in a tasting with Copain Les Voisins & Arnot Roberts? Probably not.
My 2013 Maison Bleue club shipment arrives tomorrow, I wouldn’t think you’d find it in retail stores yet. And, he only made 197 cases of the 2012 Voyageur syrah, so I wouldn’t expect he finds that either. What I’m super curious to find out is why the 2012 MB Syrah and Grenache retail at $55, but this year the respective wines retail at $40. A 27% price drop from 2012 to 2013?
Asimov is certainly a polarizing writer. I remember a number of years ago when I ‘applauded’ an article on CA syrah that he had written for the mere fact that a national publication was giving some love to a variety that I feel needs and deserves it. In that article, he made it clear that he felt that the vast majority of CA syrah was boring and that what he felt really stood out were those syrahs grown in cooler climates, produced by folks who were actually passionate about the variety and not making it as an ‘add on’ to their line-ups.
At that time, on another board, I was lambasted by many CA winemakers not included in that article, including Justin Smith and Manfred Krankl, who felt the article was too narrow in focus and that Asimov clearly had a bias towards a certain style of syrah.
It really appears nothing has changed here. He digs Northern-Rhone style syrahs that show non-fruit elements like olives, flowers smoke and herbs. He does not like syrahs that scream of fruit - and most of the time, but not always, these are coming from warmer climate sites.
I get it - I truly do. But one of the ‘challenges’ to me with Asimov is that he only tastes wines that are readily available in the NY market. Yes, he is writing for a publication based there, but folks around the country can and do read his stuff as well. Therefore, many many wines will never be included on his lists - and that’s unfortunate for consumers who purchase not at retail but via online ordering.
As fas as his favorite, I know that K produces an entire range of wines, including many syrahs. My guess is that some of them are more fruit forward as others have stated, and some, like this one, just must not be. I haven’t had this wine myself so I can’t say, but again, Asimov makes it clear the style he is looking for and this one must have fit it to a ‘t’.
The other thing in the article that was clear was that one of the somms really had no interest in this category at all. I wonder if she went into the tasting with this pre-conceived notion, for if that’s the case, she probably just should not have been a part of it 
Cheers.
Larry, I agree with your comments, especially the questionable inclusion of a sommelier who is not a strong proponent of the article’s focus.
Please, if any of you decide to write about the use of brown (pork) gravy over rice, do not consult a white gravy lovin’ Texan! 
Oh, and Larry: your turn.
Interesting. He said basically the exact same thing in this article (“This may be because too many vineyards are planted in the wrong places: fertile, loamy, warm sites rather than the rocky, cool sites that can help make syrah distinctive. Or it may be that some winemakers have not made the effort to focus specifically on syrah, instead using techniques more appropriate for cabernet or merlot.”) . And I guess that makes sense he would be consistent. But the funny thing was that he also said “Two were from Red Mountain, another region with good potential…” The Red Mountain AVA is the warmest AVA in WA.
Hmmmmm, Larry…not sure I’d agree about Eric being “polarizing”. He is who he is and I find his comments rather mainstream and a bit plain vanilla, including this article.
When he does an article like this, surveying an entire region that makes hundreds of examples of Syrah, based on what he can find in NYC, and only a dozen or so wines,
and then paints a broad-brush overview, based on that rather limited sample…of course he’s going to get a lot of flack from people who know those wines
much better than he. “Bad article…he didn’t include such&such a winerie’s Syrah…blah/blah/blah”. I just sorta took his article at face value & was interested on his
take on a very broad subject…taken from a very narrow viewpoint.
OTOH…when he does an article on Marche Lacrima or Friuli Schioppettino…I’ll be right there to rip into him!!! ![[snort.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/b/bdc3944606213c4dca6c1169cf0a166c8bc4f8c9.gif "snort.gif"){kind=small}
Tom
My ‘polarizing’ comment comes from the fact that he lets everyone know his ‘lean’ on a specific variety or style of wine - and if that is not your thoughts on it, you might find his comments too ‘subjective’.
Then again, ALL wine comments are ‘subjective’ - it just depends upon which side of his opinions you are on ![[wow.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/7/7d450e9830889c8943b674446a21b7254cad657e.gif "wow"){kind=small}
Cheers
This is the main thing to me. I like Eric’s writing and agree with a lot of his opinions. But the NY Times (despite having “New York” in the name) is really a national publication, and I wish the articles were written from that perspective.
Eric is more likely to find a lean Northern Rhone styled Syrah in the Willamette Valley than in the Columbia Valley or Walla Walla. Eastern Washington is a warm growing climate, no matter how far north, and how cold it gets in the winter. I never have thought of any K Vintners or Reynvaan wine to be N Rhone in style, despite the presence of meaty and other savory notes.
As noted above, there are a number of Washington Syrahs that are at least as far from the fruit forward end of the spectrum as those he liked.
P Hickner