K Vintners

Located in the garage of his modest family home, down the road from Walla Walla Vintners and the local community college, Charles Smith's "K Vintners" is dedicated to making the best Syrah in the world. Along with his friend Christophe Baron, of Cayuse fame, Charles is striving to create the most interesting, complex, intriguing Syrahs possible.

K Vintners Winery

And he just might be succeeding.

Charles Smith is both owner and winemaker at K Vintners and previously lived in Scandanavia. Originally from Northern California, her has been involved with wine professionally and personnally his whole life. Currrently K Vintners is producing wine from 3 different viticultural zones: Red Mountain, Columbia Valley and the Walla Walla Valley. Each of these areas are proving to be unique and impressive for the viticulture of Syrah.

In April '02 K Vintners planted two seperate blocks of vineyards to Syrah adjacent to the winery in the rocky dry creek beds that run through K Vintners property. The winery produces small lots of single vineyard Syrah, with production level is at 2000 cases per year, which is divided between five wines.

The "K" Syrahs all show a great deal of terroir in their flavors. Most of the winery's production is very small lot single vineyard Syrah, with a second label, "The Magnificent Wine Company" producing some blends.

The K Syrah Morrison Lane 01 $45 is full of herbal notes, with lavender, violets, fresh dried grass and thyme in the nose. Big fruit is well integrated with more herbal and gamey notes in the flavors, and the finish is exceptionally smooth, yet shows good tannic structure.

The K Syrah "End of the Road" 02 $30 shows a very different profile from the Morrison. Its nose is dominated by fresh pipe tobacco, cedar, and rich warm spice, with flavors of intense black plum, black cherry, licorice, and pie spices. A unique hint of violets completes the finish. A fascinating wine.

The Magnificent Wine Company Merlot 02 $20 is made from K Vintner's prized "En Cerise Vineyard" fruit, and is made with Bordeaux styled intensity. The wine is richly meaty and big, with a lot of tannic backbone and structure. No wimpy wine here, this is a big, darkly colored, hearty wine to stand up to venison or cassoulet.

K Vintners' Vineyard