A Clone of the Rhone and Rhone to the Bone
Sure there's a time and a place for jammy style Syrah. It's easy to find. We think you'll like these truer to old world cousins more. Exhuberant, superb black fruit intermingles with essence of Rhone. Look for hints of incense, dried herbs, pepper, grille pain, and smoke. If you like the exhuberant, broadly flavored style of Northern Rhone, you'll love these wines.
The essence of Northern Rhone Syrah shines through in the Trust and Hyperion Syrahs. And the classic Southern Rhone blend of Syrah, Grenache, and Mourvedre is given a Northwest twist by Andrew Rich, but stays true to its old world cousins.
Andrew Rich's Rhone Style Blend:
Cout d'Etat Rhone Blend 06
With this, his twelfth harvest in the Northwest, Andrew Rich is close to the front of the line when it comes to getting the choice fruit. And with his highly regarded Syrahs and his Coup D'Etat - a bold channeling of Châteauneuf-du-Pape - he's one of the primary reasons people are lining up behind him to take on the dominion of Bordeaux varietals in the Columbia valley. It is a revolution that is slow in coming, and one that largely exists because of innovative small producers like Rich.
Andrew Rich Coup d' Etat 06 $23.95/$21.55 shows off Andrew's skill with Rhone varietal blends. An expansive aroma of black plum and black cherry complements sweet red and black cherry flavors, black raspberry, and black plum. There's that characteristic Rhone wine sense of olive brine and grilled herbs. The finish offers white pepper, cherry/plum and lots of minerals. Both complex and fun to drink, Andrew really shows his stuff with this beautifully crafted great value.
Andrew is a master at the grapes of the Rhone (remember he worked with CA Rhone Ranger Randal Graham of Bonny Doone Winery before moving to Oregon). A blend of Grenache, Mourvedre, and Syrah from famed Ciel du Cheval Vineyard. Rustic, big, classic "country french" Rhone style with a Washington State twist.
Read
Andrew Rich's Coup D'Etat
The Quiet Revolution, by Tom Colligan
Trust Cellars's Southern Rhone Inspired Syrah 2006
Trust Cellars' 2006 Syrah ($29.95/$26.95) is a deliciously pure Syrah, signaled by aromas of black fruit, bacon fat, and white pepper. Deep, juicy flavors of black cherry and black raspberry fill your mouth and sail through the finish, picking up hints of campfire smoke, minerals, and cola spice. The 06 Trust offers refinement and balance at a time when so many new world Syrahs are over-the-top. An excellent value, and an Avalon Big Reds Club selection.
About Trust Cellars and Steve Brooks
After reading an inspiring New York Times article on winemaking in Eastern Washington, the Brooks family decided happiness was worth the risk of leaving life as they knew it in Atlanta behind to give the winemaking business a try. The family up and moved to remote wine hub of Walla Walla, Washington.
Five years later, when Brooks and his wife Lori (who had also worked for CNN) put their heads together to come up with a name for their new winery, the word came quickly. "When we sat down and thought about what we had done--" Brooks said, "--quitting our well-paying jobs, selling our house, taking the kids out of school and moving cross-country to a town where we didn't know anyone... and then on top of that starting a winery... Trust seemed like the perfect description."
Read more about Steve Brooks and Trust Cellars
Steve Brooks and Trust Cellars
Michael Beckley's Last Syrah: Quercus Hyperion Syrah 06
Hyperion Syrah 06 ($21.95/$19.75) opens with rich scents of triple berry pie highlighted by subtle grilled herbs. The flavors explode with blackberries, black raspberries, and blueberries. Peppered bacon, earth, and cocoa joins the rich fruit near the finish, which coasts, showing nice structure. Only 70 cases were produced, from Smith-Cerne vineyard in the Columbia Gorge. Hyperion 06 was aged for 20 months using no new wood.
About Michael Beckley
People love to pair wine with things - food, personality types, settings, occasions. Quercus's Michael Beckley wants to compose wines that pair with our moods, or the specific cravings of our taste buds. Sure, he's mastered the chemistry of winemaking, but it's the feeling of his wines that he's ultimately obsessed with.
With so many big wineries these days focused more on the lab than the love, it's heartening to know that Beckley, while very down to earth about the technicalities of winemaking, doesn't shrug off what bliss may come from a well-composed wine.
Michael is leaving the world of wine, and this is his last vintage of Hyperion Syrah. We hope, after a well deserved chance to try new things and go new places, he occasionally touches base in Oregon, and makes us more of his unforgettable wines.
Read
Quercus Wines
Michael Beckley Makes Wine and Music for the Senses
by Alison Ruch, Staff Writer
See our Current List of all Under $30 Northwest Big Reds
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