Exciting Red
It's a long way from the Rhone Valley to the Pacific Northwest, but syrah is right at home in both places

Eastern Washington's reputation for good syrah has emerged in a mere flicker of viticultural time. The first syrah grapes weren't planted in the state until 1986 - in Mike Sauer's Red Willow Vineyard, at the northwestern end of the Yakima Valley -- and 90 percent of the planted acreage today (some 2,000 acres in all) is less than eight years old. That said, more than 60 Washington wineries now play the syrah game, many offering several bottlings in each vintage, though quantities are usually small.

Syrah suits Washington; it has demonstrated surprising resistance to hard winter freezes and handles summer heat better than Bordeaux varieties. Columbia Winery's David Lake, unofficial dean of the state's winemakers, thinks it is "intrinsically a finer variety than merlot" and uses it to make what he calls "the most exciting red we do."

Washington syrah comes in a wide range of styles and prices; inexpensive, tasty, true-to-variety, machine-harvested wines that compare to syrah-based blends from southern France; juicy mid-priced wine that's better built than many editions of Australian shiraz; and a small number of pricey world-class bottlings. Standouts in a recent tasting were sturdy, masculine wines from the geologically ancient hillsides at Red Willow, finely structured wines from coarsely sandy soils in the eastern Yakima Valley, and complex syrahs from stony stream beds in the Walla Walla Valley.

At its best, Washington syrah displays the deep color, violet-laced perfume, and peppery palate of hermitage and cote-rotie, but with less tannin. Vivid, focused fruit is more common than overt jamminess, perhaps owing to cold nights at the end of the growing season. But there are few genuine syrah specialists (like California's "Rhone Rangers") on the scene, the summer since 1998 have been atypically hot, and only a few producers have made more than three or four vintages, so it is too early to generalize.

--John Withrop Haeger

Tasting Notes
Here are a dozen of the best examples of Washington State syrah, in a range of prices, now on the market. (See the Pantry, Page 114, for sources)

Badger Mountain Vintner's Estate Columbia Valley 2002 ($15)
Aromas of wet stone and fir; then white pepper, mint, and graphite on the palate. Intense and distinctive with good structure and a lively finish.

Cayuse Vineyards Calilloux Vineyard Walla Walla Valley 2002 ($55)
Dark black-red but translucent wine, displaying aromas of blackberries and peppered beef; it coats the mouth gently with fine-grained tannins, with licorice at the end and considerable length.

Columbia Winery Red Willow Vineyard Yakima Valley 2000 ($30)
Floral aromas, blackberry fruit, and (more than four years after the vintage) meatiness; on the palate there is bright fruit, edge, and grip.

Covey Run Winery Washington State 2002 ($9)
Aromas of cherry candy and oak-derived vanilla; then sweet, straightforward, and varietally correct, with a short, extracted finish - and the price is right.

DiStefano Columbia Valley "Syrah R" 2002 ($32)
Aromas of india ink, evergreen, and vanilla; flavors of blackberry, wet slate, and charcoal, with fine-grained tannin; finishes mostly dry with a hint of sweetness.

Dunham Cellars Columbia Valley 2001 ($90)
Stunningly complex nose of cured meat, leather, and black pepper that gives way to undertones of nut and butterscotch; bright and rich on the palate, with cherry and tobacco predominant; intense, elegant, concentrated, and fine.

Dunham Cellars Lewis Vineyard Columbia Valley 2002 ($75)
Dense, black, opaque wine, lavishly oaked, with aromas of tarragon and aniseed. Inky and cherry-grapey in the mouth, showing flavors of ginger and clove; rich and mouth-coating, but sweet and the core and still elegant.

K Vintners Cougar Hills Vineyard Walla Walla Valley 2003 ($40)
Opaque purplish red; aromas of earthy smoked meat plus toffee, gum camphor, nutmeg, and beeswax; bright red licorice in the mouth; mouth-coating and long but of just medium weight.

L'ecole No. 41 Columbia Valley 2002 ($30)
Suggestions of earth and bacon on the nose, with some traces of wet slate; then herbal earthiness in tandem with bright, cherry-raspberry fruit. Long and mouth-coating, and peppery-spicy at the end.

McCrea Cellars Boushey Grande Cote Vineyard Yakima Valley 2002 ($55)
Decidedly herbal nose with aromas of fir balsam and barrel-derived vanilla; then rich, oak-marked, and sweet on the palate, displaying flavors of dark chocolate.

McCrea Cellars Cuvee Orleans Yakima Valley 2001 ($60)
Nose of pepper and dark cherries; intense and sweet on the palate with more cherry, plum, and black pepper; syrah for zinfandel lovers.

Three Rivers Winery Ahler Vineyard Walla Walla Valley 2002 ($39)
Dense but still transparent purplish-red; aromas of black tea and butterscotch over subtle black fruit; toffee, tar, wet slate, and black pepper flavors on a medium-weight frame; bright, long finish.

--J.W.H.