2018 RJ Wines Syrah Beyond the Pale Rosé Boushey Vineyard

Full Pull

• By Paul Zitarelli
  Full Pull Washington Rosé, 5/13/2019, (See more on Full Pull...)

  (RJ Wines Beyond The Pale Rose Boushey Vineyard) Hello friends. With the growing popularity of rosé and number of jaw-droppingly good examples increasing at a steady rate, it’s important that we spend as much time as possible dispelling myths about summer’s favorite wine. Starting with this one: Rosé is better from certain places and worse from others. While this may have been the case at one point, it’s just not true anymore. Rosé from Washington can be just as gulpable as anywhere else in the world. Offering Washington rosé becomes more and more exciting ever year. The category of highly-sought-after Washington rosés is expanding exponentially, with more and more wineries making pink juice and farmers growing grapes exclusively for pink juice. Gone are the days of stuck fermentations and saigneed Cabernet. Washington winemakers have seemingly cracked the code on rosé, and we couldn’t be happier about it. Today, we have three superb examples: One of the most exciting changes for Full pull over the last few years has been the opening of our tasting room; one of the most exciting parts of opening a tasting room has been keeping an eye out for standout wines to sell on our small-but-mighty retail shelf. Last year, Rachel Joy’s first vintage of Beyond the Pale was one such wine. Now, in its second iteration, Rachel has enough wine to offer the full list. We consider this Boushey rosé among the most exciting pink debutantes of the last few years. Rachel is a one woman show—a biotech professional who fell in love with wine and traveled around the world to make it. She made wine in California, Hawaii, Italy, Australia, and New Zealand before ending up in Washington. While Rachel’s name may be a new one to many list members, Boushey Vineyard certainly is not. Boushey is a high elevation vineyard in Yakima famous for its Rhone varieties. One of the biggest coups for Rachel has got to be sourcing this fruit from day one; Dick Boushey’s grapes are highly desirable. In this rosé, which is 100% Syrah, the grapes were all whole-cluster pressed and fermented in stainless steel before aging sur lie for three months. It clocks in at 12.5% alcohol and pours a perfect pale pink. The nose begins with strawberry, white peach, limestone, a touch of leesy cream, and herbaceous green subtleties. The palate is delicate—ultra fresh as it features minerality, acidity, and plenty of warm weather fruit. It’s wonderfully provencal and a knockout second vintage for this wine.

• By Paul Zitarelli
  Full Pull 36 Bottles: Q1, 2/10/2019, (See more on Full Pull...)

  (RJ Wines Beyond The Pale Rose Boushey Vineyard) Hello friends. Once each quarter this year, we’ll be offering wines from 36 Bottles of Wine, my book that was released last September. We’re going to try to assemble all nine wines from the three months in question, but it won’t always be easy; some categories are only available during certain times of the year. My overarching goal is that we’ve offered all 36 wines at least once by the end of 2019. Also, if you read the book over the holidays and enjoyed it, please consider writing a review on Amazon or Goodreads. It’ll help other like-minded folks discover the title. Thank you! Now, onto the wines (and book). We’ve managed to source eight of the nine wines from Jan/Feb/Mar. The only exception is Grignan-les-Adhemar, which is a category we’ve had success offering in the past. I’ll continue looking for a bottle of Grignan, and in the meantime, I hope those of you who purchased the book will enjoy following along. [Excerpts from the book will be in italics. Copyright 2018 By Paul Zitarelli. All rights reserved. Excerpted from 36 Bottles of Wine by permission of Sasquatch Books.] One of the most exciting changes for Full pull over the last few years has been the opening of our tasting room; one of the most exciting parts of opening a tasting room has been keeping an eye out for standout wines to sell on our small-but-mighty retail shelf. Last year, Rachel Joy’s first vintage of Beyond the Pale was one such wine. Now, in its second iteration, Rachel has enough wine to offer the full list. We consider this Boushey rosé among the most exciting pink debutantes of the last few years. Rachel is a one woman show—a biotech professional who fell in love with wine and traveled around the world to make it. She made wine in California, Hawaii, Italy, Australia, and New Zealand before ending up in Washington. While Rachel’s name may be a new one to many list members, Boushey Vineyard certainly is not. Boushey is a high elevation vineyard in Yakima famous for its Rhone varieties. One of the biggest coups for Rachel has got to be sourcing this fruit from day one; Dick Boushey’s grapes are highly desirable. In this rosé, which is 100% Syrah, the grapes were all whole-cluster pressed and fermented in stainless steel before aging sur lie for three months. It clocks in at 12.5% alcohol and pours a perfect pale pink. The nose begins with strawberry, white peach, limestone, a touch of leesy cream, and herbaceous green subtleties. The palate is delicate—ultra fresh as it features minerality, acidity, and plenty of warm weather fruit. It’s wonderfully provencal and a knockout second vintage for this wine.