JancisRobinson.com

• By Alistair Cooper MW
  9/10/2019 (link)

  (Two Vintners Syrah Columbia Valley Red) Subscribe to see review text.

JebDunnuck.com

• By Jeb Dunnuck
  The 2016s From Washington State, 4/11/2019 (link)

  (Two Vintners Syrah Red) Subscribe to see review text.

Full Pull

• By Paul Zitarelli
  Full Pull The Way Forward, Continued, 1/9/2019

  (Two Vintners Syrah Columbia Valley) Phenol55 REMINDER: Full Pull has partnered with Phenol55 for *optional* storage services for our list members. P55 is a full-service wine cellar less than ten minutes from our warehouse, in the subterranean basement of the Malt House in the heart of Georgetown. See here for more details, and then contact Phenol55 if you’re interested in signing up. ----- Hello friends. In what is becoming something of an early January tradition, we have arguably the finest twenty-dollar Syrah made in Washington each year:We like to offer this wine nice and early, close to release, because what seems to happen each year is that in subsequent months, a series of accolades will drive a sales frenzy that will make this wine disappear with haste. Both the 2013 and the 2014 earned matching 91pt reviews from Wine Advocate and Wine Spectator; the ’15 grabbed a 91pt review from Spectator as well. At Enthusiast, Sean Sullivan rated the 2014 vintage 93pts (close to unheard of for a wine at this price point) and the 2015 91pts. The 2013, 2014, and 2015 also took home back to back to back wins in Seattle Magazine’s Wine Awards for the Syrah $25-and-Under category, a crazy-impressive feat for a blind, multi-judge-paneled competition. The last couple years I have called Morgan Lee’s Columbia Valley Syrah “the way forward for Washington Syrah,” and this year continues the theme. What I mean: currently, Washington Syrah is beloved by Rhone-heads within Washington. Outside of our state’s confines, it ranges from complete unknown to tough sell. Syrah in general is a weak category right now; Washington still an immature region in terms of national sales. And to some degree that’s fine. We could be like Switzerland. The Swiss have this beautiful wine producing country, and they consume the vast majority of it in-country. I’m sure many Swiss vignerons make an honest living this way. So that’s one way forward for Washington: root root root for the home team. But I feel like a wine like this, priced like this, presages another way forward, where Washington Syrah could be competitive on a national level, and maybe eventually a global level. What Washington has – and this is rare outside the Rhone Valley – is the ability to produce Syrahs with earthy, fecund, funky character. But in most cases, the wines that display this character command steep prices - $40 and up, often $50 and up – and come in small quantities. What’s getting more and more exciting by the year with Morgan’s Columbia Valley bottling is that it offers funky nuance at a $20 price point, and in decent quantity. That price point is important. Important not only for retail, where many of us put $20/bottle as our purchasing ceiling, but also for restaurants, where it translates to a $13 or $14 glass-pour. That means broad distribution. That means spreading the word that Washington can make this kind of Syrah at this kind of price. In my opinion, this type of well-priced Syrah – ripe berry fruit combined with earthy/brinky/funky nuance – is a niche waiting to be exploited, and Washington can do it. There are plenty of Walla Walla and Yakima Valley Vineyards that can bring the funk; plenty of vineyards from across the greater Columbia Valley that can bring the plush berry fruit. This wine is a fine blueprint of how to proceed. Knowing what I know about some of these vineyards, I’d guess the savory threads (earthy, meaty, briny, etc.) come from the 24% Dineen fruit, the 8% Stoney Vine fruit, the 3% Boushey fruit, and some of the 23% Olsen fruit; then the yumball portion comes from the 16% Discovery fruit, the 15% Stonetree fruit, the 11% Pepper Bridge fruit. This also sees a small Olsen Vineyard Roussanne coferment, clocks in at 14.5% listed alc, and begins with a nose featuring a core of marionberry fruit lifted by floral topnotes and then complicated by all manner of savory threads: bacon fat, green olive, sanguine minerality. The palate continues the pinpoint mix of fruity and savory, all on a seamless, mouth-saturating frame. All told, this is another spectacular vintage of what is rapidly becoming a standard-bearer Syrah for Washington.