Delmas SJR Vineyard Syrah 2021
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#10 in Jeb Dunnuck's Top 100 Wines of 2024, 97 points: "Sporting a deep ruby/plum hue, it offers up a serious bouquet of mulled red and black fruits, smoked meats, iron, and savory, peppery, gamey notes. This carries to a full-bodied Syrah with a gorgeous mid-palate, a layered, seamless mouthfeel, ample tannins, and a great finish. It's the most concentrated Syrah I've tasted from this estate, and it deserves 3-4 years of bottle age and will have 15+ of overall longevity."
97 points Vinous: "Gorgeous—basically everything that I had hoped for since tasting it from barrel. Smoky, savory and intense, it bursts from the glass with a blend of black olives, sage, air-dried meats, wild blackberries and violet florals. This sweeps across the palate, silky yet racy and energetic, with depths of wild berry fruit offset by hints of citrus and salty minerality. The 2021 maintains exceptional freshness while remaining long and potent, with a staining of licorice and a sensation of liquid stone that lingers on and on. What a beauty. Simply put, this is spellbinding."
While there are bigger names in Syrah from The Rocks, there are none finer than the Delmas Syrah we tasted this week. If I were picking just one word from the two huge reviews above...spellbinding. And magically so, I'll add. And definitely gorgeous. Okay, so it's tough to pick just one because it delights with a panoply of mesmerizing aromas, flavors, and complexities conveyed through such a supple and richly textured feel. It is broad-shouldered and generous while remaining lithe and not an ounce heavy-handed.
Welcome to Syrah from The Rocks District of Milton Freewater, as conceived lovingly through Brooke, Mary, and Steve Robertson's SJR Vineyard–you’re in for a thrill.
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This place ROCKS.
”The most distinctive AVA in the United States….making some of the greatest wines in America.” -Harvey Steiman, Wine Spectator
“This incredible terroir produces an exotic, perfumed, and textured style of wine that’s one of the most unique - and identifiable – in the world.” -Jeb Dunnuck
I spent an intense and intensive couple days in Walla Walla, much of which was kicking around cobblestones. Really. Walla Walla’s most famous growing district and set of vineyards, “The Rocks” is a special, small (only 472 acres planted in 20201!) swath of earth—the only AVA in the country whose boundaries have been fixed by virtue of a single soil series (Freewater Series) and a single land form (alluvial fan).
Basalt cobblestones deposited by the Walla Walla River play HEAVY in the soil composition; closer to the mouth of the river, the top six feet of soil is mostly rocks and as you travel further out, it’s a mix of rocks and loam (Freewater cobbly loam, as it’s known).
In addition to some of the household-name Rocks properties, I visited SJR Vineyard, a fabulous 13-acre parcel planted in 2007, lovingly tended by the Robertson family: founders Mary and Steve and their daughter Brooke, who charts the course forward.
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