K Vintners The Deal Syrah 2017
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Suckling
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Dunnuck
Jeb -
Parker
Robert
Product Details
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Winemaker Notes
2017 was a fantastic year for making wine with a cool spring and a fair amount of rain. Washington had an ideal spring for heathy vines. The moderate temperatures during summer were perfect for small clusters and yet delayed veraison into the fall where we had a consistent ripening season that allowed us to hang the fruit for perfect tannin and flavor without losing acidity or acquiring too much alcohol. Overall it was a vintage to remember.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is very typical of an excellent syrah with sweet tobacco, berries, dried meat and spice. Medium to full body. Chocolate, spice and ripe-fruit flavors through to the finish. Vivid and rich.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Similarly colored, the 2017 Syrah The Deal comes from the Sundance Vineyard and gravelly, sandy, volcanic soils. It was not destemmed and was brought up in 30% new puncheons. It's another ethereal, complex, yet powerful wine that has loads of black raspberry and blackberry fruits, smoked game, leafy herbs, and tobacco aromas and flavors. Medium to full-bodied and just seamless on the palate, it's going to evolve for 10-15 years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Opening with a delightful nose, the 2017 Syrah The Deal Sundance Vineyard gives up classic aromas of blackberry reduction, black peppercorn, savory dried herbs, umami and elegant French oak tones. Full-bodied, the wine is generous and balanced on the palate, showing precision and finesse with lively acidity and lifting yet fine-grained tannins. The wine concludes with a delightfully long finish, leaving a dusty sensation of bitter dark chocolate and blackberry skin flavors in the mouth. Brilliant!
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Wine
Located at the base of the Blue Mountains in Walla Walla Washington, K Vintners opened its doors to the public on December 3rd, 2001. The property at 820 Mill Creek Road where the winery sits was homesteaded in 1853 with the adjacent farmhouse built in 1872. The winery grounds with Titus Creek flowing through the lawn and the old pioneer planted trees, is a little slice of heartland Americana. The Winemaker: He loves to drink wine! Charles Smith, proprietor and winemaker, comes to Walla Walla after 11 years in Scandanavia. Originally from northern California, he has been involved with wine personally and professionally his whole life. And did we forget to mention... he loves to drink wine! The Vineyards: K Vintners is producing wines from 2 distinctive viticultural zones: Wahluke Slope and Walla Walla Valley. Each of these areas are unique and awesome for Syrah and the Field Blends produced. In April '02 two seperate blocks of vineyards were planted to Syrah adjacent to the winery in the rocky dry creek beds that run through K Vintners property.
Marked by an unmistakable deep purple hue and savory aromatics, Syrah makes an intense, powerful and often age-worthy red. Native to the Northern Rhône, Syrah achieves its maximum potential in the steep village of Hermitage and plays an important component in the Red Rhône Blends of the south, adding color and structure to Grenache and Mourvèdre. Syrah is the most widely planted grape of Australia and is important in California and Washington. Sommelier Secret—Such a synergy these three create together, the Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre trio often takes on the shorthand term, “GSM.”
Distinguished by a broad, south-exposed, uniform slope and landlocked by the Columbia River to its south and Saddle Mountains to its north, the Wahluke Slope AVA of Washington holds 15% of the total vine acreage of the state and takes its name from the Native American word for “watering place.”
Incidentally the Wahluke Slope AVA has one of the hottest and driest climates of the state so irrigation is not only essential, but also allows complete grower control of vine vigor. On top of its arid and warm environment, strong summer winds blow across this broad slope and ensure both smaller leaf size and grape clusters. The result is top quality wines with great concentration, phenolic ripeness, body and depth of flavor.
Vineyards cover the AVA from 425 to 1,480 feet along the slope. Its deep soils of wind-blown alluvium and sand with a depth, on average, of more than 5 feet along the continuous grade allow optimal drainage for the vines.
Thriving varieties include Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Riesling, Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc.
Merlots are rich in sweet, ripe cherry, red currant, raspberry and cocoa. Syrahs tend to express black and blue fruit along with savory notes. Wahluke Cabernets are rich in stewed red and black berries.