Waters Winery
Syrah
Columbia Valley (Yakima AVA)
Walla Walla, WA
2006
14.2%
$25.88 at Whole Foods, Austin, TX
Color: Dark red with a purple spectrum; notably beautiful
Nose: Blueberry pie
Body: Full
Front: Creamy berries
Middle: Pepper and lamb
Back: Marmalade, a hint of leather--a long finish
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork
This is a really nice Syrah. My avid reader will note that I do not drink a lot of Washington wine. My friend Todd keeps trying to educate me about it, and, indeed, I like many wines from there. If I ever had the wherewithal to make notes while drinking wine with Todd, there'd be more reviews of things like Andrew Will on here. My excuse is that I'm young to serious wine drinking and am totally crushing on the 2005 California Cabernets. My bad.
So tonight I set out to balance things a bit. I threw difficult food at this wine. Brisket, Texas beans (plenty spicy), a green salad with oil and vinegar and tomatoes that didn't live up in taste to their appeal to the eye. Even the music I threw at it was difficult: Chris Isaak's Baja Sessions, whose laid-backness seems totally unsuited to bravura Syrah, the wine of ecstatic Hafiz. This Syrah was great with everything. Fruitier, with the beans; elegantly balanced and soft with the beef; structured and old-world-(Rhone)-like with the salad; joyfully provocative in the face of Isaak's mopiness about Mexican beauties.
This winery makes single-vineyard Syrahs as well (though if I'm reading the website right, this one might technically count as a 1v Minick Vineyard wine)--I'm very curious now about these. Lurking all over the palate of this wine are little hints of this and that odd flavor; it's like a conversation with a well-traveled, but strong, personality. Perhaps I should take a hint and spend a little more time in Washington.
