Hello friends. You may recall that Sean Sullivan’s Top 100 list for Seattle Met Magazine is split into a number of different categories. But at the beginning of the article, there remains a best of the best, or as the magazine puts it: “The Top 13 Wines in Washington: The very best of our 100 best wines.”
At #9 on that list (behind wineries like Cayuse/No Girls, Quilceda Creek, Reynvaan) sits a wine that we offered earlier this month. We offered it because Sean Boyd was kind enough to hustle over from Walla Walla for the day to pour it at our fifth anniversary event, and it was included in the anniversary wrap-up offer. I liked it so much at the event that I asked for a proper sample bottle the week after, and after tasting that sample, there’s no question in my mind that this wine deserves its own offer:
What was immediately striking about sniffing and tasting this wine was its clear rocks character: that savory, briny, funkiness that so many of us love. The nose is all salty beef stock on top of brambly marionberry fruit. The charcuterie plate continues on the palate, a swirling stew of umami notes and rich delicious fruit, all lifted by pretty florals from a 3% Viognier coferment. It’s a wildly strong vintage of Northern.
This was also one of those offers where the post-tasting research elucidated why the wine is as good as it is. Let’s start with vineyards. A full 65% of this comes from SJR Vineyard, the Delmas estate site we wrote about back in August (location here, at the far southwestern edge of the rocks). [That Delmas Syrah, it should be noted, landed three spots in front of Rotie Northern, at the #6 spot on Sean’s list.] I believe our max allocations of that wine were 1 bottle per list member, so for those of you under-allocated, here is another rare chance to access this wonderfully funky rocks site (recall that SJR only sells fruit to Rasa, Rotie, and Gramercy). The remainder comes from Dwelley Vineyard (30%; located here in the Blue Mountain foothills) and Patina Vineyard (just 5%, and we don’t have this mapped yet, but it’s somewhere near Forgotten Hills and Morrison Lane).
So, outstanding Walla Walla vineyards, and then of course we have the winemaker. Sean’s working with beautiful fruit, and he stays out of its way, putting it all in second- and third-fill French oak (no new wood) for a little over a year. It clocks in at 14.2% listed alc, which seems just right for down-the-middle 2012. Sean now has multiple vintages under his belt working with rocks fruit. Recall that he is the consulting winemaker for Proper Syrah. This is also his fourth vintage working with SJR fruit, and he has his own vineyard in the rocks that will be coming online in the next few years. The democratization of the rocks is one of the real burgeoning stories in Washington wine, and I for one couldn’t be happier about it.
Seattle Met Magazine (Sean Sullivan): “[REVIEW TEXT WITHHELD].”
In addition to his Seattle Met review, Sean will eventually be reviewing this wine for Wine Enthusiast. In much the same way I used to (mostly successfully) try to translate Paul Gregutt’s blog writeups into future Enthusiast scores, I think we can dust off the same old crystal ball and use it here. Based on Sean’s verbiage, and this wine’s spot on the Met list, I’d range out the future score at 93-96pts, and my best guess is 94pts. Of course, by the time that Enthusiast review is published, this wine may not still be around, so let’s not take any chances. First come first served up to 24 bottles, and the wine should arrive in about a week, at which point it will be ready for pickup or shipping during the next temperature-appropriate shipping window.
Full Pull Wines Offer Archive 