2009 Reynvaan Family Syrah The Contender

Given its 11% Marsanne, one has to consider Reynvaan’s 2009 Syrah The Contender – like several other of their recent Syrahs – a blend (without meaning thereby to imply that there is no co-fermentation going on at high percentage levels of white berries). Confitured and distilled plum and cherry seem to be set-off against a background of wet stone in this texturally silken, infectiously juicy wine. Clean red meat savor lends saliva-inducement and tactile impingement of brown spices invigoration. Baron points out that he was very sparing with stems in the Reynvaan 2009 fermentations given that even where the wood was ripe, that vintage’s musts were already high in pH. That certainly doesn’t translate into any dearth of primary juiciness or vivacity in the present instance. A hint of honey – seemingly a gift of the Marsanne – adds to the succulent allure of the long, dynamically interactive finish. This ought to merit close to a decade’s attention. Mike and Gale Reynvaan purchased their home site near the base of the Blue Mountains south of Walla Walla in 2004, although their first-planted site was In The Rocks – neighboring to Cayuse’s En Cerise – the following year. Christophe Baron helped arrange for that purchase after agreeing to become their consultant (his only such gig). “He said ‘no!’ which progressed to ‘hell no!’” relates Mike Reynvaan, “but at last he said ‘I’ll do it if I have carte blanche.’ I knew enough French to know that meant trouble!” Planting around the impeccably-, indeed (in keeping with Reynvaan’s premonition) lavishly-equipped winery began in 2007, incorporating some of Baron’s vine selections, but principally a wealth of clones several of which aren’t represented at Cayuse; and that vineyard – which has thus far been exclusively dry-farmed; and which, at 1,500 feet, is amazingly one of the highest in the state – was dubbed Foothills In The Sun. Matt Reynvaan is in charge of organically farming that site as well as of the estate’s day-to-day winemaking; Baron and his crew collaborate in farming The Rocks. Eighty percent of the Reynvaans’ total plantings are Syrah. Extremely low yields, block-by-block fermentation and conscious exploration of terroir differences across small distances are fundamental to the Reynvaans’ approach, as is the determination they share with Baron that Reynvaan not become “a mini-Cayuse,” but establish its own protocols and style. “I do whatever I like to do,” asserts Baron, “and there’s a market for it. The same has to be true here, and every year the Reynvaan style is being fine-tuned.” Fermentation – usually co-fermentation with diverse white grapes where Syrah is concerned; and usually incorporating at least some stems – takes place exclusively in small stainless steel tanks and involves both pump-overs and punch-downs. Elevage is in barriques, though some 600-liter barrels (different in origin from those employed at Cayuse) are in the immediate future. Tel. (509) 525-3462