The Wine Knows

It's been more than 20 years since Mike Sauer and David Lake planted the first Syrah in Washington. Sauer, the owner of Red Willow Vineyard in the western Yakima Valley, and Lake, then winemaker for Columbia Winery, decided to give the red Rhone variety a chance.

The two had been working together since Lake arrived at Columbia (then Associated Vintners) in 1979. In 1984, they began to talk about planting Syrah. Lake reasoned that Washington was a likely place to grow it based on the latitude of the state matching up with the northern Rhone Valley, where Syrah is king. They acquired some cuttings for nursery plants in 1985 and got the state's first Syrah vineyard planted in 1986. Lake's first vintage was the 1988, which was released around 1990.

The red wine grape is notoriously tender, so most growers shied away from it because of the five- to seven-year cycle of winter kill that occurs in Washington's Columbia Valley. But when the limited plantings came through the devastating 1996 freeze in OK shape, Syrah began to boom. Today, it is the third-most-popular red grape in Washington (after Cab and Merlot) with more than 2,000 acres planted.

Thus, we are starting to get a pretty good picture of where Syrah does well in Washington. Narrowing it down to three regions will be difficult. Here are the contenders:

Red Mountain: This benchland on the eastern edge of the Yakima Valley is the warmest growing region in the state. There is no denying the greatness of Syrah here, particularly Scott Williams' vineyard. We're also seeing some luscious Syrahs coming from Terra Blanca using estate fruit.

Wahluke Slope: This area north of the Yakima Valley vies with Red Mountain for the hottest growing region, especially the western end of the bench. Rob Griffin of Barnard Griffin swears by the Syrah he gets near the community of Desert Aire. We consistently taste great Syrahs coming from the Katherine Leone and Clifton vineyards, owned by the Milbrandt brothers. Joy Andersen of Snoqualmie gets a lot of her fruit from the Slope, as do dozens upon dozens of other wineries.

Yakima Valley: Often left out of conversations about red wines because of its relative coolness, the Yakima Valley is not only Washington Syrah's ancestral home, but it also is growing some of its finest. Look at Boushey Vineyard near Grandview and Elephant Mountain northwest of Zillah and you'll see two of the state's great Syrah growers. The Yakima Valley's cooler temperatures allow growers to let Syrah hang for two to three weeks longer than Red Mountain and Wahluke, thus providing greater opportunity for complexity without additional sugar accumulation.

Walla Walla Valley: Like the Yakima Valley, the Walla Walla Valley is somewhat cooler than Red Mountain and Wahluke. Thus, we get some very interesting complexities from the Syrah here because it can ripen 10 to 14 days longer. The only difficulty is the most famous Syrah vineyards (Seven Hills and those owned by Cayuse) are on the Oregon side of the border and, thus, excluded from this particular conversation.

Horse Heaven Hills: While the triple-H is best known for Cab, the Syrah in this AVA isn't too shabby. We're tasting some awfully good stuff coming from Alder Ridge and Horse Heaven vineyards in particular. It probably doesn't rank in the top three, but it cannot be easily dismissed.

Ranking the top three regions kind of depends on what you like in Syrah. If you want big, ripe Syrahs, the warmer, quicker-ripening regions are your best bets. If you're looking for the complex, Cote-Rotie style that shows off spices and bacon fat, then it's the cooler AVAs. If you want to see the contrast up close and personal, pull the corks on Betz Family Winery's La Cote Rousse (Red Mountain) and La Serene (Yakima Valley) Syrahs.

Thus, here would be my top three regions for Washington Syrah, in order of preference:

1. Yakima Valley*
2. Wahluke Slope
3. Red Mountain

Wahluke and Red Mountain could easily swap places, depending on which bottle of wine I have open. And if you're a fan of bigger, jammier Syrahs, then you'll want to move Yakima to the third position.

* Elephant Mountain is in the Rattlesnake Hills AVA, which is within the Yakima Valley, so I'm doing a two-for-one here.