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The Vintage: The 2008 growing season found growers dealing with a warm – early spring followed by a hot and very dry summer. This was a very good vintage with fruit being harvested fully ripened with excellent flavors and aromas. The harvest numbers were; Brix: 24.4, Acidity 5.9g/liter and pH: 3.53.
The Grape Growing: The renowned Rivers Bend vineyard is located just west of the Yakima Valley appellation town of Benton City which in turn is situated just west across the Yakima River from the Red Mountain grape growing appellation. The Rivers Bend is one of the oldest continuously operated vineyard sites in eastern Washington State. Known for producing glorious Cabernet Sauvignon wines, this site is now providing our Winemaker with exceptional Syrah fruit as well. The site slopes due south. The soil is a stingy 18” – 24” above fractured basalt and bedrock. The vineyard manager Bob Bouy is very skilled in coaxing out the sites maximum potential each and every vintage.
The Winemaking: All grapes were hand picked and sorted in the vineyard. Upon arrival at the winery, my crew and I set to sorting the fruit once again to ensure only the best clusters were destemmed and crushed into the fermentation tank. The yeast strain RB2 was used to conduct the primary fermentation. With our reserve Syrah wine we utilized a higher percentage of new French oak barrels in the final blend. This wine was barrel aged for 11 months. Malo – lactic fermentation was completed in barrel. To aid in ensuring the wine would age a decent number of years without incident a fairly tight filtration was conducted at bottling. Our Rivers Bend Syrah winemaking program always involves a stringent barrel selection while deciding the final blend used for this reserve wine.
The Wine: The deep red - purple color hints at the finesse and depth this wine possesses. Yummy toasty oak and vanilla bean notes wrap around a juicy core of black cherries and sweet black plum flavors. The tannins are fine grained yet are still present enough to provide decent aging potential. Having aged one year in the bottle, this is a wine which requires little time between opening and enjoying. The fare demands a thick beef steak or spicy Pan Asian fare i.e. a thick pan seared tuna steak seasoned with a light soy –sesame sauce. When compared to our non-reserve 2008 Syrah wine our reserve wine is a tad more full – bodied and possesses slightly more oak nuances.
% Alcohol: 13.8%
pH: 3.62
Acidity: 5.6g/liter
Residual Sugar: 0.5g/liter
Cases Produced: 200
Blend: 100% Rivers Bend Estate Syrah
Cellar Potential: 2012 - 2019
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