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Betz

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Wine Advocate 93 Points

Review:

Regular retail price $60.

Flavors include blackberry, black cherry and liquid smoke with ample amounts of blueberries and spice. The aromas include crushed herb, iron and black olive. This Syrah shows refinement and elegance.

2009 Wine Advocate - 93 points - The 2009 Syrah La Serenne (100%) was sourced entirely from the superb terroir of Boushey Vineyard in Yakima Valley and was aged for 12 months in 50% new French oak. Smoke, meat, game, lavender, pepper, and blueberry aromas infuse the nose setting the stage for a velvety textured, succulent, structured Syrah that is likely to evolve for 2-3 years and drink well through 2023. - Jay Miller

Click Here to go to the 2010 Vintage

2008 Vintage Tasting Notes

2008 Wine Advocate - 93 points - The 2008 Syrah La Serenne is sourced entirely from the Boushey Vineyard in Yakima Valley. It is aged for 12 months in 50% new French oak. A glass-coating opaque purple color, it delivers a brooding bouquet of smoke, Asian spices, incense, lavender, game, blueberry, and plum. Dense, layered, and powerful, it manages to maintain a sense of elegance and balance. It has enough structure to evolve for several years and should drink well through 2023. - Jay Miller

The Syrah berries for this wine were 15% smaller than in 2007, an early clue that the final wine would be rich and concentrated. With ten years of data/experience farming these same rows at the Boushey Vineyard we were able to focus in the cellar to optimize color, density and depth from the smaller berries.

And the wine shows it in its black purple color, all the way to the edge, penetrating aroma and depth of favor. And like the previous years, La Serenne shows the same sauvage (wild) character that Syrah from a cooler site can take on: blackberry and black cherry are accented by anise, rocks, spice and leather. It's dense and yet supple, with the usual La Serenne seamlessness, and has a lift that keeps it bright and sailing through to the finish.

Serve cool, 60-62°F. Best from 2012 through 2018.

2007 Vintage

2007 Wine Advocate - 93 points - The 2007 La Cote Rousse is 100% Syrah from Boushey Vineyard. Purple/black in color with legs that ooze slowly down the glass, the nose reveals aromas of balsam wood, mineral, earth notes, blueberry and blackberry. Dense, layered, and youthful, the wine has enough structure to evolve for 6 8 years. This Hermitage like Syrah will drink well from 2014 to 2027. Betz Family Winery remains one of Washington's benchmarks for top quality wines from Rhone and Bordeaux grape varieties. Bob Betz's 2007 collection shows him continuing at the top of his game (with plenty of help from his family).

Once again, the Boushey Vineyard hit the mark. The small berried Syrah provided enormous strength and color in 2007. And it's more brooding, dense and jam packed than the past couple years. The nose is full of black and blue berries, smoke, spice, roasted meat. It enters plush, silky and thick, expanding with blackberry and a bit of this vineyard's "sauvage" character.

We've been farming the same block of Syrah in Dick Boushey's Vineyard for 8 years now, and have gotten to know this turf well. But 2007 is a slight anomaly: it's firmer and more brooding than most years, dense and concentrated. Yet through it all it maintains its typical seamless texture and lift. the winery

...from the Boushey vineyard, where the same rows have been farmed for Betz since 2000. Less than two tons/acre were picked in '07 – yielding a wine with even more concentration than usual. It's so compact that it's almost impenetrable, but the gorgeous aromas portend a glorious wine with appropriate bottle age and/or breathing time. A dark, dusty mix of black fruits, black olives, black coffee and licorice, this has such density that it's almost impossible to separate out all the fruit layers, let alone the earthier components that make Boushey syrah so distinctive. At 14.8% alcohol, this may be the biggest Betz Boushey Syrah ever, and definitely a wine to cellar. Paul Gregutt, Paulgregutt.com, Seattle Times

2006 Vintage

2006 Wine Advocate - 94 points - The 2006 Syrah La Serenne is the Betz interpretation of Hermitage. The wine is 100% varietal from the Boushey Vineyard located in Yakima Valley. Opaque purple colored, it offers enticing aromas of mineral, earth, crushed stone, pepper, and blueberry jam. This is followed by a massive but seamless wine with superb blue fruit and blackberry preserve flavors. This well balanced effort has a finish which seems to go on and on.

The winery describes the wine: Syrah La Serenne is the only one of our wines that clearly reflects a single clone of one variety from a single vineyard. So its style and character take the same direction every year.

The dominant "marker" for this terroir driven wine is texture: this Syrah from Dick Boushey's mid Yakima Valley vineyard has a seamlessness that none of our other wines have: it enters plush and stays that way through to the finish. Its rich black berry and black cherry aroma is enhanced by notes of smoked meat, cream and roasted earth. Black cherry, licorice and pepper flavors dominate the palate, with glimpses of tobacco, smoke and wood. Despite its supple texture La Serenne has the stuffing to cellar for many years. - the winery