AVALON RECOMMENDS Strawberry spice, a slurpable, soft red usually blended into Syrah and other Rhone grapes.
Want to conduct a fascinating tasting? Try bottles of McCrea's Counoiuse, Mourvedre, Grenache, Viognier and Syrah wiht a bottle of McCrea's blend, Sirocco, and a bottle or two of Chateneuf do Pap or other Southern Rhone blends. You can experience the grapes, one by one, and then try how they tasted blended together. Take apart a classic wine style, discover its components, and compare Doug's pioneering "New World Northwest" Rhone wine to the source.
Detailed Info, Previous Vintage Notes, Reviews:
From the winery:
We produced several vintages of Grenache in the early nineties, and a blend with Syrah called
"Tierra del Sol." The vines used for those early bottlings were unfortunately lost in the big
freeze of 1996. We have now replanted, allowing us to return Grenache to our lineup. This is
our fourth vintage from the new vineyards. Our primary use of these grapes is in our
southern-Rh?ne blend ("Sirocco"). But we enjoy the strawberry-and-spice of Grenache so
much that we bottled some varietally, with a bit of Syrah to lend structure, soften the acids,
and fill out the mid-palate.
2004 was a year of many challenges. It began with a devastating freeze in January that
permanently damaged many Washington vineyards, particularly in the Walla Walla valley.
Fortunately, Rh?ne varietals are far more winter hardy than anyone would have imagined.
Most of our fruit was not affected. The summer was one of the hottest on record, suggesting
a very early harvest. But late August cooled and even brought some rain, which slowed sugar
development while promoting good acidity and proper physiological maturity. We had a
relatively normal harvest from mid-September through late October. The '04 wines are very
promising; the fruit characteristics are similar to 2002 and 2003. We anticipate good
complexity and intensity, with even better acid and pH ratios than prior vintages.
A pioneer of Rh?ne varietals in Washington State, winemaker Doug McCrea transforms grapes
from the finest Yakima Valley, Red Mountain and Columbia Valley vineyards into wines of
extraordinary depth, balance, complexity and finesse. Annual Production: 4000 cases of
Syrah, Viognier, Grenache, Mourv?dre, Roussanne and Counoise.
