As you drive east on Mill Creek Road past K Vintners and Abeja, you will see to the north a slope planted with four rectangualar vineyards. On the northeast is Leonetti's Upland Vineyard, below it on the southeast is àMaurice. On the northwest quadrant is the Chan family's Yellow Bird Vineyard. Then on the southwest is the Walla Walla Vintners Estate Vineyard. The Walla Walla Vintners' was the last to be planted, in 2008. The winery waited until then because the owners wanted to secure water rights before planting. An irrigation stystem was set up, but it was never used. The vineyard comprises 11 acres total, 3.75 of Merlot, 3.75 Cabernet Sauvignon, one half acre Petit Verdot, an acre of Sangiovese and two acres Syrah. Gordy Venneri, co-ower of Walla Walla Vintners, has stated, "I believe there are not very many dry land vineyards in the state of Washington so that makes this site somewhat unique. Besides Syrah, our goal at this point is to ultimately make a French type of vineyard blend with Merlot, Cabernet and Petit Verdot, and also a super Tuscan type of blend with Sangiovese, Cab and Merlot."

A few weeks ago, I stopped by Walla Walla Vintners to taste new 2011's that had been recently released (Sangiovese and Malbec, to be reviewed in the February issue). In the course of our conversation, Gordy Venneri mentioned that the winery had released a lmited amount of the 2011 Syrah from the Estate Vineyard, and gave me a bottle of it to try, and asked me to let him know what I thought of it. Here is my review:

2011 Walla Walla Vintners Estate Syrah, Walla Walla Valley

This is an impressive wine for fourth leaf fruit. It displays a deep purplish color and an intriguing nose of raspberry, blueberry and pomegranate, with scents of crushed roses, bayberry, orange peel, tobacco leaf and spiced white incense. On the palate, the medium bodied flavors are generous and direct, imbued with licorice, cocoa powder, roasted coffee beans and earthy substrate minerals. The back picks up notes of squeezed bright young fine fruits, framboise liqueur, pomegranate seeds, and dried orange peel, all leading into a savory, lightly spiced moderate tannin finish. 18.5+/20 points.

All in all, this came on as a complex wine, coming just short of 19 points due to the young age of the vines. As the vines mature, deeper and more complex wines are sure to come. Gordy stated, "We have some very good 2012 and 2013 vintage wines in barrel that I feel will allow us to do that."

I asked Gordy, "One more question, does the vineyard have a name, is it just 'Estate Vineyard?'" His reply was, "We want to come up with a name but for now we are just saying 'Walla Walla Vintners Estate Vineyard.'" Regardless of whatever it is, or will be called, this is a unique vineyard to be watched.