Missed it by That Much – Bunchgrass 2006 Syrah Lewis Vineyard – Columbia Valley

Soon after I began wine blogging, one of my fellow Washington bloggers clued me in to a new service called Full Pull Wines. Full Pull was started by a former blogger, Paul Zitarelli, who hatched an idea to translate his wine habit and passion for finding and drinking off-the-beaten-path wines into cold hard cash. Paul’s business model was to find small production boutique wineries throughout (mainly) Eastern Washington wine country and offer wines from those places via a virtual mailing list system to customers on the West side and all over who probably didn’t know about these places, or if they did, the wines were hard to find. Brilliant!

I signed up and was soon getting e-mails a few times a week from Full Pull that combined Paul’s writing skills to describe the wines, and whatever made them unique or interesting, with a simple on-line ordering system whereby two or three clicks would send the wine my direction. I was wary initially, and saw some great irony in the fact Paul was finding these wines in Eastern Washington, driving or having them delivered to his warehouse on the West side in Seattle, and if I purchased through him, the UPS truck would have to make the trip back over the pass to where I live in Eastern Washington. For me, the model didn’t exactly fit.

Nonetheless, I kept getting the e-mails and saw several enticing offers. The prices Paul is able to offer are less than tasting room retail, and if you buy by the case, or mixed case, the price is even a little better. I took the plunge on a wine by Syncline called Cuvee Elena. Elena was one of our favorite wines from a trip to the Gorge/Hood River area a few months earlier, and while we had come home with a couple of bottles, Paul convinced me I needed more.

Over the next few weeks, other offers whetted my interest for various reasons and before long I had accumulated a full case. I was made to believe my case in Seattle might be in some danger (by another blogger, not by Paul), so I had Paul ship it to my home. This still seems odd since we obviously pass each other on I-82 quite often, but I rarely make it to Seattle, so I begrudgingly paid the shipping fee.

One of the wines we got in that first shipment was Bunchgrass 2006 Syrah Lewis Vineyard. I bought this because I remember enjoying Bunchgrass wines at the 2009 Tri Cities Wine Festival, the grapes were sourced from the Yakima Valley, and Paul Z. said it was good juice. The Bunchgrass wines we tasted at the TCWF included this Syrah, though I don’t remember the Lewis Vineyard designation. The wine took gold and my palate seemed to line up well with the 2009 judges on this, the Uplands Malbec (Best of Show), and Steppe Artemisia (Double Gold Best of Class).

Bunchgrass is a Walla Walla based winery and they’ve labeled this wine Columbia Valley. That is technically true since Yakima Valley is within the larger Columbia Valley, but since the Lewis Vineyard they so proudly display as the source of the grapes is near Sunnyside in the Yak, why they don’t use the Yakima AVA designation is somewhat of a mystery. I understand regional rivalry though and the Wallabies and Yaks seem to have a slight battle simmering so the mystery isn’t really a mystery at all. I will say, if I had tasted the wine at the TCWF labeled Yakima Valley vs. Columbia Valley I would have been more likely to remember, but I appreciate the fact the my Yak love is not as universally recognizable as Columbia Valley.

Anyway, we opened our first bottle of Bunchgrass Syrah this week with pork chops, asparagus with cheese sauce, and rice. The nose is lush cherries with some oaky caramel notes and just a tinge of spice up front. The smooth mid palate is full Washington Syrah with full body and layers of black cherry, blackberry, plum, mineral, and earth. The spice comes back at the end with a rush of white pepper and a little anise. Since I have a cold, this bottle even lasted to day two in a resealed decanter. The second day experience, if anything, was better than the first. Bigger spice and more fruit. Either that or my taste buds had recovered a bit by day two.

I just missed beating Paul to the punch with this business idea (not really but I think it’s really cool and I wish I had the cajones to try something like this) and Bunchgrass just missed the most precise label designation for it’s Lewis Syrah, but I won’t hold that against either.