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Tuesday, December 21, 2021

2019 Cayuse Vineyards Syrah Cailloux Vineyard Walla Walla



2019 Cayuse Vineyards Syrah Cailloux Vineyard Walla Walla...$119.99
2019 has not been reviewed - but look at this track record!


2018 Vintage 
97 Points. Blended with a good chunk of Viognier (from the same vineyard and co-fermented), the 2018 Syrah Cailloux Vineyard offers a sweet nose of red and blue fruits, lavender, spring flowers, and bacon fat, with subtle classic Rocks notes of mulch and charcoal emerging with time in the glass. Incredibly complex, medium to full-bodied, and seamless, it reminds me of an old-school Côte Rôtie with its exotic, floral, yet meaty style. This cuvée is always one of the more up-front Syrahs in the lineup, yet it ages just as well as the others, possessing a solid 20- to 25-year drink window. 
Rated 97/100 Jeb Dunnuck
96 Points. This has a fantastic range of savory aromas with smoked meat, herbs, grilled aubergine, bark, dried flowers, shells and blue and black fruit. It’s medium-to full-bodied with firm, chewy tannins and fresh acidity. Intensely flavorful with earthy, peppery character. Very long. Drink or hold
Rated 96/100 James Suckling
96 Points. A real knockout Syrah, structured and refined yet bubbling over with personality, offering expressive raspberry, garrigue, warm pebble and smoky beef tones that build tension and polish toward fine-grained tannins. Drink now through 2032.
Rated 96/100 Wine Spectator
95 Points. Co-fermented with 6% Viognier, the 2018 Syrah Cailloux Vineyard begins with dusty and smokey expressions of cured meats, black pepper and blackberry compote. Medium to full-bodied, the wine displays a ripe yet firm character with impeccable mineral tension, elements of smoked lavender and roasted herbs before dusty plum and black cherry skin sway with an umami essence and succulent, fine-grained tannins. Concluding with a long-lingering, evolving finish, the Syrah will have no problem aging past its 15th birthday... Bravo, it's delicious
Rated 95/100 The Wine Advocate
94 Points. Coming from the first vineyard planted in this area of the valley in 1997 and cofermented with Viognier, the aromas are expressive, with notes of raspberry, orange peel, soot, grilled meat and stem, showing more overt fruit out of the gate than this wine and area often does. The palate is broad in feel, with plentiful pyrazine notes on the finish. It needs time to fully show itself, but the rewards will be plentiful
Rated 94/100 Wine Enthusiast

2017 Vintage

97 Points. …Ruby/purple-hued, with a rocking bouquet of black raspberries, smoked game, black pepper, and spring flowers, it has plenty of classic Rocks funkiness and meaty notes, medium to full body, a core of sweet fruit, and a great, great finish. It ranks with the top two to three wines in this vintage
Rated 97/100 Jeb Dunnuck
97 Points. Lots of blackberry, tar and blueberry aromas with hints of dried earth. Full bodied, tight and focused with intensity and savoriness in the center palate. Plush and attractive at the end, but not overpowering. 
Rated 97/100 James Suckling
96 Points. The 2017 Syrah Cailloux Vineyard begins generous and inky in the glass, with black fruit at its core and floral aromas of violets and lavender followed by a soft smokiness with layers of olive tapenade and dust-covered black raspberry. Full-bodied, the Cailloux Syrah is intensely complex and reveals layers of crunchy minerality and silky tannins that frame the elegant notions of cherry blossom in the mouth. Ending with a long-lingering and sophisticated finish, the wine continues to reveal its subtleties, expressing umami and savory characteristics. Proving to be yet another stellar bottling from the Cayuse team, the wine dares me to keep my hands off the glass. I can’t…
Rated 96/100 The Wine Advocate
94 Points. Structured and impeccably layered, with rich and expressive blueberry and raspberry flavors, laced with licorice, bacon fat and crushed stone notes that pick-up speed toward refined tannins. Drink now through 2030.
Rated 94/100 Wine Spectator

2016 Vintage

98 Points. The 2016 Syrah Cailloux Vineyard checks in as 96% Syrah and 4% Viognier that was fermented with roughly 70-80% stems and brought up in 15% new demi-muids and foudre. This beauty has incredible elegance and purity as well as full-bodied richness, complex notes of blackberry, cherries, stone hearth, decayed flowers, and salted meats, and a savory style that’s going to benefit from 3-4 years of bottle age and keep for 15 years or more. 
Rated 98/100 Jeb Dunnuck
97 Points. The 2016 Syrah Cailloux Vineyard is co-fermented with 4% Viognier in a Côte-Rôtie style that delivers a red and black-fruited nose with a floral grip and rustic rockiness. It is medium to full-bodied on the palate, with a soft smokiness and olive notes, resulting in an exquisite and structured wine with a focus on terroir. It is thoughtfully balanced on the long-lingering finish with a tannic edge and lifting acidity. This is really well-made wine.
Rated 97/100 The Wine Advocate
95 Points. Aromas of peeled orange, fresh flower, ground black pepper, bacon fat, potpourri, funk, truffle, sea salt, soot and crushed rock are at the fore. The flavors are intensely rich—grabbing you and shaking you around—while still retaining a compelling sense of elegance that ups the interest. An extended, flower-filled finish follows. 
Rated 95/100 Wine Enthusiast

95 Points. … Alluring savory perfume of raspberry, smoke, pork rind, African violet and red licorice. Wonderfully fine-grained, pretty wine with terrific energy and inner-mouth lift… The flavors of red fruits and spices are perked up by a suggestion of apricot pit that I often find in Côte-Rôties made with a bit of Viognier. This beautifully filled-in midweight boasts stunning aromatic complexity…
Rated 95/100 Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
94 Points. This syrah is co-fermented with some viognier (the only Cayuse wine to do this) and it has an ethereal edge of yellow plums, white pepper, bacon fat and flowers, all in the mix. A lot of whole-cluster influence here (60-70%). The palate has such deep-set fresh fruit and an attractive, long and juicy feel that carries a silky, long finish. Effortlessly exotic. Drink or hold. 
Rated 94/100 James Suckling

2015 Vintage

(95-97) Points. The only wine to be cofermented with Viognier, the 2015 Syrah Cailloux Vineyard is a perfumed, floral and honeysuckle-scented beauty that gives up more bacon fat, soot and dark fruits with time in the glass. It’s one of the most seamless and silky in the lineup, and I suspect it will be the most approachable on release as well.
Rated 95-97/100 Jeb Dunnuck, The Wine Advocate

2014 Vintage
100 Points. Incorporating a touch more Viognier than normal, the 2014 Syrah Cailloux Vineyard is 93% Syrah and 7% Viognier from the first vineyard planted in the stones region of Walla Walla. Sporting a surprisingly deep, inky color, it offers a heavenly bouquet of black olives, tobacco leaf, smoked meats, pepper, blackcurrant and black cherry notes. Deep, rich and ever changing in the glass, with incredible complexity and layers, this full-bodied masterpiece has building tannin, a stacked mid-palate and a great, great finish. It's pure perfection in Syrah, and the finest vintage of this cuvee ever made. As a bonus, it’s also the largest production Syrah they produce. Bravo!
Rated 100/100 Jeb Dunnuck, The Wine Advocate
95 Points. Impressively well-built and expressive, with evocative raspberry and smoky bacon aromas and sleek, dynamic black cherry, crushed rock and green olive flavors that build momentum toward refined tannins. 
Rated 95/100 Wine Spectator






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