2013 Sur Echalas Vineyard Grenache
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Planted at 3’ x 3’ vine-spacing and farmed with horses. This is one of the most densely planted vineyards in North America. Biodynamically farmed. The 2013 vintage is more immediately open aromatically compared with the 2014. The additional age feels as if it has allowed time in bottle for the fruit to emerge and the wine’s character to show itself. The palate is incredibly persistent though it is also a bit less concentrated than the 2014. There is gorgeous complexity on the nose, and a little lighter overall presence on the palate while still offering a pleasing balance of savoury qualities and fruit. (ECB)
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Average Score
Jancis Robinson MW
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
More reviews and scores
(this organically farmed vineyard is the densest in Walla Walla Valley, with a vine spacing of three feet by three feet; all of the work is done by horse): Healthy medium red. Wild, resiny scents of blackberry, licorice, rose petal, peony and wisteria. Christophe Baron told me that it takes three plants to make a bottle of this wine; in fact, he carried out a saignée here despite starting with a crop level of just 15 hectoliters per hectare. Wonderfully sweet and silky on the palate, with fascinating iodiney minerality adding another dimension to the raspberry and spice flavors. A highly distinctive and extremely complex American Grenache. The iron-rich soil here features pebbles rather than larger stones.
The medium ruby colored 2013 Grenache Sur Echalas Vineyard offers lots of savoriness in its red and black fruits, herbes de Provence, cured meats, and dried violet aromas and flavors. Concentrated, medium to full-bodied and layered, with rock star length, it should be at its best from 2019-2029.