2012 Sur Echalas Vineyard Grenache
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Tasting notes
The 2012 Grenache Sur Echalas Vineyard was matured for 15 months in used demi-muids and foudres. It has a medium garnet color and spicy aromas of potpourri, white pepper, green olives, powdered sugar and dried red berry fruit. The medium-bodied palate offers savory, earthy flavors. It’s framed by silky tannins and fireworks of fresh acidity and has a long, spicy finish. 203 cases were made.
Critic scores
Average Score
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
Elaine Chukan Brown, jancisrobinson.com
More reviews and scores
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 2012 offers softer, rounder aromas than the 2013 or 2014, and a beautiful palate with grapefruit accents and a lot of savoury length. The 2012 is more open through the palate than the 2014, and with more density than the 2013. It offers incredible finesse and a lot of mouth-watering persistence with fine-grained tannin that is also lightly textural though silken. This wine offers power, elegance and a decidedly savoury quality. I cannot over-emphasise how much these wines benefit from air. (ECB)
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 2012 offers softer, rounder aromas than the 2013 or 2014, and a beautiful palate with grapefruit accents and a lot of savoury length. The 2012 is more open through the palate than the 2014, and with more density than the 2013. It offers incredible finesse and a lot of mouth-watering persistence with fine-grained tannin that is also lightly textural though silken. This wine offers power, elegance and a decidedly savoury quality. I cannot over-emphasise how much these wines benefit from air. (ECB)
(13.1% alcohol): Moderately saturated medium red. Mesmerizing aromas of raspberry, peony, garrigue , smoke and earth; would anyone not pick this blind as a French wine? Dry, saline and superconcentrated, with raspberry and earth flavors conveying superb penetration and energy. Finishes with big, dusty tannins and outstanding length and spicy lift. A great American Grenache. Christophe Baron's biodynamically farmed Sur Echalas Vineyard, planted in 2008, is the densest in Walla Walla Valley, with 4,840 vines per acre (i.e., three feet by three feet spacing).