Gramercy Cellars Gramercy Cellars Lagniappe Syrah 2017 750ml

Always one of my favorite releases from this estate, the 2015 Syrah Lagniappe is 100% Syrah (mostly from the Red Willow Vineyard in Yakima, with 5% from the Forgotten Hills Vineyard just south of Walla Walla). Deep ruby/plum-colored and loaded with Côte Rôtie-like (Côte Blonde?) notes of black raspberries, crushed flowers, tapenade, and crushed flowers, this beauty is medium to full-bodied, seamless, and silky on the palate, with incredible finesse and elegance. It’s going to benefit from 3-4 years of bottle age and knock your socks off over the following decade or more. It’s unquestionably one of the wines of the vintage. (Jeb Dunnuck)

The 2017 Syrah Lagniappe comes all from the Red Willow Vineyard and was 10% destemmed and brought up in 10% new French oak. Deeper ruby/purple, with blackberry fruits interwoven with lots of ground pepper, gravelly earth, and iron-laced aromatics, it hits the palate with medium to full-bodied richness, ripe yet certainly present tannins, and a great finish. The balance here is spot on and it’s a classic, age-worthy Syrah from this estate. Give bottles 3–5 years and it’s going to evolve for over a decade. (Jeb Dunnuck)

The 2015 Syrah Lagniappe offers up a rich, extravagant bouquet of ripe plums, blackberries, bay leaf, black olive and cola. On the palate, it’s full-bodied, rich and layered, with an ample core of succulent fruit that largely conceals fine-grained, chewy tannins that only assert themselves on the finish. It’s one of the riper, more powerful wines in the Gramercy Cellars range this year. Like the Forgotten Hills Vineyard bottling, it will reward several years of bottle age and will also be worth following for a decade thereafter.

Healthy ruby-red. Tight, high-pitched scents of blueberry, blackberry, mint and minerals. Distinctly dry but rich on the palate, conveying a strong impression of berry ripeness. Serious tannins spread out to saturate the palate, but the long, rising finish maintains brisk fruit intensity. (Stephen Tanzer)

Bright medium ruby; dark for a wine from this producer. Savory Old World perfume of crushed blackberry, licorice, peppery herbs and black olive. Densely packed, savory and fine-grained, with an impression of peppery vinosity lifting the middle palate. Superb intensity and flavor definition here, along with a subtle sweetness. The firm, rising back end shows strong black fruit and black olive flavors lifted by a soil-driven peppery element. This bottling stood out in 2016 for its intensity and light touch, and this 2017 is a worthy successor, finishing with resounding palate-staining length and grip. Ultimately, I’d have a hard time identifying this Syrah as a Washington wine owing to its sharp definition and light touch.

Coming from this esteemed site in Yakima Valley, aromas of stem, moist earth, smoked meat and black pepper are followed by tart, lip-smacking flavors that ramp up in intensity with time open. Grainy tannins back it up. It needs time to show its best. Drink after 2025. Pair it with grilled meat. (Sean P. Sullivan)

The 2017 Syrah Lagniappe opens to a nose of dark fruit and undertones of spice along with a dusty mineral essence. Medium to full-bodied, the wine is shy on the palate, offering a spicy character that grows in amplitude and persistence as time goes on. The wine lingers with a spicy finish that leaves me wanting just a bit more fruit profile to push the score higher. (Anthony Mueller)