Syncline Cellars Breaks All The Right Rules
Wine Adviser/Paul Gregutt The Seattle Times
In my years of sniffing, swirling, slurping and sleuthing around the subject of wine, I have learned that the accepted wisdom is often wrong. Red wine does go with fish. Washington can grow pinot noir. Bigger is not always better. The most expensive wines are not always the most complex.
The wines of Syncline Cellars, a new producer in the Columbia Gorge, embody the things I hold most dear. They express the purity of the grapes from which they are made. They point to a number of promising new directions for Washington winemakers. They offer exceptional value at reasonable prices. They break the rules in all the right ways.
Syncline's James Mantone may just be the Billy Beane of Washington winemakers. Beane, the celebrated general manager of the Oakland Athletics, was famously profiled in "Moneyball" as a guy who found value in ballplayers who didn't fit the mold. Ballplayers he could sign for little money and turn into champs.
Mantone does that with wine grapes. He's 32, bookish and intense, with wide-set, open, inquisitive eyes. Not shy, but not demonstrative either. A native Midwesterner, he was studying organic chemistry at Purdue University when a professor gave him a bottle of Oregon pinot noir. The wine bug bit, hard.
In the summer of 1995 he backpacked through Oregon, living in a tent, working crush, and eventually hooking up with a custom crush facility making small batches of wine for a wide range of clients. "It was like working at 10 or 12 different wineries, all at the same time," he recalls, "making everything from Walla Walla merlot and cab to bulk chardonnay sent out in tanker trucks."
While there, he discovered Rhone wines and tasted some early Rhone Ranger efforts from McCrea and Glen Fiona; wines so good that he started driving up to visit Eastern Washington wine country and meet the growers.
"I started to see some great potential in the land," he told me. "Everybody was still chasing merlot, which they picked in the first weeks of September, and they didn't get a frost till November! So I asked myself 'well what's wrong with the rest of the growing season?' And I started looking into some late-ripening varietals."
A marriage and a move north brought him to the Gorge, to start Syncline Wine Cellars. Ironically, Syncline's first wine was a 1999 pinot noir, from Celilo vineyard vines planted in 1972. That pinot is still made and arguably proves that the right sites can produce good pinot in Washington. But it is the Rhone varietals that really constitute the heart of Syncline's portfolio: viognier, roussanne, grenache and syrah, with mourvèdre on the way.
"I'm trying to find unique sites," Mantone explains. "There's a bit of the underdog aspect in me; if I wanted to do the easy thing I would have just made the big three — chardonnay, cabernet and merlot — and gone to the big sites. But look, I'm making grenache rosé, viognier, roussanne! Underdog grapes."
The rap on Washington these days is that the wines are too expensive. That is more false than true. Yes, some limited production, overly confident boutique wineries slap ridiculous prices on their first few releases. Yes, some wineries do the math backwards, expecting that their costs somehow justify prices out of whack with the rest of the market.
But over and over again, lists of the top 100 wines in the leading wine publications show that Washington wines, as a group, claim more places at lower average prices than any comparable wine region in the world. Syncline wines are emblematic of everything that is right, hopeful and promising about the Washington wine industry as it hands over the winemaking reins to a new generation of winemakers.
These wines prove that you can be a boutique startup, with big aspirations but not much cash, and hit the mark with stylish wines that have something important to say, while keeping your pricing realistic. The winery, in a converted beer warehouse in Bingen, is functional, but not a destination. Yet. A new facility, in the Gorge between Lyle and Bingen ("we've dubbed it Lyle-a-bama" says Mantone) will be constructed in the coming year.
I expect great things from Syncline in the future. And Syncline expects great things from Washington. "Washington is such a tremendously great climate," Mantone enthuses. "It's really quite forgiving. You can get away with a few sloppy things and still make good wines. I want to see what we can get if we cut out the sloppy things."
Syncline's wines are made in small lots and are not widely distributed. You may have to do some sleuthing, but you can find these wines at small specialty wine shops throughout the state, or contact the winery directly (509-493-4705). The tasting room is open Fridays through Sundays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Remember, even when the winery is sold out of a particular vintage, some shops may still have it in stock. You might also inquire about getting on the mailing list for early notification of future releases.
Current releases from Syncline Cellars
Syncline 2003 "Clifton Vineyard" Viognier ($20). On a visit to Condrieu to research viognier, Mantone was told that sand — lots of it — is the key for growing it. "At Clifton," he notes, "Butch Milbrandt has three feet of windblown sand on top of hundreds of feet of fist-sized river rocks." Bingo! This is a penetrating, ripe style, big but not blowsy, with nuances of orange peel, citrus, apricot and hints of peach, mango and honeysuckle.
Syncline 2003 Late Harvest Chenin Blanc ($18/375). This is 100 percent barrel-fermented, dessert-style chenin, yet not cloying at all. Lively flavors mix stone fruits, new-mown hay, fermenting apples, butterscotch and candy.
Syncline 2002 Reserve Syrah ($30). Due to be released in about a month, this is a blend of different vineyards, unlike previous single vineyard reserves. Flavors are smooth and creamy, with roasted coffee, bitter chocolate and vanilla cream. As with all Syncline wines, the use of new oak is quite restrained.
Syncline 2002 "Milbrandt Vineyards" Syrah ($20). A sweet, spicy, pungent syrah, with meaty, bright berry scents of white pepper, blueberry and violets. One of the best in the state.
Syncline 2002 "Celilo Vineyard" Pinot Noir ($20). Sturdy and thick, tasting of ripe strawberry, pomegranate and cranberry. Stylistically it sits squarely between Oregon and Burgundy.
Syncline 2002 Subduction Red ($15). The winery's mongrel red blend might as well be called Seduction Red, for its sensuous blend of cabernet, grenache and syrah. Pretty scents of earth, animal and plant, with layered, tart red fruits.
Paul Gregutt is the author of "Northwest Wines."
His column appears weekly in the Wine section.
He can be reached by e-mail at wine@seattletimes.com.