2013 Betz Family Syrah La Serenne
Market price
Buying options
Tasting notes
Bright medium ruby. Knockout nose combines black raspberry, garrigue and violet, plus a faint gamey quality; conveys an impression of restrained wildness. Densely packed and thick but still a bit reduced, with flavors of purple fruits, licorice, bitter chocolate, mocha and game complicated by a note of Brazil nuts. Quite backward on the finish and in need of at least a couple years of patience. Like La Cote Patriarchis e, this wine is entirely from Phelps clones. But these shy-bearing vines were picked much later than the other two Syrahs here as they're planted in a cooler site.
Critic scores
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
Jeb Dunnuck, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
The estate's Yakima Valley Syrah, the 2013 Syrah La Serenne spent 11 months in barrel before being bottled last November. Schedule to be released this fall, it has intense, yet fresh and lively notes of violets, spring flowers, cracked pepper, iron and sweet black and blue fruits. Full-bodied, pretty, lively and nicely focused, give it a year or two and enjoy bottles through 2028.