Betz Syrah La Serenne 2011 (750ML)

91-93 WA / 93+ IWC

Also slightly lighter weight than normal, yet perfectly balanced, elegant and incredibly fresh, the 2011 Syrah La Serenne is 100% Syrah and comes from the cooler-climate Boushey Vineyard in Yakima Valley. Showing a lively, Cote-Rotie-like perfume of blackberry, pepper, thyme, flowers and clean minerality, it is medium-bodied, beautifully pure and has a seamless texture that keeps you coming back to the glass. While already approachable, it possesses enough ripe tannin and depth for 8-10 years of prime drinking. Drink now-2024.
-Jeb Dunnuck

Lucid red-ruby color. Aromatic scents of boysenberry and graphite. Lovely spicy, peppery lift and energy to the brooding, primary dark berry flavors. Intense and impeccably balanced wine with a light touch and lovely lingering perfume. This is a moderate 13.8% alcohol, with a relatively low pH (for this wine) of 3.62 and 6.1 grams per liter acidity. Owing to its serious inner-mouth tension, I'd wait a couple years before pulling the cork on this beauty. Incidentally, winemaker Betz cut the percentage of new oak aging from 65% to 45%, and noted that his crop level in 2011 was a good 15% lower than the previous year, partly due to the damaging frost in November of 2010. Ò Stephan Tanzer