Every now and then, a wine comes along that is so special that I write an Emergency Wine Review. It’s a wine that cannot wait until my next set of reviews, usually due to a combination of quality, price, and scarcity. Here, I give the third Emergency Wine Review, with a twist: the MTN/ART 2022 The Edge of the Wild Syrah Red Mountain.

These are rare beasts. Thus far we’ve had the Kevin White 2022 Blue Label and the Avennia 2022 Parapine.

I wrote recently about MTN/ART Wines. This is a new winery from Ryan Johnson and his wife, Rebecca. Johnson, one of Washington’s most skilled – and obsessive – growers, has worked for more than two decades on Red Mountain. WeatherEye Vineyard is the palette on which he currently paints.

I have written extensively about WeatherEye Vineyard, which is located on the top and north side of Red Mountain. (Read here, here, here, here, and here.) Cam Myhrvold owns the vineyard. Johnson designed, planted, and now farms this site. Though still young, WeatherEye Vineyard is already producing some of the best wines to ever come out of Washington State. The vineyard’s future has no limits.

As I wrote in my initial article about the winery, the impetus for the Johnsons starting MTN/ART was, in part, to make a lower alcohol wine. It’s the wine made with that specific aim, one of three inaugural offerings, that I’m going to focus on here: the 2022 The Edge of the Wild Syrah.

Keith Johnson, owner and winemaker at Devium and partner/production winemaker at Sleight of Hand Cellars, made the wine. While I’m focusing on this wine, all three of the inaugural MTN/ART wines are exceptional and worth seeking out.

Here’s the twist. This wine was not formally submitted for review. So you won’t find a score below. What you will find is my effusive praise and why this wine demands your attention.

Fruit comes from north-facing, sur echalas-trained vines (on stakes). A field blend of a variety of Syrah clones, it was picked at lower sugar levels and therefore lower potential alcohol. It was fermented 100% whole cluster and then aged in oak (none new). The wine clocks in at a modest 13.2% alcohol, an extreme rarity for a red wine in this blazing hot appellation.

The 2022 MTN/ART The Edge of the Wild Syrah is an aromatic tour-de-force, with notes of lavender, sage, and brambly red fruit, showing a pleasing mix of fruit and non-fruit characteristics. The palate is medium bodied, layered, texturally rich, and outrageously pure, with downright tart acidity that is almost never seen in this appellation let alone in broader Washington. The balance is exquisite from tip to tail. It sails on the finish.

Quite simply, the 2022 MTN/ART The Edge of the Wild Syrah is one of the most exciting Washington wines I’ve ever had. This is not because of its power or opulence but because of its mixture of aromatic complexity, flavor intensity, acidity, purity, balance, length, and precision – a true classic. It is a wine that redefines what is possible on Red Mountain and in Washington.

Ryan Johnson described the wine to me as “lightning in a bottle.” It’s not an exaggeration. If anything, it’s understatement. There’s thunder too.

Blind tasting the wine, it would be a palate puzzler. Could this be Old World? It could be, maybe. Could this be Washington? I would have said no prior to trying this wine. I’ve never had anything from Washington like this wine. Yet it is. If you enjoy wines with a distinctly European flair while still having one foot planted in Washington, this is it.

In terms of price, WeatherEye Vineyard fruit is some of the most expensive in Washington, as farming this site is beyond labor intensive. To date I’ve reviewed 42 WeatherEye Vineyard-designated red wines. This wine has the lowest tariff of all of them, making it a relative value at $58, particularly at this level of quality. (The price range for WeatherEye Vineyard reds in my database is $60 to $150.)

Here’s the catch. (There’s always a catch.) Availability is exceptionally limited. Only 93 cases were produced. Get it before it’s gone. Lightning rarely strikes twice.

Bottle shot courtesy of MTN/ART Wines. 

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