“I think what we’ve created here is the next level of Syrah for the Rocks District,” Matt Reynvaan, winemaker and co-founder of the newly launched R|A Family Wines, said of the winery’s inaugural 2023 wine.

Reynvaan would know. He has cut his teeth for the last 20 years at Reynvaan Family Vineyards. The winery has vineyards in both the Rocks District of Milton-Freewater, a nested appellation of the Walla Walla Valley famous for its cobblestone soils, and in the foothills of the Blue Mountains. At both sites, Reynvaan has been responsible for creating some of the highest quality wines to come out of the Pacific Northwest.

R|A Family Wines is a collaboration between Reynvaan, co-founder Rob Andrews, and their families. Rob Andrews grew up in Seattle and is the founder of Northwest Retail Partners Ltd., a commercial real estate brokerage firm. He has developed commercial properties across the western United States and is an owner of The Hardware Store Restaurant on Vashon Island. Reynvaan, meanwhile, grew up on Bainbridge Island and later moved to Walla Walla and established Reynvaan Family Vineyards with his family.

The Reynvaan and Andrews families have deep connections. Rob and Matt’s fathers were close friends. This brought Matt and Rob together.

“We’ve been tight for a long time,” Reynvaan said. “Rob always said, ‘If there are ever any vineyard openings, I’d love to do something.’”

That opportunity arose in 2019 at what is now J. David Vineyard, a 9.5-acre site in the Rocks District. (The vineyard was formerly Don Carlo Vineyard.) The vineyard name is a tribute to Rob’s father.

Reynvaan and Andrews started out by redeveloping the site, ripping out the existing vineyard and re-grading the land. Part of the intent was to change row orientation.

Matt Reynvaan (left) and Rob Andrews, R|A Family Wines

“Because of the shape of the land, I wanted to go directly north-south, which I haven’t done before in at [Reynvaan Family’s] In the Rocks Vineyard,” Reynvaan said.

There were other benefits. The goal with J. David Vineyard was to create a single, multi-clonal offering of Syrah. With the re-development, Reynvaan could see up close the pockets of soil.

“I found these different places and created it to the exact specifications that I wanted,” Reynvaan said. “I could see this clone going there. I could see this one going there.”

In 2022, Reynvaan produced the first wine from the site. However, between the young vines and the exceptionally cool vintage, they decided that it was not up to the qualitative level they wanted. The 2023 growing season, in contrast, had a considerably higher floor and ceiling.

“’23, it just came together,” Reynvaan said. “[The wine] has the weight of Rocks fruit with the freshness of hillside fruit. It has both the power in the mouth, with younger vine fruit characteristics, along with layer upon layer. It’s just extraordinary.”

Indeed, the inaugural R|A Family JDA Project Syrah, which I reviewed recently, is a stellar start for this young site and winery. Given extended time in mostly large format, neutral French oak, it provides impressive depth, layering, and intensity. It’s distinct from any other wine I’ve had from this area of the valley, truly beautiful.

The label for the R|A Family JDA Project Syrah is simple and speaks both to experimentation and a lack of pretension. It’s a replica of the blue painter’s tape, handwritten labels that Reynvaan would put on shiner bottles.

For Reynvaan, part of the fun with R|A Family Wines has been working with a new site. “It awoke a lot of excitement in me,” Reynvaan said. “With this new project, it’s a different canvas that’s completely separate and that I was able to start from scratch.”

Of course, any new site takes time to understand. Reynvaan, now 43 years old, looks forward to that process.

“It’s a lot of experimentation, a lot of combinations of things, trying to dial it in,” Reynvaan said. “I have to figure it out in five or ten years.”

The R|A Family JDA Project Syrah is available to taste by appointment at the Reynvaan Family Vineyards winery in Walla Walla.

Images courtesy of R|A Family Wines.

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