12 days of Wine 2019 – Day 1 Hedges Family Estate

December 13, 2019 Posted by Robin Renken Washington State, Grapes and Varietal's, Syrah, Vineyard's and Winery's, Wine and Food Pairings, Yakima Valley No Comments

We kick off our 12 days of wine this season with a wine from Red Mountain Washington from the Hedges Family Estate. We had a wonderful visit with Sarah Hedges Goedhart this summer and after a lengthy tasting through many of their wines we left with a bottle of this wine.

Hedges Family Estate the garden with the fountain Red Mountain Yakima Valley Washington

Syrah on Red Mountain

Yes I know. If you know Red Mountain, you immediately think cabernet sauvignon. Don’t get me wrong, the cab is good here, but I love syrah and the syrah here is pretty amazing. You will get lush bold dark fruit and a distinctive minerality.

Vines at Hedges Family Estate in Yakima Valley's Red Mountain AVA — Vines at Hedges Family Estate in Yakima Valley’s Red Mountain AVA

When Sarah & her husband Brent started Goedhart Family Wines in 2006 they wanted a singular focus. That focus was on syrah from Bel’ Villa Vineyard. They blend both early and late fruit to get a balance. This gives you bright red fruit notes and acid from the earlier picked fruit and lusher darker fuller notes from the later picked fruit.

Bel’Villa Vineyard

Planted in 1997 this vineyard sits above the Hedges Estate vineyard. It is one of the highest vineyards on Red Mountain. This is the Joseph Phelps clone on it’s own rootstock and the vineyard sits at 959 feet in elevation.

Here is a link to their vineyard map. Click on the top right vineyard section to find the block for this wine. (It’s a pretty cool map)

https://www.hedgesfamilyestate.com/the-land

2013 Goedhart Family Red Mountain Syrah from the Bel’ Villa Vineyard

This wine is 100% Syrah from the Bel’ Villa Vineyard on Red Mountain. Goedhart is Sarah’s married name.

Their harvest notes for 2013

Harvest Notes: 2013 was another excellent vintage in Washington State, made slightly unusual by 80 plus temperatures in April and 90 plus temperatures in May. This uncommon early season heat caused bud break and growth to be early and rapid, exceeding average by about ten days. An average summer meant veraison and harvest began early, which led to ripe fruit throughout the state. Once again, “average” in Washington is everyone else’s “great”.
http://hedgesfamilyestate.orderport.net/product-details/0138/2013-Goedhart-Family-Red-Mountain-Syrah

Details on the making of this wine

destemmed
partially crushed into stainless steel fermenters
punched down three times per day
pressed to barrels
malo-lactic fermentation
racked off lees
100% barrel aged for 11 months in 26% new American & French oak.
Abv sits at 13.4%
they made 504 cases of this wine.
SRP $29.00

2013 Goedhart Family Red Mountain Syrah Bel Villa Vineyard from the Hedges Family Estate

Tasting notes

This wine is a rich dark garnet with a bit of a rim (this is a 2013 after all). It started with full fruit then backed off as it opened. I did get the dried blueberries and cherries they mentioned (side note, dried blueberries have a slight macha note to them, who knew?). Notes of mocha, cherry and orange peel. It does have a whiff of vanilla and spice from the oak.

Pairing

We had some bleu cheese and gouda (always a good bet with a big red). We laid out dried blue berries and cherries, plus some other cherries (cooked). Michael made a chili with beef, turkey and bison (adding game to pair with the wine.) We also did some adorable little potato stacks with butter, thyme and parmesean that baked in the oven and were the perfect little flavor bombs to pair with the wine.