2018 Top Source Red Wine Columbia Valley

The 2018 Top Source Syrah-Grenache blend from Columbia Valley has an astounding level of detail and poise.

A Rhône-style blend grown in the best Columbia Valley vintage in years and sourced from A-List producers whose wines routinely fetch $100 and up, this wine is causing a stir on both coasts. It earned 93 points from Vinous, it’s on the list at David Chang’s Momofuku in New York, and it’s earning winemaker Meredith Hyslop praise as an up-and-coming talent.

Hyslop, a Walla Walla native, learned to make wine there at the WWCC Institute of Enology & Viticulture. Today, she splits her time between Walla Walla and Montpellier, France, where she’s worked as a wine broker since 2009, so there’s a real French sensibility in her approach. It’s no mystery then why she made Top Source as a wine of terroir, raising it in neutral oak.

2018 was a landmark year in Walla Walla and the Columbia Valley, the best since 2012. Decanter rated the vintage 5/5, thanks to its long, even growing season. Syrah and other Rhône-style reds really shined in Walla Walla that year, “especially in The Rocks [AVA],” said famed Cayuse proprietor Christophe Baron. “There’s a big tannin profile but nice, ripe tannins and very pure and full of fruit.”

Wine lovers flock to the Columbia and Walla Walla Valleys for the earthy, sun-kissed power that Rhône varieties can display here. This red, comprising 50–70% whole-cluster Syrah and Grenache, has it in spades.  

• Fruit Intensity
• Oak Intensity
• Body
• Acidity
• Tannin

• ABV 14.20%
• 15 mins
• Now – 2029
• 70% Syrah30% Grenache
• Serving temperature – 62°
• Cork