Desert Wind Winery is a wonderful place to visit in Prosser. I’ve written previously about their wines and fabulous gift store: “The wines were rich and complex, and we spent way too much time in one of the most fabulous gift shops we’ve seen in a winery tasting room!”

And we loved their 2006 Ruah Red Blend at Sip of Snoqualmie last year – it’s since won a bronze medal at the prestigious 2010 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition.

So we were delighted when Desert Wind recently sent us a bottle of the newly released 2006 Syrah to sample. This Syrah is blended with just a touch of Cabernet Sauv (.7%) and Merlot (.6%) that brings out concentrated flavors of blackberry and chocolate.

Full of potential, Desert Wind’s 2006 Syrah is still young – it was released last month and still needs time to settle down. But we absolutely have no doubt that this big wine will soon follow in the footsteps of its predecessor, the 2005 Syrah, which received 87 points from Wine Spectator and a Silver medal at the World Wine Championships in 2007.

Decant it and drink it now, or enjoy Desert Wind 2006 Syrah through 2016.

Cheers!