James Suckling scored Charles Smith’s 2020 K Vintners M.C.K. Syrah 98 points, ranked it #31 in his Top 100 of 2023, and told readers to “try from 2025.” Four more K Vintners reds, 95 to 97 points and now six to nine years old, are below.

A Personal Note

Dear Artisans,

When the critics reviewed the 2020 M.C.K. Syrah in 2023, the scores were high and the advice was the same: wait. James Suckling gave it 98 points and wrote “Try from 2025.” Jeb Dunnuck set his window at 2025 to 2035. Vinous saw “so much more to come through cellaring.”

It is September 2026.

The wine has done its waiting, and it is $44.99. Behind it are four more K Vintners reds from 2017 and 2019, each one 95 points or better, each one further along than the day it was scored.

The Man Behind The K

Charles Smith grew up in northern California and spent a decade in Europe managing rock bands. In 1999 he took a road trip to Walla Walla and made 330 cases of Syrah. K Vintners opened its doors on December 3rd, 2001, beside an 1872 farmhouse at the base of the Blue Mountains.

Food & Wine named him Winemaker of the Year in 2009, and Wine Enthusiast did the same in 2014. In 2016 he sold five of his big-volume labels, Kung Fu Girl among them, to Constellation Brands for about $120 million.

He kept K Vintners.

This is where his single-vineyard Syrah is made: native yeast, whole clusters, seven weeks or more on the skins, large French oak puncheons. Wine Enthusiast gave the 2006 Royal City Syrah 100 points, and Jeb Dunnuck gave the 2015 Cattle King 100. Tasting the 2017 Cattle King below, Dunnuck reached for the northern Rhône: “a Cornas-like gaminess.”

Five Wines, Three Places

The M.C.K. comes entirely from the Oldfield-Boushey Vineyard in the Yakima Valley, the highest plot on Dick Boushey’s land, on a southwestern slope of sandy volcanic soil. Both Cattle Kings come from Upland Vineyard on Snipes Mountain, where the winery describes ancient, rocky soils the Missoula Floods mostly never touched.

The other two are from Walla Walla. The Creator is 73% Cabernet Sauvignon co-fermented with 27% Syrah from Charles’s own Powerline Estate, above 1,200 feet. The Rockgarden Syrah grows in the cobblestones of the Rocks, fermented 100% whole cluster, and only 547 cases were made.

James Tran

Artisan Wine & Spirits

Why This Matters

The Headliner

2020 K Vintners M.C.K. Syrah.

James Suckling 98. #31 in his world Top 100 of 2023, #6 in the USA.

K Vintners “M.C.K. Motor City Kitty” Syrah 2020

Yakima Valley, Washington · Single Vineyard

M.C.K. is one of the oldest wines at K Vintners, a call-back to when Charles was starting out in Walla Walla. The winery calls 2020 possibly “the best vintage that we have ever had in Washington state history,” a long, temperate season that ripened the fruit evenly. Three Syrah clones are planted on the site: 383, 174 and Joseph Phelps.

And From CellarTracker Members

Nine Years Old

2017 K Vintners Cattle King Syrah.

Jeb Dunnuck 97. Wine Advocate 95.

K Vintners “Cattle King” Syrah 2017

Snipes Mountain, Yakima Valley, Washington

The highest Jeb Dunnuck score of the five, and the oldest bottle. He found “a Cornas-like gaminess” in it; Wine Advocate called it “delicious juice.” Whole-cluster Syrah, native yeast, 49 days on the skins and 22 months in French oak puncheons, 61% of them new.

Same Vineyard, Two Years Later

2019 K Vintners Cattle King Syrah.

Jeb Dunnuck 96. James Suckling 95. Vinous 95.

K Vintners “The Cattle King” Syrah 2019

Snipes Mountain, Yakima Valley, Washington

Three critics at 95 or 96. Dunnuck calls it “a classic Washington State Syrah with tons of charm,” and Suckling’s note is mostly about its energy. Vinous adds that it “will be so incredibly pretty over time.”

The Cabernet In The Lineup

2019 K Vintners The Creator.

Jeb Dunnuck 95. James Suckling 94.

K Vintners “The Creator” Red Blend 2019

Walla Walla Valley, Washington · Estate Vineyard

The one wine here that is not Syrah-led. The winery’s description is “Cabernet Sauvignon in style but co-fermented with Syrah to give seamless balance.” The Syrah was fermented whole cluster with 53 days on the skins, and the blend spent 28 months in French oak barriques, 65% of them new.

547 Cases Made

2019 K Vintners Rockgarden Syrah.

Jeb Dunnuck 95. James Suckling 94.

K Vintners “Rockgarden Vineyard” Syrah 2019

Walla Walla Valley, Washington · Single Vineyard

From a ten-acre vineyard planted in 2006 in the cobblestones of the Rocks. Dunnuck found “just about flawless balance” and wrote that it is “drinking brilliantly today”; his window runs to 2032. At $46.97 it is the value of the five after the M.C.K.

The Bottom Line

The critics said wait. The wait is over.

The 2020 M.C.K. Syrah is 98 points from James Suckling, #31 in his Top 100 of 2023, and $44.99. His own note says to start drinking it in 2025.

Beside it: Cattle King 2017 at 97 points, Cattle King 2019 at 96, The Creator 2019 and the 547-case Rockgarden Syrah 2019 at 95. All five are in stock today.

Cheers,

— James Tran

Artisan Wine & Spirits

Charles Smith’s K Vintners

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