Brutto Nobile or the “Ugly Noble” is Syrah from the Rocks District of Milton-Freewater AVA. The Rocks District sits just below the Washington border in the Walla Walla AVA. If you ask me, the terroir from the small AVA is as unique as the Willamette Valley. As soon as you stick your nose into a glass of this Syrah, you know exactly where it came from. You can smell the river rocks. Those rocks, that the AVA are named for, are baseball-size, blueish, brown, and go 100 feet down before there is any sort of hardpan. The vines translate that terroir into black olives, violets, and a lovely aroma of wet stone linger from start to finish. Who wouldn't want to drink this with a lamb tagine?
Graham Markel
