Prayer Rock Vineyards
Umpqua Valley
Southern Oregon
Oregon

Stephen and Gloria Reustle are some of the nicest and most generous people you’ll met in Oregon’s wine industry. Wine is a second career for both of them and they were very methodical throughout the process of creating their winery and brand.

After a very thorough search, they chose their ideal vineyard site near Roseburg in Oregon’s Umpqua Valley. Then they carefully selected and planted the grape clones and varietals on their Prayer Rock Vineyard. With the vineyard planted, they designed and built a winery with caves and underground areas that stay a consistent temperature throughout the long hot summers, the perfect environment for storing and aging wines. Improvements continued and now the winery has an amphitheater and collannade, serving as a great space for wine events.

All their hard work really paid off with their recent 6 Nations Challenge award of Best Syrah of the New World, beating out 51 other Syrah wines from the US, Argentina, Chile, New Zealand and South Africa. The Reustle Vineyards 2012 vintage of this same Masada Bloc was the winning wine! This win also placed the Umpqua Valley wine region squarely on the map for producing excellent Syrah.

The Masada Bloc of the vineyard grows grapes that the Reustle’s deem special enough to bottle separately from the rest of their estate grown Syrah. And the 2013 vintage was remarkable, with heavy mineral aromas combined with cherries, eucalyptus and cracked black pepper. On the palate, we experienced nice acidity along with lovely tart flavors of cranberries and rhubarb with sour cherries and a long black pepper finish.

We think this Syrah would be great paired with prime rib, spaghetti and turkey meatballs or a wild mushroom risotto topped with freshly ground black pepper.

SRP $32.

www.reustlevineyards.com