Wines

100 Points! The 2024 Syrah Great Places Jessica Lauren Stolpman is the most mind-bending wine in this range, and one of the finest Syrahs I've ever tasted from California. There’s a sense of flash and finesse here that makes this feel so pretty, so enticing. Dark macerated cherry, rosewater, crème de violette, incense and blackcurrant open with boundless concentration, while a pastille-like, velvety texture and ultra-refined tannins convey stunning purity. The inclusion of 85% whole clusters lends the wine remarkable textural vibrancy and aromatic delineation. The 2024 is dynamic and multidimensional, a wine that reaches the top of the mountain. Sensational. - Billy Norris, Vinous

97 Points! A dark and cocoa-accented wine that’s very fresh, balanced and agile in texture. Dark chocolate, dark cherries, dried blueberries, iron, violets and graphite all crowd into a dense, elegant character with fine-grained tannins. So linear and focused. Drink now or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

99 Points! Wow, so intense, layered and firm, this wine wraps sinewy tannins around generous red and black fruit. So ripe and rich in aromas of blackberries and sour cherries, then bitter chocolate, dense black currant and black licorice flavors. Great structure for further aging. Drinkable now and best from 2030. - JamesSuckling.com

Grape Whisperer, Ruben Solorzano planted the first test vineyard that would pave the way for the other GREAT PLACES vineyards back in 2007. After being inspired while helping Renee Rostaing prune his steep Côte Blonde parcel in Côte Rôtie, Ruben crammed 6,000 pre-clonal Syrah vines onto one beautiful hillside in marching rows of diagonal posts directly above Ballard Creek. This one-acre block, today known as Great Places, Ruben Solorzano, is the founding member of the Great Places Quartet.