2013 Domaine de la Terre Rouge Ascent Syrah

The rare Ascent Syrah from Bill Easton’s Terre Rouge is so singular and remarkable that the Wine Enthusiast’s senior editor Jim Gordon did an entire article on it, in which he explained:

It’s rare enough when a wine receives 100 points from a Wine Enthusiast reviewer. But when the same wine earns 100 points two vintages later, it’s unprecedented.

Ascent Syrah Sierra Foothills is a wine from Domaine de la Terre Rouge winery in Amador County, California. Two years ago, I wrote an effusive review for the 2016 Ascent and awarded it 100 points in a formal blind tasting. Recently, the same happened while tasting the 2018 vintage, after a small dip to 98 points with the 2017 vintage.

The two 100-point scores reflect a mastery by winemaker-founder Bill Easton and his high-elevation vineyard sources in Amador and Calaveras counties. It’s a feat never before achieved by a California red since our in-house tasting program started in 1999. Ramey Cellars in California earned two 100-point reviews for its vineyard-designated 2018 Chardonnays, but these were different vineyard bottlings. Cayuse in Washington state received two 100-point ratings for its Walla Walla Valley Syrahs, but also under two different designations.

The rarity of repeat 100s reinforces that the Wine Enthusiast team of reviewers is conservative regarding the highest end of the 100-point scale. In my case, Ascent is the only wine I have given a perfect score in eight years of reviewing for the publication.