Why it matters
The producer
Reynvaan Family Vineyards is a family-owned Washington winery built around estate-grown fruit and Rhône varieties, with Bordeaux varieties also in the cellar. Matt Reynvaan is both grower and winemaker, so the work runs from planting and pruning through to the finished bottle. That estate model keeps Syrah, Viognier and Merlot tied to two named sites rather than assembled from bought-in fruit.
The first planting was In The Rocks in 2005, a vineyard in Milton-Freewater on an ancient alluvial fan of the Walla Walla River. Its river stones are not background scenery: they shape the ripening conditions for the Syrah that carries the vineyard’s name.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
The estate works in and around the Walla Walla Valley, where its two vineyards offer different growing ground. In The Rocks sits in Milton-Freewater, while Foothills in the Sun rises to 1,600 feet on the eastern edge of the Walla Walla Valley AVA, at the base of the Blue Mountains. The distance between a stone-filled riverbed and a higher foothill site gives Syrah more than one setting in which to ripen.
Foothills in the Sun was planted with Syrah and Viognier in 2008. Merlot joined the vineyard in 2023, extending a site first planted for Rhône grapes into the Bordeaux side of the Reynvaan range.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
The vineyard work is hands-on: planting, trellising, pruning, fruit dropping, hand harvesting and berry sorting all take place before wine reaches the cellar. Pruning and fruit dropping are crop-management decisions; hand harvesting and sorting place an additional selection step between the vine and the fermenter. The consequence is a winery process closely connected to the condition of its own fruit.
The stated cellar aim is to let Walla Walla Valley conditions and each vintage shape the wines.
Wines to know
The range in view
Syrah is the clearest line through the range. The listed bottlings include Stonessence, Contender, In The Rocks, Foothills Reserve, In The Hills and a Reynvaan Syrah. These names point to a range built around site and bottling distinctions, not one undifferentiated red wine.
Alongside Syrah, Reynvaan makes Rhône-style reds and whites, including Viognier, as well as Bordeaux varieties. Viognier at Foothills in the Sun brings a white grape into a site otherwise planted around red-wine material; the 2023 Merlot planting extends the estate’s Bordeaux-variety potential. The range therefore moves between red-wine body and tannin, white-wine fruit and texture, and the differing ground beneath the vines.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Choose In The Rocks Syrah first. It comes from the 2005 planting that began the estate, on a riverbed of basalt and granite stones whose retained heat aids ripening. Expect a dry Syrah shaped around dark fruit, spice, body and tannin, then use the finish to judge how the wine carries its ripe fruit and stony growing context. It is the most direct bottle for connecting Reynvaan’s founding vineyard to the glass.