Syncline

By Brooke Young

If you love the wines of a particular winery, you might consider joining its wine club. This can be a great way to try varietals and vintages that you might not otherwise consider, and there are benefits offered to members that the regular wine-buying public isn’t privy to. Right now some of us at WINO are crushin’ on the wines of Syncline, a smallbatch producer of extraordinary quality wines out of Lyle, Washington.

Owned by husband and wife team James and Poppie Mantone, Syncline is producing high-quality Rhone varietals that flourish in the soil of their estate vineyard, Steep Creek Ranch, located on a southern slope on the very eastern edge of the new Columbia Gorge AVA. The Mantones keep production under 3,000 cases annually to ensure that they stay intimate with each barrel, every vine, and produce the best wines possible.

Membership in the Syncline wine club is free, but the benefits are generous. Members enjoy a 20% discount on all purchases, and have the exclusive opportunity to access limited-production wines. Members are invited to a special event at the end of July which will feature a catered dinner, a club exclusive sparkling wine, as well as a few of their library wines. The next club shipment of wine will be their Cuvee Elena in September.

Shipments come four times a year and feature selections that often cannot be found in your local wine store. You decide how many bottles you would like to receive in each shipment (2, 6, or 12), and you can make changes to your membership at any time. Members also have access to exclusive tastings and events that happen year-round at the winery.

Membership in a wine club is a great way to support the small, family-owned operations that make up so many of our local wineries. It’s a great way to get to know individual winemakers and their styles of winemaking and to impress your friends with some hard-to-find vino. Each month we will feature a wine club that we think offers great value to its members, and by doing so, we hope to introduce you to some of the fantastic winemakers here in our state.