Bottle Variations

I've moved!

2012-01-08T19:33:00.000-08:00

Hey all,

For various reasons, mostly just because I like the format better, I've moved Bottle Variations over to Wordpress! Come on over to continue following me in my meandering, imperfect, and hopefully sometimes insightful journey through the world of wine. http://bottlevariations.wordpress.com

Thank you,
Justin Meredith
Bottle Variations

Tasting Group

2011-06-01T11:53:00.001-07:00

The tasting group assembled yesterday. Here's what we tried:

Sorry for that terrible iPhone picture. Here's a review (including my miserably embarrassing blind tasting attempts):

2006 Lan Rioja Crianza: Light ruby color, medium intensity. Notes of red raspberries and red currant as well as citrus fruits (grapefruit rind), along with a bit of spice. Not a lot of oak influence. The palate was medium bodied, and I got an intense pepper note on the back end. All in all I thought it was pretty pleasing, but not ethereal. I called it a Spanish Garnacha because of the lightness of color, the citrus note, and the pepper note. There's probably some Garnacha in it, so I don't feel terrible about that one.

2006 Seia Alder Ridge Vineyard Syrah: Ruby color, medium intensity (which will be a trend). This wine stunk. Green olives, barnyard, funkiness. Actually, not a displeasing little experience if you're in the mood for something bretty. I called it a Cotes-du-Rhone, which is unfortunate. HOWEVER, the fruit had subsided to a level that made me think it must be an old world wine. So, wrong for the right reasons (which will also be a trend).

McKinley Springs 2006 Horse Heaven Hills Cabernet Sauvignon: Ruby color, high intensity. This wine had some pretty intense oak influence. Chocolate, mocha, baking spice, cloves, et cetera. Hidden under all that was some dark plum and blackberry fruit. All in all not bad, though a little new-worldy for my mood. I called it a Napa Valley Cabernet, so I'll take the points on that one.

Clif Lede 2006 Stag's Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon: Ruby color, medium intensity. I HATED this wine, which is unfortunate, because I recommend it all the time! Anyway, I thought that it was over-oaked in a disgusting way. I said that I thought it was oak chipped at one point. Oy. There were some pencil shaving elements that were kinda nice (and should have pointed me toward Napa Valley), but for the most part it was just 2x4 wood with no fruit concentration. The body on the palate was miserable as well - thin, and not able to hold up to all that oak. I should say that my cohorts liked it more than I did; I think I was in a funky mood yesterday evening. Anyway, I forget what I blinded it as except for absolutely awful - an overcropped Cali Merlot or something like that. Too bad; I still like Clif Lede as a winery, I think.. Also, I have a couple of these in my cellar. Bummer.

Plungerhead 2009 Lodi Zinfandel: Ruby color, medium intensity (yet again). This was unpleasant as well, but at least that's to be expected. Overoaked and thin, et cetera. Actually, not that unlike the Clif Lede in flavor profile (mostly because they're both oaked to Hell), but with less tannin structure. I don't really have much to say about this wine. It was spicy and oaky and had red brambly fruit. I think I called it a watered-down Cali Syrah, though Zinfandel was thrown out there as an option.

Arrowood 2007 Sonoma County Chardonnay: Golden color, bordering on amber. At least I pegged this one! And right on the head, too, though I knew where the person got it, so it wasn't that hard. It's blatantly obvious Chardonnay - everyone in the group smelled it and said 'Well, that's Chardonnay.' I rather enjoyed it for what it was; big, slutty California Chardonnay has always been a guilty pleasure for me. It is that, too, and in spades: Creamy, oaky, big, fat, and fun to drink. For $10 (the price Esquin has it on special at right now) I'll drink it all day long.

Sauvion 2007 Vouvray, Demi-Sec: Pale hay color, tinged with green. Despite the color, this wine was showing notes of oxidation: Petrol and nuttiness. The only thing that I could find that made it varietally correct was a hint of spiced applesauce, which I rather enjoyed. On the palate its sweetness is pretty apparent, as is its one-dimensionality. However, chilled down on a hot day this is eminently chuggable. I knew what this was, as I brought it, and it was obvious. A couple of my cohorts pegged it, though, so good for them!

Not shown was the 2006 Le Boscq St Estephe that I brought, as it was corked. Bummer.

SO how did I feel about this tasting group? Pretty miserable. I wish I'd gotten more of them right - I really only pegged one, though I got close enough on at least one other to give myself the point. However, as they say (and as I keep repeating over and over again to salve my ego), at least I was wrong for all the right reasons.

Tumble Along With Me!

2011-05-29T19:11:00.001-07:00

I've set up a companion Tumblr blog for Bottle Variations! I hope to use it for quick-fire content, and reserve this space for more reasoned writing (as reasoned as I ever get, anyway). Please check it out at http://bottlevariation.tumblr.com

Blogger Shout Out: The One, The Only, Arnie Millan

2011-04-27T09:43:00.000-07:00

Some people have all the luck.

My coworker Arnie recently returned from a nice, long trip to Bordeaux. He apparently had a fabulous time. While I'm sure it must have been hard on him to tour all of those chateaux and try all of those barrel samples, he took it upon himself to do so for our edification. We all must bear our burdens, and this one is surely his.

Feel free to enjoy his ramblings on the trip (including pictures of pig-face delicacies) here. In truth, they're quite enjoyable.

Today In Wine Porn

2011-04-24T12:44:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I drank that. It was pretty fucking delicious. The 1985 Pichon-Lalande showed it up, though (didn't get a picture, but whatever. Use your imagination). Classic Pauillac! Black currants and pencil lead for just absolute days (and some brett, but in a tolerable, kinda-delicious way). It's experiences like these that make me remember why people talk about Bordeaux like it's the tits. Of course, I'm not super-rich, so I won't be shelling out the cash for these super-seconds any time soon, but I'll gladly enjoy them when millionaires pull them out of their wine stash. Thank you, oligarchic overlords, for your overwhelming benevolence.

Washington Winery In Focus: Grand Reve

2011-04-13T10:31:00.000-07:00

One of Washington’s newest up-and-comers, Grand Reve (French for ‘Great Dream’) skyrocketed to the top of everyone’s to-watch list last year, when their Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon was awarded 97 points from The Wine Spectator AND The Wine Advocate. I recently had an opportunity to sit down with Paul McBride from the winery (who's the nicest guy in the world, by the way) and try a couple of their new releases.

Despite how I might talk about the wine press (from time to time) on this site, there are times that I agree with them. These wines are something to look out for; they're a part of what I'm thinking of more and more as a holistic vision for Washington State: A place where wines of all shapes and styles can be made. These are wines of the press-friendly style, and by that I mean big. But I still like them, for I find a certain grace lingering within their muscularity. As I say: In Washington there is room for wines great and small.

Grand Reve’s methods are as ingenious as they are intuitive. They buy impeccable parcels of fruit from Ciel du Cheval, one of the greatest vineyards in Red Mountain, one of Washington’s most prestigious AVAs. They then turn around and give these parcels of fruit to some of the best winemakers in the state: Mark McNeilly from Mark Ryan Winery, Ben Smith from Cadence, Ross Mickel from Ross Andrew, Chris Gorman from Gorman Winery, and others. These winemakers are given carte blanche to do what they will with these great grapes. Like top-notch chefs being given excellent ingredients in a well-stocked kitchen, these master craftsmen create wines that are as unique as they are fascinating, each bringing their own personality to the project.

The most amazing thing about this idea is that the nature of the vineyard manages to shine through all of the enological tricks that these winemakers bring to the table. Silty, high-pH soils combine with an arid climate to grow stressed, low-yield vines. These grapes can produce wines of incredible, massive concentration, but a perfumed elegance tends to linger as well. In all, some might argue that Ciel du Cheval is Washington’s premier grape-growing site to date. Who am I to argue? The important part is that the wines from the site often have it all: The bold ripe fruit that New World wine drinkers love, along with the minerality and sense of place that makes great wine special.

Below are my notes.

Grand Reve 2007 Collaboration I ($53ish)
Here’s a bruiser for you. Grand Reve’s homage to Pauillac, the Collaboration I is created by Ben Smith of Seattle’s own Cadence Winery. And while you can see the notes that might make one think of Pauillac (cassis, black currant), this wine is truly Washington. Dark, bold, incredibly pure black plum fruit combines with a liberal and well-defined mocha-coffee oak element to create a textured, full-bodied experience that lingers on the palate for quite a while. Though decadent now, you might give this one another year in the cellar before drinking to allow the flavors to fully develop. 63% Cabernet, 13% Cabernet Franc, 13% Petit Verdot, 11% Merlot. A mere 200 cases produced.

For comparison, here are the winery's notes: "The goal for the Collaboration Series I blend is to show off the elegance of Ciel du Cheval fruit in a powerful, opulent package. In the glass, the wine is a deep, vibrant garnet color and the nose offers up a sophisticated bouquet of pencil lead, blackcurrant, flowers and spices. On the palate it is seamless from front to back, impeccably balanced, and displays an impressive swath of black fruits and minerality. It will deliver prime drinking from 2012 to 2025. Try pairing this beauty with rib eye or beef short ribs."

Not too far off! One man's mocha-coffee-oak can easily be another man's pencil lead and spices. As far as flowers go, well, maybe they (whoever wrote the winery's notes, that is) saw something that I didn't. I think their drinking window might be a little optimistic; 2025 is pretty damned far off. However, only time will tell; I'm not convinced that I always have my ageability estimation skills down (though I do think that certain reviewers are smoking crack when they come up with their drinking windows sometimes).

Grand Reve 2008 Collaboration II, ($48ish)
Grand Reve gives Ross Mickel from Woodinville’s Ross Andrew Winery free reign to flirt with Chateauneuf-du-Pape on this Southern Rhone blend. Extremely concentrated red fruit characters are the result: Strawberry and raspberry preserves, red currant, and ripe red plums balance beautifully with a remarkable acidity and the slightest perfumed edge to make one of the more elegant (but still full-bodied) wines from the Grand Reve portfolio. That being said, this is certainly a cellar selection; the fruit has yet to mature in the bottle. When it does, I expect this to be a wine that people were glad they held on to. 40% Grenache (something of a rarity off of Red Mountain), 38% Syrah, 20% Mourvedre, 1% Viognier, 1% Roussanne. Again, only 200 cases were produced.

And again, the winery notes: "Selected from some of the most sought-after vines at Ciel du Cheval, the 2007 Collaboration II is a stunning Washington rendition with the soul of the Southern Rhone. Dense, dark purple in color, this wine's aromas leap out of the glass: black cherry and cranberries, espresso, cooked meats, and smoky spices all contribute to the distinctive nose. In the mouth intense black and ripe red fruits, spice, and minerals coat the palate while the classic Red Mountain structure adds volume and persistence to the finish. Delicious now decanted but should deliver prime drinking in 3-5 years. Recommend pairing with lamb or smoked duck confit."

Again, how do they compare? I wouldn't say that I disagree with what they have to say about this wine. Funnily enough, I thought that the Collaboration II was the more ageworthy wine, whereas they didn't mention a drinking window at all. They did say that it needed time in the bottle, which my notes concurred with.

All tasting note sophistry aside, I think these wines are good. There's a certain amount of 'Oh, there seems to be so much money behind these wines, and how could they ever be anything but hype' questionability about the project, but I think that's misleading. Certainly it is a high-end project, but they do deliver a high-end product as well, and for a price that (for what you're getting as far as fruit sourcing, vinification talent, and proof-is-in-the-pudding deliciousness) is relatively reasonable. It feels like it's going against my nature to speak well of a Red Mountain money project, but I can't deny quality in the bottle.

I wasn't sold on Grand Reve when I tried them for the first time more than a year ago - the wines were awkward and oak-driven at that time (these were the previous releases). However, they came together in the bottle, and when I tried them a few months later they had fleshed out, the fruit had come back to the forefront, and they were showing very well. The winery's notes show significant bottle aging before release; maybe they learned something.

To sum things up: These are Washington wine drinker's wines. All comparisons to the old world aside, you should buy them if you like rich, full-bodied, fruit-driven wine. They are that, done in a style that is refined and focused. While big, they're not fruit-bombs or oak-bombs. These are serious wines made in a bold style.

Yum.

Posting Resumes - Court of Master Sommeliers

2011-04-03T18:52:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the hiatus - I moved, and that took a while, and I haven't gotten internet in my new place yet. I have taken it upon myself to schlepp (a word that spellcheck recognizes) myself all the way to the coffee shop that is blocks- blocks!- away in an overwhelmingly committed effort to reconnect with you, the reader.

I'm in the process of taking the Level 1 Court of Master Sommeliers exam right now - there are two days of classes, followed by a written examination. Today was day one of the classes, and I have to say that it's a really fun experience. Listening to people who are passionate about wine and in there element talking about it is an engaging and thought-provoking experience. Some of the material covered was a bit rudimentary (it is level 1) for my knowledge base, but it was peppered with enough kernels of new knowledge to make it an invigorating experience.

It also reminded me of the joys of blind tasting. When you're presented with fairly typical examples of a variety/region, it is fascinating to deduce what it may or may not be. My previous deductive tastings have all been themed, and I think that's the wrong way to do it. Comparative tasting can be very good for knocking solid tasting notes into your mental library (which you can hopefully pull out later), but developing your ability to utilize deductive reasoning when determining the typicity/quality of a wine seems far more rudimentary, and I think must be a necessary foundation upon which to build comparative knowledge (which is then utilized in deductive tastings, so it's all related). Briefly, deductive tasting goes like this (shortened because I'm into the whole brevity thing and paraphrased because I don't have the exact terms right in front of me):

All wines are blind. Hopefully, the bottle is not at all seen (even bagged) and there are no indications as to what the wine might be (such as, for example, knowing that it is on a list that is particularly heavy in one category - that will skew your deductions toward that category).

Step one: Visual.
Clarity: Is it murky, cloudy, hazy, clear?
Brilliance: Is it dull, bright, star-bright, incredibly-freaking-brilliant?
Color: For whites, is it watery, straw, yellow, gold, etc? For reds, is it purple, ruby, garnet, orange, brown?
Intensity: Is the color low, medium, high in intensity? Somewhere in between one of those?
Viscosity: Low, medium, high, what? Are the legs tinged with the color of the wine?
Some other stuff that I'm probably forgetting.

Step two: Aromas.
One: Is the wine sound, or faulted?
Two: Name three fruits.
Three: Does the wine have any earth qualities? If so, what?
Four: Does the wine display the presence of oak? If so, new, neutral? Any idea on what kind? Other notes?
Five: Other notes?
Six, Seven, More: Notes on dryness, body, fruits (name 3!), oak, tannin, alcohol, acid, other.

Step Three: Initial Conclusion.
Start with Old World or New? From there, go to country. From there, region within country. From there, grape variety(ies). Vintage. At this step, multiple options can be explored.

Step Four: Final Conclusion.
After considering the multiple options brought up in Step Three, this is your final determination of what the wine is, right or wrong (and you will very, very often be wrong). State your opinion with confidence! What is the grape variety(ies), country of origin, region within that country, level of quality (village cru, 1er cru, grand cru, et cetera?)? Finally, vintage.

Then... The big reveal!

Sorry, you were wrong. Try again later.

So that's pretty much what I've been doing today. It was fun!

Disclaimer: I probably cocked up the description of deductive tasting completely there. I in no way claim to be a master anything, and should not be thought of as a definitive source of knowledge. Go here instead.

Rough and Dirty Tasting Notes: Brittan Vineyards 2007

2011-03-17T22:38:00.000-07:00

Here are the rough and dirty notes for the two Brittan wines I'm trying right now. I like the winery, and will try to append something about the vineyards or some such later, but here are notes:

2007 Brittan Vineyards Gestalt Block Pinot Noir, WIllamette Valley: Nice little purple/ruby color, just starting to thin at the edge. Nose of a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich. Seriously, that's exactly what it seems like to me. With a little bit of a spice-box element, but peanut-butter and (blackberry?) jelly is the primary component. The palate is nice, the acidity is present but not obnoxious, and the tannins are mellow and soft. I think it's drinking well now, and would probably drink it over the next 3-5 years.

2007 Brittan Vineyards Basalt Block Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley: A bit of a darker color, still a bit more youthfully purple. The nose is much more spice/herb driven. Hints of some sort of floral element - lavender perhaps? And the slightest minty tinge. This is also smooth and luxurious on the palate, but without being super-flabby and overripe. Nice wine. The acid really brings out a red fruit element that's quite pleasing. This might last a bit longer than the Gestalt, but I'm still going to say the next 3-5 years are the time to drink, as the tannins are not present or obnoxious. That being said, these wines have been open overnight, so I don't have all of the information about how they tasted upon opening at my fingertips.

This is a very nice experience! I don't think these wines are cheap (in the $30-$50 price range), but that's what you get when you buy Oregon Pinot. They're solid wines.

Blogger Shout Out

2011-03-17T00:14:00.001-07:00

Great discourse on phenolic ripeness and reduction over here. Never been to the blog before, but that's what you get when you Google search for random wine terms.

God, I love this hobby.

White Rose

2011-03-10T11:32:00.000-08:00

Alright, let's get to the nitty-gritty about the phenomenal stuff being done at White Rose Estate.

Nestled between such illustrious neighbors as Domaine Serene and Domaine Drouhin, White Rose Vineyard is producing grapes of incredibly high quality in the heart of the Willamette Valley.

(I realize that I sound like a marketer for the winery here, but nothing could be further from the truth. I was just so blown away by the wines I tried the other day that I haven't been able to stop thinking about them.)

While the vineyard may be best known for wines produced at other wineries from its grapes (ie, St. Innocent, Torii Mor, and Panther Creek, just to name a few incredible producers sourcing from White Rose), that is about to change. I had the opportunity to try three different wines of theirs from the 2008 vintage, and they are phenomenal. The purity of fruit that I experienced is, undoubtedly, one of the better Northwest wine experiences of my life. Let's discuss the winery. From their website:

In the summer of 2000, Greg Sanders knocked on the door of an old farm house sitting at the top of the Dundee Hills in Oregon's Willamette Valley. The house was just up the gravel road from a few of Oregon's most notable wineries: Archery Summit, Domaine Drouhin Oregon and Domaine Serene. Surrounding the farm house was a small vineyard, self-rooted in 1980, that over the years had become known for the quality of its fruit. St. Innocent, Panther Creek and Torii Mor, had all purchased fruit from this site, bottling wines and designating them as "White Rose Vineyard". Having been an impassioned fan of pinot noir for many years, it was Greg's dream to own a vineyard from which he could produce artisanal, hand-made wines of outstanding quality. His search had led him to the top of this hill, and when he left, he took with him the deed to a dream.

All hyperbole and mystification aside, the proof is in the pudding: This is a great vineyard site; the concentration-combined-with-elegance found within their wines leaves me without doubt of that.

Another interesting aspect: The utilization of whole-cluster fermentation, something that I always find fascinating! I asked the winery representative (whose name escapes me - forgive me!) if the goal was to introduce a green element, and he said that they felt that with Pinot whole-cluster fermentation actually could improve the purity of fruit! Very intriguing stuff.

I tried three wines:

2008 White Rose Estate Willamette Valley Pinot Noir - This was the wine that I felt was fully evolved. It was ripe, full (for Pinot), and luscious. My first reaction was 'yum!'

2008 White Rose Estate Dundee Hills Pinot Noir - This wine had a fair bit more tannin and grip than the previous one, and might have a nicer mouth feel in a few months. The winery calls this their 'appellation series.' Really nice black cherry layers, along with the classic Willamette herbal element. Very nice.

2008 White Rose Estate White Rose Vineyard Pinot Noir - The top tier of the three that I tried, this is the one made entirely from White Rose's estate vineyard. They do the most whole-cluster fermentation on this one - up to 40% (I think) as opposed to the other two, which might have been only 10%-20%. Very spicy, very nice. Made in a seductive, smooth style, but with enough going on to be intriguing. Balanced, delicious. Certainly the best of the three, and also the most expensive - about $75, compared to about $41 and $26 for the other two.

So - I guess I can add Dayton, OR to the top of my list for wine destinations. White Rose, Serene, Drouhin, and Archery Summit are enough to make a trip of it. I'm going to try and head out there in the next few months. Anyone have any good suggestions for wine stops in the Willamette?

2011-03-09T17:18:00.001-08:00

So just a quick note: Wow. Just had the White Rose Pinots from 08. My socks are blown so off that I might catch pneumonia. I'm going to go in depth further when I have time, but wow. Excited.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Walla Walla, Part One: The Trip Is Half The Thing

2011-02-28T21:45:00.000-08:00

This time last week, I was in Walla Walla.

I left Seattle bright and early, at about 6:30 or so in the morning. Having just gotten my first car in several years, I was excited (and perhaps slightly nervous) for the road trip. This was to be my first time traversing long distances behind the wheel on my own. I know, I'm insulated here in the city.

I decided to take the long way to Walla Walla - from Seattle down to Vancouver, WA, and east from there- for a multiplicity of reasons. Firstly, I had never been that way, whereas I had gone several times via the more standard route through The Pass down to Yakima, the Tri-Cities, et cetera. Secondly, the weather had been cold and wet lately, and the mountains would likely require chains - a safety measure that I neither possessed nor wanted to purchase. Finally, the lure of attractions in the Columbia Gorge region drew me towards it. My intention was to stop at several locales along the way: Syncline Wine Cellars, COR Cellars, and the Maryhill Museum of Art. I failed miserably on all accounts, twice due to my own foolish nature, and once due to the vagaries of timing.

Syncline Wine Cellars and COR Cellars are both located in scenic Lyle, Washington. I'm quite fond of the wines that they both produce - you should check them out if you see them on a list or shelf! I had checked into their tasting room hours just before my trip, and saw that neither of them had Monday posted as a regular tasting day - certainly not in tourist-sleepy February. However I, in my inestimable foolhardiness, decided that I would leave my fate in the hands of the Moirae and try my hand at a visit anyway.

What I didn't realize was that I certainly should have gotten some sort of directions to their facilities before leaving.

As I drove down the winding, windy, scenic, and generally lovely Highway 14 (also known as the Lewis and Clark Highway), I came to a sign. 'Tourist Attractions Ahead.' I was moving at a relatively fast rate of speed (ah-hem), but I had time to note both COR Cellars and Syncline Wine Cellars on the list. 'Oh, the town must be coming up soon,' I thought with intense trepidation. This was the first time at which I realized that other than the name of the town, I had no idea whatsoever where these destinations I had in mind might be. The speed limit reduced, and I obediently reduced my speed. There were several houses, shops, et cetera. I continued driving. This is not the first time in my life that it has come to my attention that I have difficulty measuring distances and the amount of time that it might take to travel them. 'One Mile Ahead' and 'Two Miles Ahead' were clearly posted on the aforementioned sign. Only after traversing what must have been five miles down the road, I thought to myself, 'I wonder if I might have missed them.' However, in my obstinate stubbornness I refused to admit this as a possibility. Another five miles and I accepted it as unmitigated fact.

At the same time, I was filled with a velocilust that would not allow me to turn back. I was making great time, and nothing as silly as 'goals' or 'plans' would allow me to undo that. With nary more than a glance behind myself at missed opportunities (kind of; I've had the wines of both wineries before, and quite liked them, but had been-there-done-that) I forged on ahead.

The Maryhill Museum of Art was my next target, and was perhaps an hour down the road (less? more? It all blends together from this vantage) from Lyle. 'Why,' you might be asking, 'would you ever choose the bustling metropolis of Maryhill, Washington (population 98 in the 2000 census) for a museum stop?' Your incredulance (not a word) would be justified were it not for this exhibit of 87 (!!!!!) works by French master sculptor Auguste Rodin. Sleepy hamlet Maryhill has iconic Quaker and town founder Sam Hill to thank for this absurd bounty of art and culture in what would otherwise be technically known as 'the ass-side of nowhere.' I'd heard legends about the exhibit's exquisite sculpture, and being an art enthusiast, this opportunity was in fact more than half of my reason for going the way-longer route to Walla Walla from Seattle. Alas, timing was again my bane: The gate was closed, with a sign up saying that the Museum would not reopen until March 15th.

So all of my hopes for tourist activities were dashed (I considered going to Maryhill Winery, but then just kept driving...), and I was left with the long drive to Walla Walla. This in itself was quite the experience: Long, straight desert roads allowed me to get the kinks out of my new car (aka the new love of my life, though it's a conflicted love, as I'm hardly a gas guzzler by nature) and push the speedometer to the right. Google Maps claimed that the drive would be seven and a half hours; I accomplished it in six and change.

Next Time: Part The Second: I Make It To Walla Walla, Washington Wine Mecca

I am a bad blogger, part two: Brickhouse

2011-02-16T11:11:00.000-08:00

As previously noted, I am clearly terrible at the 'go to a wine and food event and take tons of delectable-looking pictures of wines and food and happy people, so that everyone who reads it realizes that I lead an amazing lifestyle and they should be incredibly jealous that they're not in the wine industry' style of blogging. For a great example of that kind of blogging, please check out my coworker Jameson's work at Esquin's official blog. (P.S.: This blog is in no way associated with that store. In NO way. My boss doesn't even know about it, I don't think, and probably wouldn't care about it if she did. Anyway, the opinions held are mine and mine alone and don't reflect anything on anyone else.)

However, I promised that I would at least take a stab at it, and so here's what I've got: No pictures, only my rather-fuzzy account of how things were. Please remember my official disclaimer: I am a human, and an extremely flawed one at that, and my mind could have easily fooled me into thinking that I tasted/smelled/saw something that I didn't. Buyer beware.

Part The Second: Brickhouse

We started out with a sample of Brickhouse's 2009 Chardonnay, fresh from tank and bottled only a few days previously. It was nice- a light peachy amber in color, with muted aromas of stone tree fruit and baking spice. I thought it was a little bit closed down, but having just recently been bottled, I want to give it the benefit of the doubt. Bottle-shock is a bitch, after all. However, there was a nice bit of a mineral element to it. I'd really like the opportunity to try it again in a few months when it's calmed down.

Next up from the Brickhouse table was their Gamay (of which I have no idea what the vintage was; by the time I got to it I had had a few other wines, and things were starting to get a little bit warm and fuzzy). Wow! This was a great experience: The fruit was vibrant, the acidity was exciting, and the length was long. This is the sort of thing that a cru Beaujolais producer would (I imagine, not actually being a cru Beaujolais producer myself) love to produce! It had great concentration for a wine made of a lighter-skinned grape, lots of character, length, and depth of flavor. I was very impressed - especially since I'm not the biggest Gamay advocate. I used to hate the grape, and it's grown on me in the past year or so - having had the opportunity to taste some of the better examples of Gamay wines undoubtedly aided in that - but I rarely think of it as one of the more noble varieties. This, however, pushed me further in the direction of 'Gamay fan-boy.' Out of everything that came out that evening, this was the most food-friendly wine. The acidity present in the glass afforded it the ability to stand up to rich, fatty dishes and lean seafood-driven dishes alike, while the flavors and tannin profile were lean enough as to take a back seat to the flavors of the food. Yum.

The last wine that Brickhouse offered was their 2008(?) Boulder Block Pinot Noir. I put the question mark there because it was another unlabeled bottle that the woman (whose name I unfortunately didn't catch) pouring for the winery said had been bottled only a few days previously. I have to wonder at the wisdom of presenting a wine in such a fashion. On the one hand, it offers a feeling of exclusivity to the person trying the wines; they're in a position to try something not yet available to the average consumer, and this is a special thing. It's particularly common at industry tastings such as this one for something like this to take place. However, as is evident from my confusion about the vintage, it can be difficult to recall the specific details of a bottle that is unlabeled and so therefore has no visual memory to present to the recipient. Also, the wines don't always show well - as was the case here. This wine was tight as a drum, showing plenty of structure and tannin but little by way of fruit - some high-toned red elements were about all that I could get out of it. Again, bottle-shock can ruin a tasting; just because a wine seems amazing when it's in barrel or tank doesn't mean that is going to necessarily be true right after it is bottled. So I don't want to pass judgement on this wine; if I have the opportunity to try it several months from now, I'll go ahead and develop an opinion on it then.

It just goes to show you that sometimes more can be less.

All in all, the Brickhouse wines showed the least well at this tasting. That's not to say that they were bad wines; the opposite is the case. However, the method that they were presented in hindered their ability to shine. Also, they are not necessarily made in a style that works particularly well for chaotic events such as this one; they are (or at least, I have noticed them to be in my limited contact with them) structured, tightly-wound, and need patience and age. The Beaux Freres wines (and the Soter wines, as I'll write about later) on the other hand are lush and soft, fruit-driven and approachable, and captivating in this kind of environment - they draw the drinker's attention in, while the drinker has to draw the Brickhouse wines out.

Up next: Soter

Blogger Shout Out: Wine Terroirs

2011-02-16T11:02:00.001-08:00

Wow, this website is awesome. How have I never seen it before?

I'll let the content speak for itself, but let this be said: The pictures are amazing, the detailed treatment of the producers is fascinating, and it's easy to lose yourself here for hours.

Wine Terroirs

I am a bad blogger, part one: Beaux Freres

2011-02-13T09:40:00.000-08:00

Well, I told you a couple of days ago that I'd be posting tons and tons of photos from the Mistral Kitchen event that I was going to on Thursday.

Unfortunately, I decided to drink a bunch of wine and enjoy myself immensely instead.

Fortunately, I have wonderful news to report about both the quality of the wines and the quality of the food at Mistral Kitchen. Let's start with the wines. I'm not normally much for the 'let's give a list of the wines with tasting notes' format- partly because I don't organize my thoughts that way, partly because I think that it's a lazy way to talk about wine, and partly because I think that it implies a permanence of experience that I don't believe exists in wine. However, there were so many good wines that I want to talk about at this event, so I feel like I need to give them each their own space. Let me just start with this disclaimer: My imperfect memory tells me that these wines smelled and tasted like this to me on that evening. Your experience will likely vary, possibly greatly.

Also, I think I'm right about vintages, but might be off. Again: I am a bad blogger. Shame on me.

Also also, I'm going to break this up into several posts, firstly in order to focus on each winery featured individually, and secondly because it makes my life more manageable.

Part The First: Beaux Freres

This isn't the first time that I've written about Beaux Freres, but this time I was able to try a larger line-up of their wines all at once. I am happy to tell you that the quality of these wines is phenomenal. They show very well in a chaotic environment; they are expressive and open, while still hinting at more right outside the bounds of sensory perception.

2008 Beaux Freres Willamette Valley Pinot Noir:

Aromas of blueberries, strawberries, toasted nuts and dried sage dominated the nose of this wine. The palate was tarter than expected - think cranberries - but with a red fruited sweetness as well - think ripe strawberries. The herbal element from the nose carried through to the palate in a 'forest floor'/'Willamette Valley herbaceousness that I never know how to describe' kind of way. The wine was appropriately concentrated; that is to say, not watery, but not to the extent that makes me call a wine 'Syrah-ized.' My basic conclusion about this wine is that it's good because it tastes like Pinot Noir from the Willamette Valley. That may seem like an obvious statement, but in the world of international/industrialized wines, finding something that shows a sense of the character of its variety and place is an event to appreciate and savor.
Please note that this wine is $50(ish). That is not cheap. I can understand the price point - low yields, expensive fruit, uncompromising method of production, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Should you buy it at this price point? I won't tell you that you absolutely must. However, if you want to experience a wine, sometimes you have to go ahead and forget about the price. This might be one of those times.

2007 Beaux Freres 'Upper Terrace' Pinot Noir:

The Upper Terrace is Beaux Freres' second estate vineyard. From their website (I love websites with tech specs):

This adjacent parcel is located on the crest of the next hill north of The Beaux Frères Vineyard. The 'Upper Terrace' vineyard consists of ten plantable acres of southeast-facing hillsides. The soils are also Willakenzie at elevations similar to those of The Beaux Frères Vineyard. Eight of the ten acres are currently planted to five of the new Dijon Pinot Noir clones (777, 667, 115, 114, 113) and the remainder to Grenache. Our first bottling of the Beaux Frères - Upper Terrace Pinot Noir was the 2002 vintage.

This was nicely concentrated for the vintage. Rich, juicy dark fruit dominated, but the Willamette herbal element shined through as well. A long, lingering finish, but with a slight bitter edge that was only minorly off-putting. I know they're gentle with their production methods at Beaux Freres, but they seem to have gotten a bit of green tannin in this one. Still, all in all a really nice glass of wine.

2008 Beaux Freres 'Beaux Freres Vineyard' Pinot Noir:

Again, from their website re: the Beaux Freres Vineyard:

The Beaux Frères Vineyard is located on an 86-acre farm atop Ribbon Ridge in the Chehalem Valley near Newberg (Yamhill County, Willamette Valley, Oregon, USA). Tall and stately Douglas fir trees cover nearly 50 acres of the farm, with homestead and winery buildings occupying another 6 acres. The vineyard is situated on 30 acres (24 of which are planted) of steep, contiguous southeast, south and southwest facing hillsides of Willakenzie soils at elevations of around 400 feet.

Planting began in 1988 with Pinot Noir vines planted tightly spaced at a density of about 2200 plants to the acre. Currently (2010) the vines range in age from 11 to 22 years and are predominately a mixture of own-rooted Pommard and Wädenswil clones inter-planted with several Dijon clones on phylloxera-resistant rootstocks.

Now THIS was what I was waiting for. Fruit! Spice! Elegance and power all mixed together to form one great, big, powerful statement of grace in a glass. I, frankly, loved this wine. It had the muscular elements that I look for in a solid glass of Pinot Noir: Firm tannins, medium-high acidity, lean but pervasive fruit. Their oak treatment seemed to be just right; it was present in the form of pleasant spice box and cedar without being so potent as to overwhelm the (strong but still delicate) Pinot Noir fruit. And it lingered on and on and on. This is made in a slightly hedonistic style, but not so much as to be considered Syrah-ized at all. Delicious.
At $100 (or $90 or whatever, but why mince words? Once you go over $85, your wine might as well be $100) this bottle is fricking expensive, but I don't care. If I were a millionaire I would have two cases of it. As it is, I'm not even vaguely a millionaire, and so therefore I will have zero bottles, but will gladly drink it when it is purchased by others.

They also poured the 2009 Les Cousins Pinot Noir, but I've written about it here before, so I won't waste your time by going into it again. Let it be said that I found it to be consistent with my previous notes. I still think it is an excellent value, and is the Beaux Freres wine that I will actually consider buying, as it fits into my (extremely low) budget.

As I am a terrible blogger, I have absolutely no pictures of any of these wines. I am sorry. I won't let it happen again.

Part the first: End.
Tune in next time for: Brickhouse.

Lifetime pricing?

2011-02-10T20:27:00.000-08:00

I totally stole this fact from Wine Peeps, but this is fascinating. Rotie Cellars is offering "Lifetime Pricing" on his wines to his club members. As he explains on the site:

Revolutionary “Lifetime Pricing” perk given to all Rotiesians who sign-up during the first year of The Club. This means as the world changes and our prices grow, your price stays the same.

He goes on to say that it's for a limited time, sign up while you can, yadda yadda (might be a good idea; the Rotie wines are pretty killer). But the sheer chutzpah of this incentive boggles this not-so-humble blogger's mind. I can't decide if it's genius, madness, or mad evil genius. On the one hand, it's a pretty strong incentive to buy. Short-term, I could see a lot of people signing up to be dedicated customers because of this offer. That's a lot of guaranteed wine sales - something that an up-and-coming winery like Rotie definitely needs as they try to stay afloat and expand. So if it's successful, this is the sort of thing that could keep him in the black right now.

However, one has to wonder whether it's penny-smart and pound-foolish. As time goes on and economic growth drives the dollar towards inflation, will this prove to be a money loser? Ten years from now, $35 undeniably won't get you what it used to - unless you've got Lifetime Pricing with Rotie Cellars, in which case it will buy you exactly what it used to. Does this affect the value of his wines by unnaturally undervaluing them, even if just for these few dedicated customers? Beyond that, should they want to expand their facilities, buy new equipment, and generally spend more money on the production of their wines, will Rotie Cellars be stymied in these efforts by an inability to raise their prices accordingly?

I don't have the answers to these questions, but contemplating them certainly is interesting.

Up And Coming

2011-02-10T19:58:00.001-08:00

Just a quick note, since I'm sitting in the tea shop with a laptop and wifi, about what's coming up in the near future for me and, therefore, for this blog.

First of all, tonight - in just a couple of hours - I'll be attending an event at Mistral Kitchen that features the wines of Tony Soter, Beaux Freres, and Brickhouse - three powerhouses of Willamette Valley wine (plus a little bit of Napa Valley from Mr. Soter). I'll make sure to take plenty of terrible iPhone 3G pictures, so get ready for a blurry-but-hopefully-fun vicarious wine-and-food experience (was that enough hyphens for you?).

Second of all, my newfound mobility has inspired a trip to wine country. In a couple of weeks, I'll be making the trek out to Walla Walla and (one assumes) enjoying myself enormously out there. Expect even more blurry, terrible iPhone pictures, as well as a half-coherant ramble on the nature of the Walla Walla wine community.

That is all. Please continue with your lives.

Parker Speaks, and The World Trembles

2011-02-07T13:19:00.000-08:00

Hey all,

Sorry for the hiatus in posting over the last couple of weeks. Personal tragedy has inflicted itself upon my life, and I've been picking up the pieces. However, it's time to begin living life normally again, and that includes regular posting on this blog.

I would be absolutely remiss to not mention the changes occurring at The Wine Advocate. Vinography has the scoop:

In an e-mail to subscribers today, Robert M. Parker, Jr. announced that he was handing over primary responsibility for reviewing California wines to his associate Antonio Galloni. Parker will continue to conduct vertical and other special tastings of California wine, but the regular critical coverage has been ceded to Galloni.

Without going into parsing this to terribly much, let me just begin by saying: Holy crap! I'm led to immediately speculate upon the possible implications of this change on the reviewing standards for the WA in CA. Considering that Cali's bread-and-butter is French grape varieties, turning the territory over to the Italian reviewer could get interesting.

Antonio will continue to focus on the wines of Italy as well as Champagne, but two new areas of responsibility for Antonio will include the red and white Burgundies of the Côte d'Or as well as the crisp white wines of Chablis, and the wines of California. These vast regions will benefit from the increased depth of coverage, as will all the major wine regions of the world.

Taking on both Cali and Burgundy means that Galloni's going to be carrying a much heavier load over at the Wine Advocate. Here's hoping his palate can take the strain...

Wine Ramblings

2011-01-26T19:37:00.000-08:00

The point that I'm trying to make with all this, and that I'll return to repeatedly, is that wine is not quantifiable; nor is any experience with wine perfectly replicable. Therefore, it seems absurd to try and break it down the fashion that the wine press attempts to do so: into a consumer good that is certain, finite, and readily describable. They do so because it is their job to do so, and because it sells a certain amount of advertising space, but it demeans the product to pretend that it is something that it isn't. When a consumer opens a bottle and drinks it on any particular night, they are creating for themselves an experience that they will only have once, and that noone else in all of human existence will have. That is the beauty of wine, and it is its ultimate downfall as a piece of consumer art, for it is replicability that is required for that to be the case. It is not Pop Art; Andy Warhol has no place in the wine industry, despite what Dom Perignon may have to say. What anyone who knows anything about wine loves about it is that each experience is singular in nature, and each taste of any given wine is its own experience. These experiences can vary minorly, as intra-bottle sips of wine show new and intruiguing elements, or majorly, as one experiences different bottles of the same wine over a period of years.

One of the major points in favor of collecting wine in large quantity - by the case or more - is that the collector can return to a certain wine and see how it has changed over the years, how each bottle opened at a different time can show a completely different character. In essence, a collector on this level can have a wine in its youth, see it evolve over the length of its existence, and in the end, see it die. This is one of the true beauties of great wine - that it has a shelf life, but one that (in the case of the greatest wines of all time) rivals the length of any man’s time on Earth. Thus does it have the ability to become a constant companion; a collector’s favorite wines can age along with them, starting out youthful and exuberant, growing into maturity and peaking, and eventually becoming old, complex, and fragile.

Am I romanticizing this fermented grape juice beverage as much as the over-exuberant wine critics that I tend to disparage? Perhaps. But my perspective seems to be at the polar opposite of those who speak of wine in finite terms, in definite this-is-good-this-is-bad phrases. I think that each consumer has to take wine for what it is, and not necessarily overanalyze it, but instead just recognize its beauty or its inferiority for them personally at that moment. It's so easy to be a know-it-all, but it doesn't mean that you actually know anything more than anyone else.

Blogger Shout-Out!

2011-01-13T19:28:00.000-08:00

Really great post about wine pricing here from The Gray Market.

What IS that bottle really worth? What does that even mean?

Fermentation: Spontaneous or Inoculated?

2011-01-09T23:46:00.000-08:00

I'd like to spend some time talking about various methods of wine production, decisions winemakers make, and their ramifications on the final product: The wine that comes out of the bottle when you pull the cork (or twist the Stelvin, or pop the glass cap, or.. Well, whatever). I want to start this discussion with the principal player in winemaking, the true winemakers, the yeasts. Today I'm going to post some half-coherant ramblings on the differences between spontaneous fermentation and commercial yeast fermentation.

To quote (and not for the last time) the great group-wisdom conglomerate of the 21st century, Wikipedia: “Yeasts are eukaryotic micro-organisms classified in the kingdom Fungi, with the 1,500 species currently described[1] estimated to be only 1% of all yeast species.” Fungi are, of course, that little-understood third branch of biology, not quite plant nor animal. Out of those 1,500 known species of yeast, one is of primary importance to fermentation: Saccharomyces cerevisiae. What does this little beauty do? Well, it converts the sugars existant in grape juice (or must, as is the winemaker’s term) into wonderful, intoxicating alcohol. Simple enough, yes? But even here, we run into some very complicated decisions for the winemaker. The first of these being: Spontaneous fermentation, or inoculation?

As discussed previously on this site, “spontaneous fermentation is exactly that: fermentation that occurs spontaneously, as opposed to occurring due to an inoculation of commercial yeast strains into the wine by the winemaker.” This is done for a plurality of reasons. For starters, it is the original method of winemaking; thousands of years ago, long before the development of commercial yeast strains (or even an understanding of what yeast was), fermentation just happened. This no doubt led to a somewhat mystical viewpoint on intoxication, as evidenced by the many mythical intoxication gods: Dionysus, Silenus, Ninkasi, et cetera. Secondly, many winemakers believe that it adds more complex elements to the wine; when doing spontaneous fermentation, it is actually several different species of yeast that start your fermentation. However, by the time the fermentation is complete it’s sacchararomyces cerevisiae (SC) that’s finished the job. That’s because it’s a species of yeast particularly well-suited for survival in the 3.5-4.0 pH that exists in (most) wine. Therefore, all the other species of yeast- such as Klockera, Zygosaccharomyces, et cetera- die off before the spontaneous fermentation is complete.

One of the fears with spontaneous fermentation is that the non-SC yeasts will produce off aromas in the wine. While complexity can be a good thing, it is in essence only good if it’s appealing; no consumer (or at least very few) enjoys the smell of rotting garbage in their Cabernet. Another fear is that spoilage bacteria will set in as well. When doing spontaneous fermentation winemakers must be very careful with their use of sulphur dioxide- the infamous sulfites found on the label of every bottle of wine sold in the United States.

Sulphur dioxide is a wine additive used for its antioxidaisic and antimicrobial properties. When a winemaker is doing a conventional fermentation with cultured yeast, they will generally add a certain amount of SO2 after crushing but before fermentation. The reasoning behind this is that it will suppress spoilage bacteria in the must. They will then add a mixture of cultured yeast and nitrogen-rich yeast nutrients, which will be strong enough to begin fermentation while the spoilage bacteria are still weakened. The bacteria then cannot survive in an increasingly alcohol-laden environment, and the wine (ideally) comes out clean and without spoilage imperfections.

You can see some positive and negative attributes to both spontaneous fermentation and inoculation already. However, there are many more. Another reason that some winemakers like to rely upon spontaneous fermentation is the oft-used and sometimes-maligned concept of terroir.

Spontaneous fermentation is supposedly one way for a winemaker to allow a vineyard’s terroir to express itself in his or her wines, and thus to push the wine further toward the natural end of the spectrum. The reasoning behind this idea is that the yeast involved in spontaneous fermentation is native to the vineyard; that is why the process is sometimes described as ‘native yeast fermentation.’ This is in harmony with the concept of keeping the vineyard as a closed cycle, introducing no man-made pollutants into the production of its wine. This is one of the major tenets of biodynamism, a school of thought that many works in harmony with the goal of expressing terroir.

If any winemakers are reading this, I'd be curious to learn their opinions on this subject (or anyone else's opinions, for that matter). Yeast selection is an area where a winemaker can really geek out, and I'm still trying to expand my knowledge in this area.

Oregon, The Other Northwest: Beaux Freres

2011-01-02T18:59:00.000-08:00

The Willamette Valley wine producing community, like much of Eastern Washington, is comprised of people passionate about place. These people who want to produce wines that have their own character and individual traits rather than being innocuous commercial products. Obviously this is not true of all producers in either region; a winery on the level of Chateau Ste Michelle needs to make a sound product at a reasonable price level. However, both regions are blessed with a high percentage of winemakers and vineyard managers dedicated to their soil, their climate, and the concept of minimal processing.

This isn’t always an easy thing to do, though the idea of doing less work on your product in order to increase its quality seems counter-intuitive. Take for example, though, the reasoning behind spontaneous fermentation, one of the methods used by winemakers trying to develop complexity in their wines.

Spontaneous fermentation is exactly that: fermentation that occurs spontaneously, as opposed to occurring due to an inoculation of commercial yeast strains into the wine by the winemaker (or whatever assistant, cellar rat or lowly unpaid intern to whom the task is assigned). Imagine the nerve-wracking anxiety associated with waiting for your fermentation to just start happening with no assurance whatsoever that it will ever take off, no knowledge that it will occur to completion (stuck fermentations being the bane of a winemaker’s existence), and no certainty that you haven’t just completely wasted the several thousand dollars worth of premium wine grapes you have before you.

In what other industry is such prima facie risky behavior encouraged in order to increase the quality of the product?

Enter the protagonist of our story: Beaux Freres. To quote the winery at length:

“Since our first vintage in 1991, the Beaux Frères philosophy remains the same; to produce a world-class Pinot Noir from small, well-balanced yields and ripe, healthy fruit that represents the essence of our vineyard. In pursuit of these goals, the Beaux Frères Vineyard is planted with tightly spaced vines, and yields are kept to some of the lowest in our industry. The grapes are harvested when physiologically (rather than analytically) ripe. Our winemaking philosophy is one of minimal intervention with clean fermentations utilizing indigenous yeast. The wines are stored in French oak for 10 to 12 months adjusting the percentage of new oak to compliment [sic] the wine the vintage has given us. Beaux Frères is never racked until it is removed from barrel for bottling, which occurs without fining or filtration. These non-manipulative, uncompromising methods guarantee a wine that is the most natural and authentic vineyard expression possible. Previous vintages demonstrate that these methods also allow our Beaux Frères to develop significant perfume, weight, and texture in the bottle.”

You’ll notice that they use the term ‘indigenous yeast’ rather than ‘spontaneous fermentation.’ Beaux Freres states on their website that fermentation “is typically allowed to occur spontaneously (usually within five or so days) with indigenous yeasts though we will intervene and inoculate with cultured yeast strains under certain conditions.” I assume that ‘certain conditions’ means ‘if spontaneous fermentation doesn’t occur within the first five days.’ Other wineries cultivate in a laboratory the yeast strains found in their estate vineyards, and then use those strains to inoculate their lots. This is a compromise position taken in an effort to have the best of both worlds: complexity and location-specific character, but also assurance that fermentation will occur.

I find their emphasis on spontaneous malolactic fermentation intriguing; I don't hear many winemakers talking about that, and hadn't really considered it as a feature of noninterventionist winemaking. It makes sense, though; if you're not going to mess with the wine in so many other ways, why not that one, too?

Not racking their wine is an interesting point as well, but I think it's an obvious choice for a Pinot Noir producer. The wine is delicate, without the heavy phenolic load of wines made from Syrah or Cabernet. Why risk oxidation? They even refer to it on their tech page as "reductive winemaking." By the way, their website has some detailed things to say about their methods of production and philosophy in winemaking. I found it to be a fascinating read.

So why the long, rambly post about BF? Because I just had a chance to try a fantastic wine from them: The 2009 Les Cousins Pinot Noir.

Beaux Freres decided to declassify barrels of their other 2009 cuvees, and blend them into this early-release second label. I can only assume that they selected barrels that were showing high levels of maturity, because this wine is a showstopper at this early age. It is grand and delectable; the fruit is buxom, dark, and robust- very expressive. At the same time, it tastes like Pinot - no Syrah-ized glop here.

The price is the kicker: $25.99. While that doesn't make it the cheapest thing in the world, the quality makes it well worth it. I've had other wines that they've made, but at $60-$80 a pop, who can afford them? I also consider its early drinkability to be a positive feature; cellarability is great and all, but sometimes you want a wine that you can just drink and enjoy.

Go! Find it, drink it, love it.

2007 Abeja Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve

2010-12-27T12:05:00.000-08:00

Another terrible iPhone photo, this time of Bacchus Vineyard

I recently had the chance to try the 2007 Abeja Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve.

This is a wine that is not produced in every vintage; winemaker John Abbott reserves the label for special bottlings in what he considers to be extraordinary vintages. It is therefore of no surprise that this, the third Abeja Reserve, came from the phenomenal 2007 vintage (previous vintages of this wine were from the hallmark 2002 and 2005 vintages). I'll quote Paul Gregutt about the fruit sourcing: "...sourced principally from the same old vine Bacchus and Weinbau blocks, this also includes a significant portion of grapes (20%) from the estate’s Heather Hill vineyard."

Bacchus and Weinbau vineyards are part of the Sagemoor Farms family of vineyards, comprised of Bacchus, Weinbau, Sagemoor, and Dionysus vineyards. This group of vineyards is one of the most critical building blocks for many premium Washington wineries, including Delille, Januik, and Corliss, just to name a few. Some of the vines (including much of the Cabernet in the Abeja Reserve) date back to 1972, which is just about as old-vine as you can get in Washington. I had the privilege of visiting the vineyard earlier this year, and it was beautiful, immaculately tended, and right next to the Columbia River- a key element, since it leads to cooling breezes coming off of the water and mitigating some of the Eastern Washington heat.

So how was the wine? Certainly concentrated; it was dense and chewy, with obvious oak influences- coffee, mocha, and toasty wood were evident throughout. The fruit was dark and intense, filled with classic Cabernet black currant and very ripe plum.

I think that this is a wine that will satisfy many, many consumers. It is the epitome of what one might expect out of a New-World Reserve Cabernet. Did I like it? Sort of. I certainly enjoyed having the opportunity to try it. However, I wished at the time that it had been showing more acidity. It felt in the mouth much like an Oakville Cabernet might; very big and mouth-filling, but without the high acidity that I have come to expect in the best Washington State wines. Perhaps I was just not in the mood for a wine of this style; that has certainly been true for me on many occasions, and I have come back to the same wines and found them to be much more enjoyable than I thought on first taste.

Don't get me wrong: I think that Abeja's Reserve Cabernet is a well-made wine. I think that in the style it is made in you can spend three or four times the amount of money for a similar experience. But lately I've been looking for wines that offer a little bit more than rich, plump fruit and big flavor. Maybe it'll change in the bottle; I don't claim to know. If you're looking for Napa in Washington, drink this wine; you'll love it. But it wasn't for me right then.

But then, that's what makes wine so special, isn't it? Different times, different people, different bottles, different experiences. I hope I try this wine again three years from now and it blows my mind.

Offered Without Comment

2010-12-25T11:38:00.000-08:00

James Suckling Is A Douche

The State of the Industry

2010-12-25T00:12:00.000-08:00

That seems counterintuitive: Red wine good for your teeth? Then how do you explain Jay Miller's brown little nubs?

Saving the world, one glass at a time: An interesting article on wine and carbon emissions, specifically Chilean wineries' attempts to reduce theirs. I noticed just the other day a carbon-neutral label on a bottle of Cono Sur Pinot Noir, so it's funny to see an article about exactly this today. Kudos to them.

A Cautionary Tale: Seriously. Don't drink and drive.

Constellation Drops Hardys: "The business is no longer consistent with Constellation’s strategy." Apparently that strategy involves making money.

We all saw it coming: Washington yields will likely be down in 2011 due to the early freeze.

Why do I never find things like this?: $30,000 Latour found in restaurant's cellar unexpectedly. Honestly, if I found that, I would just drink it.

I'll believe it when I see it: Wine prices to fall in 2011. Also, "Riesling will rise?" What?

Seems like a lot of work just for a vending machine: "Oenophiles must pass breathalyzers, swipe their IDs, then show their pictures to a state official observing via closed circuit TV before buying their wine."

The 100 Point System

2010-12-22T17:01:00.001-08:00

This post is taken directly from a comment I left on a thread at Paul Gregutt's blog. I loathe to waste words, so I'm reposting it here for anyone who's interested. Feel free to read the entire conversation; it's quite interesting.

Hey Paul,

Thanks for the thoughtful response. I'm not looking for a flame war, but do like to be cited when I'm quoted.

While I can commiserate with you about being under-appreciated for the good work that you do (which I personally do appreciate; hell, I have a signed copy of your book) I think that in large part the reliance of wine buyers on the 100 point system leads to that very under-appreciation. Frankly, for many people a numeric grade speaks louder than a thousand words of effusive praise.

When you say that "wine drinkers who care enough about the subject to actually purchase and read the trade mags probably don't need scores to decide what they actually want to drink," I must beg to differ. There are gross numbers of consumers who rely almost solely on those numbers, or "won't buy anything less than a 90 point wine." I think that for these people the number itself is an assurance of quality; in their mind it ensures that they are getting the best possible bang for their ever-stretched buck. Not all wine drinkers are this way, but in a world where everyone wants to be savvy but doesn't necessarily have the time to do the research necessary to make an informed decision, the 100-point system offers them a quick and easy way to purchase something that they feel they can have confidence in.

I ramble, but am narrowing in on my point. The 100-point grading system is an exercise in reductionism; it takes all the words of praise, criticism, and thoughtful reflection that a wine writer can put into a review and reduces it to a quantitative analysis of something (wine) that is in essence not quantifiable. When there is careful and considerate reasoning behind the score that might not be so bad, but when a reviewer flies into a region, spends two weeks there, and spits out (no pun intended) 810 reviews as a result, one has to wonder about the quality of the journalism involved.

I am, of course, talking about The Wine Advocate's Jay Miller (whom I was talking about in that original Cayuse review as well). This sort of thing is in my mind not only sloppy journalism, but detrimental to the wine industry in general; many an undeserving 89 point score has led to poor sales for a winery. However, these scores are given undue gravitas by wine collectors globally- Quilceda Creek will forever be known as the 100 point Washington wine.

I don't mean to hijack your blog, but it's a subject to which I've given a lot of thought. I don't necessarily have any answers; the public demands scores, wineries with high scores tout them, retailers and distributors use them to move product, and wine publications get publicity from them. As they say, it is what it is.

There is a (I think natural) backlash to this trend from those who see it as damaging to the industry. Let me point out, however, that not all of us are militant about it, and certainly not all of us are crying "death to critics!"

Or at least, not death to ALL of them.

Wineries to Watch: JB Neufeld

2010-12-19T20:45:00.000-08:00

Hopefully I can tell you about a winery you've never heard of.

The name Justin Neufeld might ring a bell to some of you; he's been the winemaker at Gilbert Cellars since 2007. Justin (great name!) and his wife Brooke now have a new project: JB Neufeld, a winery so young that it doesn't even have a functional website yet.

Taking his experience from his time at an array of Washington wineries- including Chateau Ste Michelle, Glen Fiona, Silver Lake, and of course Gilbert Cellars- he has produced wines of distinction and quality, remaining true to the Cabernet grape but still providing the extravagance we've come to expect from premium Washington wine.

Their winemaking style seems simple, but in fact requires more dedication than many winemakers are willing to provide: Source your grapes from the absolute finest vineyards, and treat them gently and with respect (something of a trend in my favorite wineries, it seems). In this regard, JB Neufeld has done superbly. The two offerings are single-vineyard wines, one from the esteemed DuBrul vineyard (think Owen Roe's stunning DuBrul Cabernet as well as the highly-rated Cote Bonneville estate wines) and one from Artz Vineyard (owned by one-time vineyard manager at Klipsun, Fred Artz). Both are left in French barriques, 60% new, for 18 months, and are completely unfined. This noninterventionist method of winemaking has produced two wines in two very distinct styles.

2008 Dubrul Vineyard Cabernet
This is a wine with terrific tannin and grip, certainly one for the cellar. Those of you familiar with the top-end Cabernets (and this is 100% varietal Cabernet) of Washington will find familiar notes here. Black currant, black tea, vanilla and hints of anise spice are held up by a wonderful acid structure. I can tell you that this is one that I will be putting away and forgetting about for some time; it is a true example of what Washington can do in a New-Meets-Old-World style. In true garagiste, micro-production style, only three barrels were produced.

2008 Artz Vineyard Cabernet
Out of the two wines, this is the one that is most accessible at this juncture. It is richer, juicier, and more in line with what we have come to expect from Washington wine. While also 100% Cabernet, this Red Mountain vineyard gets so much more ripeness that the grape gets the chance to show its fleshier side, with blue fruits and chewier tannins. While I firmly believe that this wine will evolve over the next five to seven years as well, this is so pleasurable now that you have to ask the question: why wait?

At $30 retail, these wines are no-brainers. Go, find them, enjoy them!

Wineries to Watch: Stevens Winery

2010-12-19T19:57:00.000-08:00

If you've never heard of Stevens Winery then I feel sorry for you. That's why I'm rectifying that situation right now. You're welcome.

Tim Stevens is the winemaker at eponymous Stevens winery. His experience comes from working with Matt Loso at Matthews, where he started as Assistant Winemaker in 1998. I'm not the biggest fan of Loso's style; his wines are always super-rich, super-oaky, monolithic bombs (see: Barons V, Walla Faces). That's why I'm happy to report that Tim seems to have been able to take the best aspects of these wines and combine them with a gentle touch. More and more I find that this typifies my favorite Washington wines: tame the vibrant desert fruit with earlier harvesting, careful site selection, gentle processing and an eye towards the table.

Tim isn't afraid of oak, using a lot of new and once-used French barrels, but his fruit sourcing is so impeccable that the wines hold up well to this type of regimen. I've become convinced that there is a big difference between a top-notch vineyard such as Dubrul or Klipsun and sources that, without naming names, don't necessarily have the siting or vineyard management (which is probably more important) to produce fruit with the concentration to absorb an aggressive oak program.

Stevens focuses on the Yakima Valley; some of his best sources are Dubrul and Dineen vineyard, as well as Meek and Sheridan and others. Since 2002, he has been producing wines of great depth and character. They are unapologetically bold, but with a level of finesse that few seem able to achieve in Western Washington. His Merlot is by far my favorite wine that he makes; it has an incredible red and blue fruit character, a perfect level of spicy oak influence, and an exciting underlying mineral element. His Dineen Vineyard Viognier (called Divio) is no slouch either; it shines for its vibrant tropical fruit elements: green melon, papaya, and ripe peaches. At the same time, it's quite dry on the palate.

I urge you to seek out these wines. They're quite reasonable in price for their quality; the Viognier is retailing for as low as $17.99! Feel free to thank me later.

2006 Cayuse Bionic Frog

2010-12-18T20:42:00.000-08:00

I had the chance to try the 2006 Cayuse Vineyards Bionic Frog today.

As has been noted earlier on this blog, Christophe Baron's Cayuse Vineyards create wines of some great controversy. People love them or people hate them, but there is always an opinion to be had. I'm personally a fan of the wines, but even I admit that they're not something that you want to have on a regular basis. They're very rich and very lively; the way that they come across is vivid and inescapably showy. However, it has to be admitted that the pH of every bottle of Cayuse I've had has seemed remarkably high. The softness of these wines can be pleasant and appealing sometimes, but isn't the style that I like on a regular basis.

The Bionic Frog showed a meatiness that I've come to associate with Cayuse; it was very gamy and even had an element of cured meats, like salami. It also had notes of green olive, though not as much as in the bottles of En Chamberlain that I've had. The oak treatment was noticeable but not prominent; it stayed in the background and was quite enjoyable. The fruit of the wine also played a supporting role; there was a figgy note that was very nice, but it was nowhere near the focus of the wine. Think of a small fig wrapped in a big piece of panchetta and drizzled in balsamic vinegar. Sound good? You'll probably like Cayuse wines.

The pH on this wine seemed very high; it was lush and extremely soft in the mouth. There was also no perceivable tannin structure. These two elements made for a velvety concoction with no rough edges. It must be noted as well that I (and most of the palates at the table) detected a noticeable level of volatile acidity in the wine. Normally this is a big turn-off for me, but there was so much going on in the glass that it actually supported it well.

Why are these wines so intriguing? I think it has something to do with the fact that they undeniably push the envelope. The levels of grape ripeness evident in these wines has created a phenolic content that is in itself rather volatile. Hence, there is a lot of perceivable sensory elements in the glass, and they are more exotic than the standard monolithic big fruit and oak that is the profile of many Washington wines. Is this a good thing? It's certainly an interesting one.

Do these wines justify a) their price points and b) their hype? I always hate when someone asks me whether a wine is 'worth the money.' The answer is such a subjective one; if you make $20 million a year, then sure, shelling out $70 or $100 for a bottle of Cayuse is probably an easy thing to do, and so for you it would be worth the money. If, on the other hand, you make $25,000 a year at McDonalds then you might want to look more closely at the really value-driven products. Personally, I understand why these wines are as expensive as they are. Firstly, their production is expensive. The yields on Christophe's vineyards are famously low, he does all biodynamic production (which is expensive), and those vineyards are young; there's no way they've paid for themselves yet. Also, the production out of that winery is tiny, somewhere around 3000 cases I'm told. At that level of production it's impossible to turn a profit and remain liquid (no pun intended) without charging high prices. Is the wine worth the money? It's the price of admission to try something from a producer that is uncompromising in his principles and dedicated to small production wines.

Whether or not the wines justify their hype is a completely different question, and I think a difficult one. A lot of what makes Cayuse so appealing to many of its consumers is the press. This is for me a bit of an irritation and also a paradox. I despise the fact that a handful of palates so control the Washington wine industry, especially when those palates are so skewed in favor of ultra-rich wines- as is the case with The Wine Advocate's Jay Miller, for instance. I also think that these scores being the be-all-end-all for so many consumers pushes other producers to produce wines in this style, thusly reducing the diversity of the Washington wine scene and forcing producers to make wines that they perhaps might not even like themselves. At the same time, high Washington scores bring the state further into the consciousness of drinkers around the country and around the world, and that is a stated goal of mine.

The other thing that creates the hype around Cayuse is the limited availability. The unparalleled demand for these bottles of Cayuse is a natural consequence of combining high scores with extremely limited availability, and it is part of what makes them a viable enterprise. If these wines were familiar sights on wine shop shelves, customers would be far less inclined to put up with allocation from the winery. Supply and demand is a simple concept, and the invisible hand is doing its work here for Christophe.

I'm rambling now, so I'll stop. Was this wine a great experience? Yes, but it was in spite of some flaws. Do I think that it's for everyone? No, not at all; in fact, half of the people at the table tonight hated it. One of my cohorts poured it out. But am I sad that I have a bottle in my cellar? Far from it.

Oregon, The Other Northwest: 2009 Ken Wright Releases

2010-12-16T22:39:00.001-08:00

Sorry for the awful iPhone photo.

I had the chance today to try a lineup of eight different 09 Ken Wright Pinot Noirs. I have to say... Not as good as the 2008s. I remember those as being not only delicious, but also unique; each of the wines displayed a different character, ranging from rustic red fruits and spice to bombastic blueberries and cream. The 2009s might just not be drinking as well at this point in their life, but they were monolithic in character. Almost all of them (Abbot Claim, Carter, Savoya) showed some nice bright red fruits and were generally an enjoyable Pinot experience, but didn't have the uniqueness and sense of place that I've come to expect from top-notch Willamette Valley wine.

The exception was the just remarkable Canary Hill Vineyard. This wine showed an obvious herbal element. My first reaction was 'My God, that smells like weed!' And it did. Some might call it 'forest floor,' some might call it 'hops,' but for me it was a blatant marijuana element. And it smelled delicious. Beyond that there was some very nice, darker raspberry fruit character. The tannins weren't particularly evident (though I didn't open the wines, and don't know how long they had been open. I suspect several hours), but the acid was nice and the length was pleasant and lingering.

All in all, the 2009 Ken Wrights were good, solid wines. I'd hate to make judgments based on one tasting from just these few bottles on this one day, but hey, that's what we do, isn't it? I think they need more time in the bottle and a lot of patience in the glass from the consumer for them to show the elegance and intriguing secondary aromas that Oregon Pinot buyers hope for. If you're into that, go for it. I'm still looking for the best 2009s though.

An interesting shout-out should go to the new 2009 labels from Ken Wright. I'm always interested in wine packaging choices, and I think that these labels were probably a miss for the winery. While I thought the artwork itself was pretty cool, I don't see how it's going to sell even one bottle of wine. The Shea Vineyard release portrayed men in trucker caps working in the vineyards - not really what the average high-end wine consumer wants to see on their label. I liked them as renditions of what wine production really looks like, though; many a millionaire might be disturbed to see the amount of blue-collar sweat that goes into their wine.

The State of the Industry

2010-12-15T23:46:00.000-08:00

Aussie Sales Down in US: They blame a strong American dollar and competing imports from South America and New Zealand. From my personal experience it seems that while New Zealand is going strong, the South American category has been falling lately. I certainly don't have a finger on the pulse of the national market, though.

Walla Walla Wine Closure: Nicholas Cole Cellars is closing its doors. The article calls it an 'indefinite hiatus,' but I've heard that they're just plain calling it quits. Honestly, I've never been a huge fan of the wines; I always thought that their quality never justified their inflated price points. Over the past year or so we've seen their prices on significant post-off, but I guess it couldn't stem the tide. A death in the family is, of course, never an easy thing to deal with, and my heart goes out to the Neuffers. I wish them all the best.

Recycle Your Corks: At Bin 41! Nothing really to say here, but it's pretty cool, and I always like to give a shout-out to T over in West Seattle whenever possible.

Hollywood's Drinking For The Holidays: It must be nice for retailers down there to have all that disposable income hanging around everyone's pockets. By the way, Remy Martin Louis XIII would make a great gift for me this year, if anyone's wondering...

A Good Year for Ice Wine: Apparently 2010 was a good year for ice wine in the Northeast this year. Good thing, too; global warming being what it is, we'll probably be seeing fewer and fewer of these harvests. Fortunately, there's always artificial means to the same end.

India Snubs French Wine: Not news, really, but Indian tariffs on wine imports continue to be absurdly high, even in the face of exploding demand for fermented grape juice in the country. The French are, naturally, furious. I wonder if this is an attempt to bolster sales of India's domestic wine sales. I had the opportunity to try a sparkling wine produced in India recently, and wow, I'm sorry to say that it was terrible. It was made of Chardonnay and produced in the methode traditionalle, so I had some high hopes, but unfortunately it both smelled and tasted like a plastic seat cover. Oh well; better luck next time, India!

Secret Weapon Wine: Tertulia's Les Collines Syrah

2010-12-15T17:43:00.000-08:00

Tertulia Cellars is a two-thousand case production winery in Walla Walla. That being said, their facility is fantastic for a winery of their level of production. They have a bottling line that many other wineries at their level might only dream of. I'm not sure who's bankrolling them, but whoever it is, they're willing to shell out cash for some cool toys. It's gorgeous, too (and the tasting room staff is really nice!).

While I'm not a fan of ALL of their wines (their rose is a miss for me), they make a lot that are frankly delicious. Their Viognier and Cabernet are good, varietally correct, and very enjoyable.

My favorite wine from them, however, is their Les Collines Syrah. It's stellar. Good fruit, nice acidity, well balanced. But the best part is the gorgeous green olive note that pervades the nose and spills over onto the palate. It's intoxicating in a way that has nothing to do with alcohol. I'm convinced that this is due to the winery's practice of partially fermenting this wine with stems added back; I've found this element in many wines that either add back stems or ferment whole-cluster, including most notably Cayuse's single vineyard Syrahs (particularly En Chamberlain). For me, it's something that makes those wines memorable and captivating.

Les Collines vineyard seems to be something of a darling in Walla Walla lately. At least partially owned by Amavi , there's a lot of interesting things going on at this vineyard. Marie-Eve at Forgeron calls it "one of the warmest, frost-free sites in the Walla Walla Valley." She says that "Grapes sourced from here are for big, bold wines with very concentrated and dark flavors." As the vineyard's website points out, it is internationally certified as sustainable and salmon safe. Almost in Oregon, it is nestled in the foothills (which is the English translation of the name) of the Blue Mountains. Considering the freeze problems that Walla Walla regularly faces (such as the 2004 freeze that essentially wiped out the vintage for the valley), a vineyard that is relatively frost-free must be a draw for Walla Walla winemakers.

Here's the most exciting thing about Tertulia's Les Collines Syrah: It retails for $24. Yes, $24. And it is incredible. It is worth searching out, and that's why it's a Secret Weapon Wine.

Update: I've been made aware that Les Collines Vineyard is also half-owned by Garrison Creek Cellars , a winery of which I admit complete ignorance. I'm intrigued to try their wines some time, though on their website they don't have anything listed past the 2002 vintage, and none from Les Collines vineyard. Hopefully they just haven't updated in a while.

Stepping Out of Washington: 2000 Leoville-Las Cases

2010-12-13T15:33:00.000-08:00

I recently had the opportunity to try a legendary wine: The 2000 Leoville-Las Cases. I try to be something of an iconoclast when it comes to top-notch, extremely expensive wines, but I was impressed with this wine. It was handed to me blind, and even at 10 years old, it retained the purple hue of a young wine. It was wonderfully concentrated and beautiful, showing graphite, black currants, herbs, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera... The length was great, the tannin structure was phenomenal. There's obviously a lot of time left for this wine; if you're lucky enough to have any you don't need to worry about drinking it.

To only brag a little, when I was asked to peg it blind (having not been given region, grapes, no info whatsoever) I said that I thought it was 2005 Pauillac. I feel pretty good about that for two reasons: One, Leoville-Las Cases is right on the border of Pauillac, and two, it was drinking like an extremely young wine. I'm amazed that it hadn't evolved further.

Finding it online for $350, I don't think that I'll be running out and buying any, but it was a beautiful experience. I can't ever justify spending that kind of money on any one bottle of wine, even one as amazing as this one. I've had so many wonderful wines for $30-$50 that I think I'll keep my purchases in that range. I'm always happy to drink them on someone else's dime, though.

New Wine Businesses Make Headlines

2010-12-13T14:59:00.000-08:00

Crosscut has an interesting post about a couple of new wine enterprises here in Seattle: Urban Enoteca and Wine World Warehouse.

Urban Enoteca is in the SoDo district, joining such wine destinations as OS Winery, Cadence, Bartholomew, Laurelhurst Cellars, Nota Bene, Esquin Wine Merchants, (et cetera, et cetera, et cetera) in making the south end the Wine District of Seattle. It's an intriguing concept, showcasing McCrea, Kiona, Fidelitas, Cave B, Côte Bonneville, Fielding Hills and Five Star Cellars- Eastern Washington wineries that until now didn't have a Western Washington presence. They've also brought on Crush's Jason Wilson as consulting chef. While I haven't been there yet, and there are no events on their website's calendar, I've got high hopes that Urban Enoteca will bring more energy and excitement to the burgeoning wine community in South Seattle.

Wine World Warehouse is the brainchild of general manager and Sommelier-about-town David Leclair. It's located on the other side of town, up in Wallingford. I'm not going to say too much about Wine World, and for two reasons: One, I haven't been there yet, and two, I work for one of their main competitors and don't want to throw stones. However, the opening of another large wine retailer in Seattle points to the growing interest in the Western Washington market, which can only be good for those of us in the industry, especially during the Great Recession.

Washington Wineries to Watch - Adams Bench

2010-12-13T13:41:00.000-08:00

I'm certainly not the first person to discover Adams Bench. Actually, I'm late to the game in talking about this upstart Woodinville winery, but I'd be remiss not to correct that situation. That's because these wines are of such an obvious quality that they have quickly skyrocketed to many people's top-winery list. For example, Sean Sullivan at the Washington Wine Report included two of their wines in his poll for Wine of the Year (though as of this writing they're both losing to Reynvaan's In The Rocks Syrah). And though I loathe to cite it, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that The Wine Advocate's infamous Dr. Jay Miller rated five different Adams Bench wines between 91 and 93 points. Therefore, to say that these wines are unknown hidden gems wouldn't be accurate, but they are certainly a new winery, and definitely one to watch.

Adams Bench is literally a garage winery; owners Tim and Erica Blue produce them in the garage of their home in the heart of Woodinville wine country. Having had Chris Camarda (proprietor of the esteemed Andrew Will) as their consulting winemaker undoubtedly affected the style and quality of these wines. Their methods are very reminiscent of the production methods used at Andrew Will: Small lot production, whole berry fermentation, manual punch-downs, indigenous yeasts. They age in primarily new French oak, and while its influence is evident in the wines, it integrates well and adds to their character rather than overwhelming the fruit quality. Of course, there is no filtration on any of their wines.

The Blue's vineyard sourcing is impeccable; some examples include Camarda's Two Blondes vineyard, the historic Red Willow vineyard in Yakima Valley (one of the oldest in the state), and Novelty Hill's Stillwater Creek vineyard. They produce from these grapes wines that are rich in character, but with intriguing character that makes them more than the average monolithic New World wine. The two most readily available to consumers are the Reckoning Red Wine (the 2007 is 38% Cabernet Sauvignon, 48% Merlot, and 14% Cabernet Franc) and the V Cabernet Sauvignon. Both retail at roughly $40-$45 (though I think the Reckoning is several dollars cheaper than the V), so they fall into that mid-level Washington pricing level. This seems like it can be a black hole that so many Washington wineries fall into, but the quality of these wines make them stand-outs in the category, and the positive press will undoubtedly keep them moving out of the winery.

One of the things that I found most memorable about these wines was the pencil-lead quality that leapt from all of them. For me, this was the most fun and intriguing sensory note in them. Underneath that was classic concentrated and dark Washington fruit: Plums, blackberries, briar fruit. While these wines are extracted, there was little bitterness to be detected, which is a flaw that I think some Washington wineries fall into in their efforts to create big wines. The winery utilizes a small stainless steel basket press, which can be a very gentle method of pressing, and so this probably helps minimize bitter elements and harsh tannins. I'll bet it's a bitch to clean, though.

I'll be interested to see what happens when this passion project goes into larger production; they're currently coming in at about 1000 cases annually, but the excitement in the press and the buying public will undoubtedly push the Blue's towards larger and larger batches. Hopefully they can keep the level of quality at its current high level.

These wines are available at a couple of retail outlets, but most of them are sold out of the winery. Their tasting room isn't regularly open to the public, but I think that if you ask nicely, then you might talk them into opening a bottle or two.

Wine in 2010

2010-12-01T17:12:00.001-08:00

After a year's hiatus, I'm picking this blog up again! So welcome back to me. Since the year is coming to a close, allow me to ruminate for a few moments on the state of wine and my take on the industry in 2010...

The top estates of the world have clearly become intended only for the growing super-rich class. The pricing of 2009 Bordeaux makes that perfectly evident. I think that the hyperinflated prices will lead to the consumption of less of this classic wine region by the vast majority of oenophiles. Furthermore, these absurd (if I may be blunt) pricing will lead to a commoditization of these wines; tragically, fewer and fewer bottles of these "perfect" (according to such highly-regarded voices as Robert Parker and James Suckling) wines will ever achieve their ultimate purpose, which is to be consumed. To me this represents a fatal flaw in the prestige-based method by which wines are purchased in the twenty-first century.

There are many reasons for this phenomenon. One of the most prevalent ones is the globalization of the wine world. Markets such as Hong Kong, China and Japan have exploded, and this has driven demand far higher for top-class Bordeaux (particularly first-growths) than it ever was. Chateaux have, of course, embraced this new customer base, as any capitalist corporation would. Mouton-Rothschild has gone so far as to take on a Chinese artist to design their famous label for 2008. I can't fault these estates for getting the pricing that they feel the market will bear for their product, but I lament the inability for average wine consumers anywhere in the world to be able to experience these legendary wines.

Another more insidious factor driving up demand and prices for top Bordeaux estates inspires more debate than almost anything else in the wine industry: The use of the 100-point system by the Big Two wine publications. I'm against the 100-point system, or any definitive wine rating system at all. In the past I've rated wines on this blog, but that's not something that I'll be doing as I go forward. Wine is far too subjective and malleable of a subject to be making definitive statements about. Instead I like to talk about my experiences with a wine, a winery, or the people in the industry. Each wine is different from bottle to bottle, day to day, and person to person. While you can say that a certain production has certain qualities (good or bad), there is no reason to think that any two wine experiences will be identical.

I'm looking forward to engaging in an ongoing conversation about wine and the wine industry. Hopefully you'll enjoy it as well.

On Chardonnay

2009-12-26T17:07:00.000-08:00

I love Chardonnay. More than any other grape, I am infatuated with this one. I was reminded of this fact last night when enjoying a 2004 Louis Jadot Pouilly-Fuissé. While not from a particularly prestigious appellation, this wine presented such beautiful nuance that it shined through the rest of the evening to become my pivotal memory of the occasion. Its pale hay color glimmered in the lights dimmed to a pleasant ambiance. It presented a supple and generous nose, beautiful and open but subtle and demanding careful attention at the same time. Tart peaches, nutmeg, wet stone minerality, and a hint of oxidative nuttiness captivated me. This bottle was undoubtedly at the peak of its drinking window; I was glad that we had opened it then. The palate was a lively and crisp experience of tart fruit, bright acidity, and subtle baking spice. Its flavors lingered for a particularly long time, caressing my tongue until it was left with nothing but a sweet memory. It was a wonderful bottle of wine.

This experience embitters me against poorly made Chardonnay. I must unfortunately admit that the state of Washington is one of the most egregious offenders in this regard. All too often, Washington winemakers overwhelm their Chardonnay with entirely too much new oak. They need to understand that a gentle kiss of oak is all that's required to create an invigorating, beautiful, tasty wine. Also, there is just too much ripeness in Washington wines. I have this opinion about California wines as well, but I think the good Chardonnay wineries down there know how to manage this ripeness more. Our Washington winemakers seem to want extremely ripe wines with high alcohol contents, but not to put them through very much malolactic fermentation, and then to use a ton of new French oak.

I'm not certain that I have the answer to this problem, but there must be one. Our growing sites are no warmer than Californian growing sites, so we ought to be able to make the rich, lush, full-bodied and slutty Chardonnays that they do. Instead, all too often Washington Chardonnay has too-evident alcohol, overwhelming oak, and tart malic acid.

I also wonder about our selection of clones and yeasts, but I don't have enough knowledge on this front to formulate an informed point-of-view.

If I were to make a Washington Chardonnay- and, God willing, one day I will- I would do several things. Firstly, I would try to find one of the coolest growing sites in the state. I suspect that top choices would be Celilo Vineyard and Evergreen Vineyard. I'm very interested in clonal selection at this stage, but am not sure what clones are available or what clones I might be looking for. Secondly, I would pick in two phases. The first would be earlier than might seem wise, but I'm looking to maintain high levels of malic acid and lower Brix in this pass. I would ferment this juice to wine in stainless steel- I might cold soak with the skins in an effort to raise the pH, but I'm not certain- and then I would transfer to French oak barrels, about 25% new. I would ferment with Montrachet yeast, and put the majority of this wine through malolactic fermentation: 75% perhaps? During fermentation, I would try to ferment cool and long, but it needs to be steady. I would honestly probably do everything I could to ferment to dryness and not worry too much about length of fermentation; a slow fermentation would scare the living daylights out of me.

I would also pick a second phase of riper Chardonnay from the same vineyard, perhaps two weeks later. This pass would be smaller than the original pass, perhaps by half. I would ferment this juice in stainless steel as well, and put it in barrels with (probably) a similar proportion of new-to-used oak as the first batch. I would put less of this wine through malolactic fermentation, perhaps only 25%, and would likely use Montrachet yeast as well (though I'm not sure about this; if there's a better yeast for riper Chardonnay, I would use it. M2 perhaps?) The goal here would be to include some of those riper flavors without sacrificing acidity and without resorting to watering down to maintain a reasonable alcohol level. In this way, I would hope to avoid additions such as acidifying and adding H2O. Also, I would be layering different flavors in an effort to create a more complex wine.

I would age the wines in oak for six or seven months, and would do batonnage twice a day to add a richness of flavor. I would then rack the wines to stainless steel and allow them to age in stainless steel for perhaps another ten months before bottling. The bottles would then be held for two months before release. The concept here is to allow the wines to gain some richness from the oak contact and the batonnage, but not to allow too much oxygen intake from the barrels, and then to allow them time to come together in tank before bottling. I'm also playing with the idea of barrel fermentation, which would allow me to avoid one racking cycle, but I've never done barrel fermentation and it makes me nervous.

Stylistically, I would be looking for a wine with some oak influence, some malolactic influence, and some oxygen influence, but one that is still bright and fruity with nice bracing acidity. My stylistic influence would be Domaine Leflaive more than anything else. I realize that this is shooting for the rafters on some level, but why not aim high? I don't think that any Washington winemaker is trying to make a Chardonnay in this style, with the possible exception of Corliss' Tranche Chardonnay. Most Washington winemakers make their Chardonnay in a couple of different styles: Either they are going for a rich, buttery California style (read: Gorman's Big Sissy), they are going for a crisp, clean, unoaked style (example: Airfield's unoaked Chardonnay and several others. I actually rather like this style, but it's not my favorite expression of Chardonnay), or they try this mucky, high-alcohol, high-ripeness, high-new-oak contact, but not high malolactic. The latter is my least favorite style; I think it creates a mess that burns the palate more than anything else.

Domaine Leflaive may be an extremely optimistic role model for a Washington Chardonnay, but there's no reason why it can't be done. The important part is to be rigorous in your methodology. Ideally, I would create a wine with a low pH for Washington, somewhere in the 3.2-3.5 range. Boldness, subtlety, and a creamy texture are the hallmarks of a well-made Chardonnay in this style. We shall see.

A little French wine

2009-08-26T10:45:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posts; August has been a crazy month.
Scott and I drank a 2002 Cos D'Estournel last night. It was delicious. Pencil lead, pain grille, lightly roasted red fruits, classic cedarbox, blackberries, et cetera. The palate was also wonderful. Firm but supple tannins, mouth-filling fruit, not overripe, tart balanced acidity. The length was impressive; the pencil lead aspect carried on and on and on. I loved it. 8/10, RECOMMENDED.

We also drank a Domaine d'Ardhuy 2005 Savigny-Les-Beaune Premier Cru. I can't remember the name of the vineyard, but apparently its name translates as 'The Nails' due to the soil's high iron content. This was apparent in the wine. It started out with a very rustic nose, red fruits, raspberries, a hint of barnyard, and a remarkable coppery mineral element. Later in the evening that coppery mineral element transformed into a chalky, seashell-esque mineral element, the barnyard aspect dissipated, and we were left with a nose of delicious pure red and blue fruit, a hint of anise spice, cinnamon, and various spice pantry elements. The tannins were rough and ready upon opening, and while they smoothed out with time, they were still a little chunky and rustic. This wine was made in a tasty, rustic style, very enjoyable. 7/10

Group Tasting: Rieslings of the World.

2009-08-12T15:55:00.000-07:00

It's a Riesling Rendezvous! Why Riesling? Because it is produced all over the world, but stylistically each region can be quite different. The wines can range from dry to exceedingly sweet, from fruity to floral to petroleum-esque. Also, I happen to love Riesling, and so do my counterparts in the Tasting Group. So, without further ado, here is the tasting:

We decided to do Rieslings from some of the regions most renowned for producing quality product. Therefore, we had two German Rieslings- one from the Mosel and one from the Nahe- two Australian Rieslings- one from Clare Valley and one from Margaret River- one Washington Riesling- from Columbia Valley- and one Alsatian Riesling. These were also selected because they offer such a wide range of styles, which was essentially the point of the tasting. All the wines were tasted blind, but we knew the regions ahead of time, so Taylor and I made a game of trying to guess which region it was from. Overall, I think he did a better job of this than me. Here are the wines:

1.) Leeuwin Estate 2006 Artist Series Riesling. Margaret River. 12% alc, $17.99
My notes:
Light and brilliant pale hay color. Strong petroleum aroma (bicycle tire), white flowers, stone fruit (pluot). The palate abounds with green apple flavors and a scathingly high, Warhead-like acidity. Wow. That's a tart wine right there. It's enjoyable, but I hesitate to recommend it to people because it pushes the boundaries of balance with that acid. I wish we had started the tasting with a slightly more mellow wine. I guessed Clare Valley, so at least I got the country right.

The scores:
Me: 6
Taylor: 5.5
L: 6
MM: 4.5
MO: 4
Total: 26
Average: 5.2/10

2.) Donhoff Riesling, 2007. Nahe. 10% alc, $23.99
My notes:
Pale hay color, slightly on the more yellow side. The nose is richer, with distinct honeyed peaches. Taylor says anise. The nose is almost creamy with its richness. It smells of apple skins and tropical fruit. The palate is delightfully off-dry, with nice medium-plus acid. The attack is juicy, sweet and fruit-forward, showing lovely lychee flavors. It finishes in a seductively long way- 30+ seconds- and with remarkable floral qualities. I guessed Mosel, so at least I got the country right... Again...

The scores:
Me: 7
Taylor: 6
L: 7.5 (with a smiley face)
MM: 6
MO: 6.5
Total: 33
Average: 6.6/10
I really thought this wine was delicious, and so I'm going to call it RECOMMENDED.

3.) Substance 2007 Columbia Valley Riesling. 13.5% alco, $17.99
My notes:
Pale, watery hay color. The nose is rather muted, showing some green apple, indistinct citrus, and a rather grapey element.
The palate is also rather grapey, with a little bit of a floral aspect. I found it to be distinctly cloying. L found a kiwi flavor in it that she enjoyed. For me, the grapey bitter cloying flavor brought the score down significantly. Noone in the group thought this wine was the best of the bunch. I thought it was from either Alsace or Washington, so we'll call that a half-point.

The scores:
Me: 5
Taylor: 5
L: 6.5
MM: 6
MO: 5
Total: 27.5
Average: 5.5/10

4.) Mr. Riggs Watervale 2006 Watervale Riesling. Clare Valley. 12.5% alcohol, $11.99
My notes:
Richer color, pewtery lemon, brilliant. A nose of distinct petroleum, wet stone, stone fruit and lemon drops. Floral aromas, citrus, melon. MO says oyster shells. Medium-plus acid on the attack, maybe high. It is bright, a little austere, but citrus-fruit-forward. A lingering floral finish, but not a cloying one. I rather liked this wine, but was in the minority. L enjoyed it too, calling it crowd-pleasing, with "lick-my-teeth acidity." I pegged this as Australian, but again I mixed up the appellation.

The scores:
Me: 6
Taylor: 5.5
L: 7
MM: 4.5
MO: 4.5
Total: 27.5
Average: 5.5/10

5.) Domaine Marcel Deiss 2007 Riesling. Alsace. 12% alc, $24.99.
My notes:
This wine, again, has a brilliant light hay color. The nose is pretty, and very floral-driven. It's all about geraniums and a sort of potpourri. There is also an aspect of candied fruit and apricots, but I find it to be very floral. L says violets, and also finds a rising-bread yeasty component. The palate has a nice, delicate richness, with high racy acidity. It is subtly off-dry. The florality carries on here, combined with fruit elements of lychee and pineapple. Delicious. I nailed this one as Alsatian (score!)

The scores:
Me: 6.5
Taylor: 5 (?!?)
L: 7
MM: 5.5
MO: 5
Total: 29
Average: 5.8/10 (a travesty!)

6.) Maximin Grunhauser Abtsberg 2007 Riesling Spatlese. Mosel. 8.5% alc, $34.99
My notes:
Well, my notes on this one are a little bit different than everyone else's. I stuck my nose in the glass and went, "Ew! Sulphur! Wet matchstick! Gahhhhh!" Everyone else looked at me like I was crazy. So I'll offer my notes, and then the notes of others as a counterpoint, because I am distinctly in the minority here. I also broke my notes into two different categories: Pre-sulphur, and post-sulphur, because the sulphur blew off somewhat after a while. I realize that it's not perfectly fair to judge this wine on its sulfurous first impression, but I'm biased and can't help that. So...
My pre-sulphur notes:
Slightly darker color. Nose of stinking eggs. SULPHUR. Subdued flowers. Cheesy. The palate is actually quite nice, if a bit short. Distinct residual sugar and apple juice. The acid could be higher... 5/10
My post-sulphur notes:
The nose is very floral, rose petals. Green apples, tropical fruit (papaya?). The palate is essentially the same as the first time I tried it, so again, it's good but too short, and a little apple-juicy. 6.5/10

Now, as a counterpoint, Taylor's notes:
Straw-golden. Big mineral oyster - hint of petrol. Pear/apple. Honey, honeysuckle. Bit of RS with balancing acidity. Elegant. Apples, bright mineral notes. Touch of cream. Floral as it opens. Lime/citrus notes on the palate. 7.5/10

Everyone else went ga-ga over it too. L says "I lick my teeth, trying to savor it," and "light gold, like sun reflecting on water." So objectively, I have to say that this is a good wine, even if my experience with it was not the best. I am but one man!

The scores:
Me: 6.5
Taylor: 7.5
L: 8
MM: 8
MO: 7.5
Total: 37.5
Average: 7.5/10
With an average score like that, this wine has to go into the RECOMMENDED category.

Final thoughts:
I think that some of the wines that didn't score so well in this tasting- specifically the Australian ones and the Alsatian one- did so because of their style. The Australian ones had high, scathing acidity that our group found unpleasant. In other situations, when that kind of a style is anticipated and desired, these wines would likely rate much higher. But that's how it goes! There are, after all, no great wines, only great bottles and great occasions.

Feedback please!

2009-07-22T16:46:00.000-07:00

I notice this blog going in a very Northwest-centric direction, and I hope to mitigate that somewhat. I ask you: What would you like to read about? Do you like the Northwest focus? How can I please you?

Group Tasting: 2007 Washington Red Blends

2009-07-22T15:41:00.000-07:00

Welcome to another Bottle Variations group tasting! Our Tasting Group meets semi-regularly for a blind tasting of 6 or so themed wines. The group knows the theme ahead of time, but only the organizer (generally myself) knows what the wines are specifically. However, I mixed up the wines after they were bagged, so while I knew what wines were in the tasting, I did not know specifically which wine I was tasting at any time. All of the wines were decanted for 2+ hours before tasting.

This tasting was of 2007 Washington State red blends. The 2007 vintage has been hailed in Washington as the best since 2005! This tasting was put together to test that theory. Without further ado, here are the wines:

1. JM Cellars "Bramble Bump Red". 33% Cab, 31% Merlot, 15% Syrah, 13% Mourvedre, 8% Petit Verdot. $19.99. 14.3% Alcohol (Though Sean cried "Bullshit!" on the alcohol content).
My notes:
Ruby/purple color. Nose of wood spice, sweet ripe fruit, oak, lots of hot alcohol, vanilla, raspberry, blueberry preserves. Nicely medium-bodied on the attack, and then the oak comes out on the mid-palate. The tannins are firm, and the alcohol is evident. The fruit is pleasantly ripe, and it's a little too oaky. Not focused. L found it medicinal, and I agree a little bit. Sean said it felt like "Chewing on a crowbar." I didn't get much of that, whatever it means...

The scores:
Me: 5.5
T: 4
M: 5
L: 5.5
G: 6
Sean: 7.5
Total: 33.5
Average: 5.58/10

2. Tamarack Cellars "Firehouse Red". Columbia Valley. 31% Cabernet, 27% Syrah, 16% Merlot, 14% Cabernet Franc, 7% Malbec, 3% Sangiovese, 1% Carmenere, 1% Petit Verdot. $18.99. Alcohol content not listed on the bottle; don't tell the police.
My notes:
Ruby and a little dark purple. Less oak, sweet fruit. Black cherry, cream, mild baking spice. The nose is subtler, and more multifaceted. The palate is smooth at first, and the tannin comes out on the mid-palate. Substantial oak on the finish. T says dark chocolate. I think the finish is just a little bitter, but I still like the wine in general. L found it to be a smooth and food-friendly wine. Sean thought it was over-extracted; I think he was in the minority there.

The scores:
Me: 6.5
T: 5.5
M: 6
L: 6.5
G: 7.5
Sean: 6
Total: 38
Average: 6.3/10

3. Waters "Interlude". 55% Merlot, 38% Cabernet, 7% Cabernet Franc. $26.99. 14.5% alcohol.
My notes:
Opaque ruby color. Quite ripe nose, chocolate, plum preserves (but not pruny), sweet fruit, ripe. Alcohol is quite evident on nose. Some vegetal and dried herb aromas. L says sour cherry, and I agree. The palate isn't as concentrated as I'd like, but it is pleasantly tart, with nice acidity. Sean thought that the fruitiness complemented what he called a "smoky oakiness," and referred to the tannins as "chalky." L thought it was too alcoholic on the nose but liked it in general, though she thought it was "too overt for most food pairings." I agree; this is a cocktail wine.

The scores:
Me: 6
T: 5
M: 6
L: 7
G: 7
Sean: 7
Total: 38
Average: 6.3/10

4. Isenhower "Last Straw". Columbia Valley. Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache, Merlot, Roussanne, Syrah (though I'm not sure of the blend). 14.5% alcohol. About $18?
My notes:
Opaque ruby color, quite vibrant. The nose is medicinal and alcoholic, with ripe plummy fruit. I thought it was kind of a vague, fruity nose, maybe dried fruit. L detected tarragon; T called it "dark fruit." The palate really saved this wine for me. It was tart and juicy. My notes say "Tasty!" I appreciate the fact that it is not overly oaked, though it is super-sweet and ripe.

The scores:
Me: 6.5
T: 5.5
M: 6.5
L: 6.5
G: 6.5
Sean: 8
Total: 6.58/10

5. Cadence "Coda." 57% Merlot, 18% Cabernet, 13% Cabernet Franc, 12% Petit Verdot. About $30. 14.4% alcohol.
My notes:
Lighter ruby color, almost translucent. Bright and very distinct cranberry on the nose. Again (and again and again) the nose is quite ripe, and the alcohol is evident. Not too much oak, but a little vanilla spice. L found the nose to be a little funky, T detected a Red Vines-esque candied aroma. The alcohol is evident on the palate as well; it's a hot wine. There's less body on this wine than any other one but number 3. L says it's too tart, which I actually didn't mind. It's the booziness I couldn't get over.
The scores:
Me: 6
T: 5
M: 5.5
L: 6
G: 6
Sean: 8.5 (I think maybe he's getting a little tipsy at this point)
Total: 37
Average: 6.17/10

6. Three Rivers "River's Red". 48% Syrah, 22% Malbec, 12% Cabernet Franc, 8% Petit Verdot, 7% Cabernet, 2% Carmenere, 1% Tempranillo (Where do they come up with these blends?!?). 13.6% alcohol. Around $13.
My notes:
Ruby-purple. Slightly funky nose, cherry, almost citrusy. Just a little wood, pencil lead/shavings. L detected blue cheese. Medium-bodied, firm and pleasant tannins, juicy and plump. T liked the acid; so did I. L found the wine to be food-friendly. All in all, this is one that we enjoyed quite a bit. The general consensus was that it was balanced and drinkable, while still being ripe and fruity.

The scores:
Me: 7
T: 6
M: 6
L: 6.5
G: 7
Sean: 8.5
Total: 41
Average: 6.83

Given the price and the scores, this is the only wine of the tasting to be rated as RECOMMENDED.

Overview:
Everyone at the tasting got a little frustrated at the lack of distinctions in these wines. M noted that they all looked VERY similar in the glass when we poured them side-by-side. T said they were "hard to differentiate." Sean thought they all smelled like Grenache. My final notes were thus: "I would like all of these wines more if they weren't 1. Overalcoholic and 2. So similar! At least there were no oak-bombs, though."

It was astounding to find all these wines to be so similar when their blends are all so different. I have to suppose that this is due to the extreme ripeness of the grapes and the (I assume) similarity of the aging procedures.

Washington State is the Wild West of winemaking. Wineries are young, people are doing unusual things with grape blends, and the rules are fast and loose. So why are these wines so similar? Is this the effect of Parkerization, or do enologists think that this is the style consumers are after? Do these winemakers like their own wines?

I hope that this trend reverses itself, and that we begin to see more unique, individual wines coming out of our wine region.

Laurelhurst Cellars

2009-07-22T14:53:00.002-07:00

Laurelhurst Cellars is another in a long string of new Washington wineries. Some people say that a new winery is bonded in Washington every week, some say every couple of days. Whatever the case, there is a glut of new producers in the state. Whether this is a good thing or a bad one is a matter open to debate. I'm of the position that it is a positive trend; while some might say that the average quality of Washington wine is being brought down as a result, I believe that a heavy infusion of new blood helps to bring innovation and dynamism to the industry. I predict that many of these new wineries will not survive beyond their first or second release, and that is well- the wheat shall be separated from the chaff, and quality shall rise to the surface and survive, hopefully. After all, the Washington wine industry cannot survive on Ste Michelle Wine Estates alone.

But I digress. Laurelhurst Cellars is a new Washington winery, now selling their second vintage (2006 reds). Their self-description on their Facebook page: "Laurelhurst Cellars. Established in 2004 by Greg Smallwood, Gabe Warner & Dave Halbgewachs in the Laurelhurst Neighborhood. Producing Premium Wines from Washington State." Pretty straightforward. Three guys, Washington wine. They've actually relocated from Laurelhurst to Georgetown, an area burgeoning with wineries these days (six or so?). I recently had the opportunity to taste their wines. Here are my notes:

1. 2005 Azorica Red Blend. Columbia Valley. $26.99. 34% Cabernet, 28% Merlot, 22% Cabernet Franc, 16% Syrah. Boushey, Patch of Blue, and Kiona vineyards. 22 months in 100% new French oak. 52 cases produced.
Dark, opaque ruby. A nose of sweet fruit, raspberry, blackberry, vanilla, sweet wood. The wine is big and juicy, but surprisingly not over the top. The tannins are firm and gripping. Given the oak exposure, this wine is appreciably not too woody; it's there in the form of a pleasant spiciness, but not obnoxious like so many Washington reds. Nice! 6.5/10

2. 2005 Petite Syrah, Yakima Valley. 20 months new French oak, 25 cases produced. $28.99
Very dark purple, quite opaque. The nose is a little more restrained than the first wine, showing wood spice and pencil shavings along with hints of dark sweet fruit. The palate is brambly and a little spicy, with blackberry and plums. The wine is juicy, and has nice acidity in a tight, focused style. Again, not over the top. 6/10

3. 2005 Boushey Vineyard Cabernet Franc. 22 months in 100% new French oak. 28 cases produced. $34.99
Medium ruby color, somewhat transparent. Brett on the nose, stinky, horsey, and a little pleasant vegetal note. The wine is medium bodied and has very smooth, round tannins. A little wood, a little vegetal. I would like this wine a lot more without the bretty aspect, but that's something of a personal thing (I hate horsey-smelling brett). Some of my coworkers thought this was the best wine. 5/10

4. 2006 Laurus Nobilis Red Blend. 61% Merlot, 32% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot. Boushey, Klipsun, and Kiona Vineyard. $26.99. 160 cases produced.
Bright translucent ruby. Very juicy nose, red berries, sweet fruit, Chinese spices. Big and rich on the palate (my notes say "Whoa!"). Firm tannins, really tasty. 10-15 seconds of length. Great wine from a true Bordeaux blend, but not Bordeaux in style. 6.5/10

5. 2005 Boushey Vineyard Syrah. Aged 22 months in 100% new French oak (shocker). 23 cases produced. $36.99.
Opaque purple/ruby. A nose of blueberries and spice, a little tarry, mostly just juicy, ripe and woody (but not obnoxiously woody). Jammy on the palate, but with a nice backbone of acidity. Tarry and brambly. The tannins are supple, and balance well with the acidity and ripe fruit. Very subtly barnyardy (I predict that will increase with bottle age). 6/10

6. 2006 Red Mountain Cabernet. Klipsun and Kiona Vineyards. $36.99. 52 cases produced. Aged, again, for 22 months in 100% new French oak.
Medium ruby color, translucent. Bright and juicy nose, again, with sweet wood, vanilla, baking spice, black cherry, and ripe raspberry. Surprisingly medium-bodied on the palate. Quite smooth. Oaky, and without enough length. For their top-end wine, I would've expected something more; I like their less-expensive red blends more. 5/10

Conclusion:
These guys are definitely making Washington wine. The wines are ripe and approachable, in a big, juicy style. I like their wines, but I do wish that they'd lay off of the 100% new French oak a little bit. I also wish they weren't quite so ripe, but that's what practically all Washington wines are like these days. I didn't have their alcohol contents in front of me, but since they're Washington producers, and given the ripeness of the fruit, I'd have to expect that they all fall in the 14%-15.5% range. Remarkably, and to their credit, I didn't find the alcohol to be obnoxious on any of their wines. I don't have any idea how long the bottles had been open.

Regarding their prices, I think they're gutsy but not entirely unreasonable. The wines are good, and the prices never get into that $40-$50 price range that so many producers fall into (Mark Ryan, Chris Gorman, Longshadows, Boudreaux, ad infinitum). Who knows what a little press recognition might bring on that front, though.

I like the wines, I want to see more from this producer, and I hope they start picking their fruit earlier and laying off the new oak.

Posting Resumes!

2009-07-22T14:53:00.001-07:00

Sorry about the hiatus! Let the posting resume... Now!

Event Report: Seattle Wine Awards

2009-07-02T00:03:00.001-07:00

Taylor had the pleasure of attending the Seattle Wine Awards a couple of weeks back. He e-mailed me this report, and I'm posting it here for him.

Seattle Wine Awards

Held at the historic Rainier Club, the Seattle Wine Awards is
marketed as Washington’s most “prestigious” wine awards. Wineries that
received awards poured their honored wines—though there were some
notable award winners absent, including Buty. We were worried that
the event might be a little stuffy, considering the venue, but it was
actually an enjoyable experience and a great opportunity to try some
of Washington’s best.

We neglected to take notes while tasting each wine. To be honest, this
would have been too much of an undertaking for our palates as almost
200 different wines were poured. We will mention some wines that
caught our attention, though.

Of the established wineries represented at the SWA, Boudreaux’s 2005
Reserve Cabernet was a stand out. At just over $100 the producer
seems to have presumed greatness from this wine; it met those
expectations with its great structure and beautiful red fruit notes on
the nose and palate. Cote Bonneville Carriage House 2005 also greatly
impressed us. Similar to the Boudreaux, it has great structure with
accessible tannins, but is instead driven by gorgeous dark plum and
blackberry fruits. This is another great offering from Dubrul
Vineyard.

With regard to established wineries, we enjoyed Zerba’s 2005 Reserve
Walla Walla Cabernet and 2006 Reserve Walla Walla Syrah. It is hard
to understand how this largely estate winery is not more popular west
of the Cascades. Their wines always bring depth and complexity
without being bulky or overripe, often coming in at under 14.0%
alcohol. These two are great examples of this winery’s talent,
especially the Cabernet.

Two impressive newcomers were Obelisco and Hollywood Hill. Obelisco
Estate Red Mountain Cabernet 2007 was a gorgeously deep wine with
cedar, leather, and all sorts of dark fruit on the nose. Lush tannins
and balanced acidity really made this an impressive wine even in its
youth. Especially surprising to us was that this wine was taken from
second leaf vines. $60 is a pricey start for this winery’s first
release, but it is not outrageous considering its Red Mountain peers.
This wine really is a head above many other wines from that
appellation.

Hollywood Hill was represented by two of their Syrahs—their 2005
Yakima and their 2006 Rattlesnake Hills each of which retail for
around $30. The Yakima was driven by bright ripe fruits, while the
Rattlesnake Hills had a little bit more complexity and spice. Both
were beautifully balanced and lingered on the palate. Although not
quite as new to the scene as Obelisco, Hollywood Hill is still a young
winery and it appears to be headed in an interesting direction.

On a slightly different note, this was our first trip inside the
Rainier Club and we were quite taken with the enormous wood fire oven
and grill that took up an entire wall of one of the dining rooms. A
huge banquet of roasted meats, cheeses, fruits, spreads, and breads
covered the tables and offered a mouth-watering reprieve from the
multitude of wines.

Thanks, Taylor, for the interesting review!

What have I had lately?

2009-07-01T22:04:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been trying to avoid doing this, but I haven't had any wines with a particular theme lately, and so here are some notes on a bunch of wines I've tried lately.

1997 Lopez de Heredia Vina Tondonia Rioja Rose
Lopez de Heredia may be the last great traditional Rioja producer. Their dedication to vineyard-designate wines, long aging, and spontaneous fermentation astounds me. This is the current release of their rose, and it is like nothing I have tasted before. Whites and roses in an oxidized style are traditional for Rioja, but few producers that I've seen continue to produce wines in this style, and none do so as uncompromisingly as Lopez de Heredia. From the Tondonia estate, this wine is somewhat salmon-colored, but really it borders on amber with a tinge of brown. The nose is nutty; very sherry-esque; if the alcohol were higher, I'd peg it for a fino. The palate is equally oxidized. All the flavors are tertiary; there is almost no fruit whatsover, only perhaps the slightest hint of peach. The remarkable part about this wine is that the acidity has been beautifully maintained. It is crisp and tasty. I have no idea how much longer this wine could age, since I've had little experience with this style, but it is delicious now. 8/10

2007 Joseph Drouhin Chablis
Pale hay color. The nose is restrained, but there is a distinct note of lemon and stone fruit. The palate shows a pleasant juicy citrus layer, along with crisp apples and pears. There is nice zing of acidity, but the wine is a little too ripe for me, for Chablis. If I had been in the mood for this wine I might have liked it more, but when I see Chablis from a classic vintage like 2007 I want oyster shells. Fans of unoaked domestic chardonnay should search this one out. 5.5/10

2007 Domaine de la Quilla Muscadet Sevre et Maine
Very pale color, almost with a hint of green. The nose is quite expressive for a Muscadet, showing honeydew melon and citrus rind. The palate is crisp, with a nice hint of salinity. This is a nice, enjoyable beverage, perfect for summertime, though I do wish that it had a little more acidity. Still, it's great for under $15. 6/10

2004 Prinz Hallgartner Jungler Riesling Spatlese, Rheingau.
Rich lemon color. The nose is boisterous, with honey and citrus jumping out of the glass. The palate carries that honey and citrus with it, but adds ripe apricots and a lovely floral note. The residual sugar is delicious and enjoyable, not at all cloying, and the acidity holds up its end to produce a balanced, tasty wine. I recall this wine being under $20. If so, it is worth it. 6.5/10

Beronia 2001 Gran Reserva Rioja
Medium garnet color; it's quite pretty. The nose is very herbaceous and earthy; it smells of soy, and copper, with a raspberry fruit component. The palate is nicely medium bodied, and not too oaky. The tannins are firm but fine-grained. This is a well-made wine; it is juicy, with a red fruit aspect, but an earthy one as well. The length is impressive, going on for at least 30 seconds. I wish I had a piece of mole pork with this; it is a great food wine. 7/10

2007

2009-06-26T23:42:00.001-07:00

Where can we expect a great vintage in 2007? Washington winemakers are talking it up as the next great thing (more on that later), Chablis appears to have had a blockbuster, and Parker says that 2007 is the new 2003 in Bordeaux, though he seems to be in the minority there. Parker also loves 2007 Southern Rhone, and I've had some good wines from there, though I think they're generally overripe and overly alcoholic. And what's up with that, anyway? Is global warming making it difficult to get phenolic ripeness with a reasonable sugar level? Will watering down become industry standard?

Just a few thoughts for a Friday night. No notes today; I'll try to work some out tomorrow. T has an amazing dinner planned for tomorrow evening. You'll hear all about it. I'd love some comments.

Yours-

Group Tasting: Northwest Rose

2009-06-24T14:36:00.000-07:00

More Northwest wine producers are making the decision to create roses than in recent years. This seems like a sound financial decision; the demand for roses is big in Seattle, where people love to drink local wine, and often producers are using saignee juice that they've removed to lower the alcohol content of their red wines. The alternative to making the wine is to throw that juice away, and while the costs of vinifying, bottling, labeling, and marketing a wine are not to be laughed at, the market seems to be willing to bear Northwest roses at remarkably high prices compared to some imports, particularly from Provence.

The Bottle Variations Tasting Group conducted a tasting of several Northwest roses last night. The goal was to try 2008 Northwest roses in a variety of styles and price points. Unfortunately, one 2007 rose slipped in to the mix, but we tasted it anyway (though I think we all wish we hadn't). My companions shall for now be pseudonymously known as S, T, M, and L. For scoring purposes in this post, M is disqualified because- as far as I can tell from her notes- she stopped scoring halfway through. Maybe she was having a little too much fun?

This tasting was done blind for my cohorts, but not for me. I knew what all the wines were, but did not reveal any hints.

1. 2008 Elk Cove Pinot Noir Rose, Willamette Valley. $14.99
My notes:
Salmon color with a tinge of orange. Nose of strawberries, huckleberries, tart Rainier cherries, red licorice. Also, a hint of cough syrup, but not in an unpleasant way. The palate is juicy but zingy, starts out delicate but ends with a tang. L says it's too soft for food, and I agree, except for the most delicate dishes. It'd be a great deck sipper, though. L also says it has the acidity of "unripe stone fruit." I do get a kind of peachy acidity.

The scores:
Me: 5.5
L: 7
S: 5.5
T: 4.5
Total: 22.5
Average: 5.625/10

2. 2008 Syncline Rose, Columbia Valley. $15.99 44% cinsault, 30% grenache, 17% mourvedre, 9% counoise.
My notes:
Lighter pink color, nicely brilliant. Nose of citrus, cream, light spice. The group generally agrees that it smells like an orange-spiced cinnamon roll, because all these aromas combine with a slight breadiness. L says white peach on the palate, and I agree. Nice acidity, cherry, lemony on the back end. Finishes a little bitter, and also a little abruptly. In all, the palate didn't stand up to the exciting aromatics.

I was the only one who enjoyed the first one more than the second. There was quite a bit of debate as to which had more enjoyable acidity, and I definitely ended up in the minority. I think the finish of the second wine turned me off more than the rest of the group, and that I didn't mind the cough syrupy aspect of the first one as much as others.

The scores:
Me: 5
L: 7.5
S: 6
T: 6
Total: 24.5
Average: 6.125/10

3. 2008 Saviah Rose, Walla Walla Valley. 100% sangiovese, 100% Pepper Bridge Vineyard. $10.99
My notes:
Medium pink color. The nose is rich and juicy, with citrus zest, strawberry, rhubarb, and watermelon. Very fruit-forward, with a slight salinity. The palate has nice body, refreshing acidity, and a general tastiness; generally, this is a fruit-driven wine, which is how rose is supposed to be. This wine was a real hit; everyone thought it was juicy, delicious, and refreshing. We all went back for (at least) a second taste. Recommended.

The scores:
Me: 6.5
L: 8
S: 7.5
T: 7.5
Total: 29.5
Average: 7.375/10

4. 2007 (whoops!) Waters Rose, Columbia Valley. About $20 at the winery.
My notes:
Dark pink color (L says garnet, and it's darn close). Extremely ripe fruit on the nose, raspberries, cranberry juice (Ocean Spray), spoiled produce (asparagus?), sweet. Really not a very enjoyable nose at all. The spoiled produce aspect permeates the whole thing, and is obnoxious. The palate is super-ripe, the alcohol is noticeable and poorly integrated; it tastes like vodka and cranberry juice, mixed with apple cider. Pretty unpleasant; nothing I'd want to drink again.

This is really unfortunate, too, because when I had this wine at the winery a few months back it was tasty- at least tasty enough for me to buy a bottle and take it home. I guess that just goes to show you either the subjectivity of the wine experience, the volatility of a slightly aged rose, or both.

The scores:
Me: 3
L: 4
S: 5.5 (?!?)
T: 2
Total: 14.5
Average: 3.625/10
(S really brought up the average with that 5.5 score. I guess he liked it more than the rest of us, though he didn't say so at the time.)

5. 2008 Gorman Winery Rose "42-39-56." Columbia Valley. $19.99
My notes:
Medium-to-dark pink color, purple-hued. A nose of sweet, artificial fruit, cranberries, cherries. A little bit of a stink of baby diaper (S says "like the exhaust of a 1986 Datsun"), but that dissipated after a few minutes and just left pure, sweet, ripe fruit. The palate is really bright and juicy; it's pretty enjoyable, but without a lot of acidity. Also, the alcohol is very evident. Do I detect a little RS, or is that just the general booziness? L says it tastes like cherries and liqueur-soaked currants. That's pretty apt.

The scores:
Me: 4.5 (sorry Chris!)
L: 6
S: 5.5
T: 5
Total: 21
Average: 6/10

6. 2008 Barnard Griffin Rose of Sangiovese, Columbia Valley. $9.99 (on special)
My notes:
Dark pink, somewhat purple-hued. The nose is ripe but not overripe, citrusy, and juicy. Watermelon, ruby grapefruit, bright cherries. This wine has a really expressive nose. I mean, it just keeps coming. Pomegranate, raspberry, very red-fruit-driven. T thought the nose had a little cat pee, and L said it smelled a little like stinky feet, but I just got a whole bunch of fruit. The palate is big, juicy, and delicious. L finds it to be quite tropical. S says, "This is damn good!" I thought there was awesome acidity, and it was very juicy, with a little bit of a candied, Jolly Ranchers aspect to it. We all loved this wine. Recommended.

The scores:
Me: 6.5
L: 8
S: 7
T: 7.5
Total: 29
Average: 7.25/10

So, to review the average scores:
1. 2008 Elk Cove Pinot Noir Rose, Willamette Valley. $14.99: 5.625/10
2. 2008 Syncline Rose, Columbia Valley. $15.99: 6.125/10
3. 2008 Saviah Rose, Walla Walla Valley. $10.99: 7.375/10
4. 2007 Waters Rose, Columbia Valley. About $20 at the winery: 3.625/10
5. 2008 Gorman Winery Rose "42-39-56." Columbia Valley. $19.99: 6/10
6. 2008 Barnard Griffin Rose of Sangiovese, Columbia Valley. $9.99: 7.25/10

The average score for the tasting was 6/10, which isn't too bad at all. However, the average price per bottle was about $15.17. Is that a price that people are willing to pay? Apparently so, because these wines sell well, and people come back for more.

It's interesting to note that 3 and 6, the two lowest-priced wines, were the highest-rated of the group. At about $10 each, they both got Recommended status. Also, they were the two wines made of sangiovese.

Looking at the scores posted by each participant is revealing:
Me: Total points: 31
L: Total points: 40.5
S: Total points: 37
T: Total points: 32.5

I am clearly the lowest grader; I gave out the fewest points, and my highest score was 6.5 (twice). T is not far behind me, but he had two 7.5s. They were averaged down by his grading of wine 4 with a 2. Perhaps he's just passionate about what he likes and doesn't? L is clearly the most enthusiastic, with the most points awarded (40.5) and the highest rating of the group, an 8 for wine 3. S is not far behind her with 37, but he's a little more middle-of-the-road in his scoring; his highest score was 7.5, and his lowest was 5.5 (which he awarded to 3 different wines). I hope these details are interesting to you; I'm curious to see if they become trends in future group tastings.

The members of the tasting group are official members of Bottle Variations; hopefully at some point they'll start posting notes of their own, but for now at least I can get them all together to rate some wine. Expect more soon.

Northwest Whites

2009-06-23T13:22:00.000-07:00

Washington State is best known for its red wines, and in most instances they are what it does best. Many of the Washington white wines are either overripe, overoaked, both, or just plain boring. However, there are some Washington white wines that shine. The state has been known for some time for its riesling; indeed, Ste Michelle Wine Estates is the largest riesling producer in the world. Similarly, some professionals in the wine industry think that viognier has a bright future here. Below are rated several Washington whites that I have had the recent opportunity to try. Some have proven to be quite pleasant; others have been merely serviceable.

At the prices that Washington producers ask for their white wines (often over $20, regardless of quality) a consumer would be correct in assuming that other international regions might provide a superior product for a lower cost, even after the price increases inherent in importation. Delicious Loire Valley sauvignon blancs and chenin blancs, for instance, provide a remarkable quality of wine at what is often a ridiculous value. Similar things can be said for German rieslings, New Zealand sauvignon blancs, Argentine torrontes, and so forth. Why, one might ask, would a wine enthusiast ever consider Washington white wines to be a category of interest?

The answer to that question lies in the inherent locality of wine production. The concept of terroir and the local food movement combine in the Northwest to produce a pride in our winemaking that, frankly, is sometimes undeserved. However, this site is dedicated to following Northwest wine and food trends, and we therefore watch developments in all Northwest wine fields with great interest. Quality of Washington white wines is improving. Finding cooler microclimates that are suited to the production of delicate white wines- such as Celilo Vineyard in the Columbia Gorge and the fantastic Evergreen Vineyard in the proposed Ancient Lakes AVA- is an essential part of this process.

Oregon, on the other hand, is producing some delicious white wines, particularly with chardonnay and pinot gris but increasingly with riesling, pinot blanc and even melon de Bourgogne. At least one producer, Domaine Serene, is producing a white out of Pinot Noir that has been getting a lot of attention. These wines are so often crisp and delicious, but consumers might be worried about the price tags.

Bottle Variations will continue to track the trends of Washington State white wine production. Here are some of our latest tasting notes for both Washington and Oregon.

Gorman Winery 2007 "Big Sissy" Chardonnay. Connor Lee Vineyard. Columbia Valley. 14.3% alcohol.
100% malolactic fermentation. Aged in 100% new French oak.
Medium lemon color. The nose is an exuberant combination of oak and butter, exactly what you might expect from an emulation of Napa Valley chardonnay. The palate is equally oaky, creamy and lemony. The mouth weight is pleasant, and it is certainly an exuberant wine. The richness excites, but the alcohol is entirely too evident, and ruins the experience. If it were better integrated, this might be a great wine. 6/10

Mark Ryan 2007 Viognier. Columbia Valley.
Drank out of a 375ml bottle.
Very pale hay color. Honeydew melon and citrus fruits dominate that nose, but are underlaid with a distinct floral aspect. The palate is surprisingly weighty. Tart citrus acidity and mellow tropical fruits are enjoyable, but a bit of yeasty saltiness on the back end disrupts the whole thing. 5.5/10

O'Shea Scarborough 2008 Semillon/Sauvignon Blanc "Visionnaire." Klipsun Vineyard, Red Mountain.
This is exactly the type of hot growing climate that I think is poorly suited to white wine, but O'Shea Scarborough manage to make a remarkably tasty Bordeaux blend here. This winery is (thankfully) dedicated to using less new oak and maintaining higher acidity than the majority of Washington producers.
Pale yellow/hay color, quite brilliant. The nose is rich; lemon and cream notes dominate, along with a subtle herbaceousness. The palate displays remarkable acidity, which combines with a leesy richness to become a balanced wine. It is crisp, refreshing, and delicious. Recommended at its $20 price tag. 7/10

L'ecole #41 2007 Fries Vineyard Semillon. Wahluke Slope
Lemon-colored. The nose is muted, but shows hints of lemons and cream. The palate does its best to make up for the low level of aromatics in this wine. It is rich and citrusy, with a very distinct lemon zest note. The mouth weight is noticeable and enjoyable. The acidity is moderate and balanced. The wine does drop off of the palate a little quick, but in general it is a tasty beverage. Would be recommended at $15, but I think it's $20. 6/10

Tyrus Evan 2006 Del Rio Vineyard Viognier. Rogue River AVA. Oregon.
Bright lemon color. The nose is intriguing; it shows a fascinating artificial lime aroma, along with melons and a unique spiciness. The palate is much drier than expected, and tastily tart, but it drops off the palate entirely too quickly. This is the ghost of a great wine. 6/10

Tyrus Evan 2007 Del Rio Vineyard Chardonnay. Rogue River AVA. Oregon.
Rich lemon color, brilliant. The nose is a combination of cream and green apple with a little spice, vanilla, oak. The palate is unpleasant. It's very little apple-juicy, and a little oaky and creamy. I wonder about the oxygen contact this wine has had. It tastes like bottled apple juice. I really didn't like it. 4/10

Jorge Ordoñez Value Wines

2009-06-19T23:26:00.001-07:00

Jorge Ordoñez is one of the premier importers of Spanish wines into the United States. He has pioneered the American market for what were once obscure appellations, such as Jumilla, Campo de Borja, and Toro. These appellations are now taking over the shelves of American groceries and wine shops due to their high quality and extremely affordable price tags. Most of the wines he works with are made in a juicy, international style, and Jorge is well known for working closely with producers to ensure quality. Some of these winemakers have been vinifying from old vines in estate vineyards for generations, but had never found a market outside of Spain before entering into this partnership. The effect Jorge has had on the Spanish wine market in America cannot be exaggerated; he has been a major player in a revolution, and his wines continue to represent some of the best values available.

2006 Naiades Verdejo, 14% alcohol.
The color of this wine rich and lemony. Citrus zest combined with a richness, subtle hints of spice and a delicate but noticeable floral aroma make for a pleasant, outgoing bouquet. The palate displays a remarkable combination of crisp acidity and full, creamy mouth weight. This is a delicious deck wine for the summer. 6/10

2007 Viña Borgia Campo de Borja. 14% alcohol. 100% Grenache
Bright purple/ruby color. The nose is peppery and lean, with notes of sweet red fruit. Really peppery. The palate is juicy, also shows black pepper and baking spice- especially on the mid-palate- and is tart and tasty. A great value for the price (around $7). 5/10

2007 Monte Oton Campo de Borja. 14.5% alcohol, 100% grenache.
Ruby color. Another peppery nose, with pleasant ripe raspberries. The palate is medium-bodied, has decent length, and is very similar to the last wine (it is also around $7). Also 5/10.

2007 Borsao Campo de Borja. 14% alcohol. 75% Grenache, 25% Tempranillo.
Ruby in color, pretty opaque. On the nose, I detect pomegranate, sweet wood, pepper, and a hint of dark chocolate. The palate is juicy in the fashion of tart cherries, full of acid. The tannins are fine-grained, and the finish is noticeably long. This is my favorite of the reds ($8 or so). 5.5/10

2006 Protocolo Red Wine, Vino de la Tierra de Castilla. 13.5% alcohol. A dark ruby color, slightly purple at the center. Juicy on the nose, darker fruit, blackberries and plums. Slightly stinky. The palate is slightly bitter and acidic, with licorice spice and red fruits. Slightly herbaceous, which I enjoy. This wine is palatable, but hardly my favorite. 4.5/10. ($6?)

Heitz Cellar

2009-06-18T14:20:00.000-07:00

I recently had the opportunity to taste several wines from the renowned Heitz Cellars of Napa Valley. Joe Heitz founded the winery in 1961, and helped to pioneer fine winemaking in Napa. Today, Heitz' estate vineyards rest in some of the most prime areas of Oakville and Rutherford. These wines represent a remarkable pedigree in American enology, and though they are priced at ultra-luxury levels (the 2002 Martha's comes in at about $150), they demonstrate the ability of Napa Valley to shine. The wines are now made under the watchful eye of David Heitz; having worked on them since the 70's, he is one of the most experienced hands in Napa Valley.

2007 Napa Valley Chardonnay, 14% alcohol.
There's no malo on this wine, but there is a richness that must come from lees stirring. It's pale lemon in color, and has an exuberant nose of green apples, pears, and the slightest hint of vanilla. The palate is refreshingly tart but surprisingly fleshy. I find this wine to be elegantly styled and a welcome relief from other over-the-top Chardonnays. 7/10

2004 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, 14.5% alcohol.
Bright ruby color. This nose is expressive as well, displaying notes of black currant, pencil lead, and a detectible level of alcohol. The palate reveals slight herbaceous notes, but combined with very ripe fruit. It is mouth-filling and juicy, with supple tannins, which help to balance the slightly hot alcohol level. 6.5/10

2002 Bella Oaks Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, 14.5% alcohol
The color is ruby and heading toward garnet. The nose comes across as slightly overripe, with stewed prunes and baked fruit being dominant. These characteristics overlay a subtle layer of baking spices. The fruit of the palate is much brighter, combining the richness of blackberries with the acidity of black cherries. Still, the alcohol is a little obnoxious. This wine is too ripe for me. 6/10

2002 Trailside Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, 14.5% alcohol.
The ruby color of this wine is much darker than the last two. The nose exhibits blackberries, pain grille, and sweet wood. Again very ripe, but not quite to the level of preserves. The ripeness is doubly evident on the palate, but the wine is better integrated than the Bella Oaks. Tannins are supple but smooth. It is powerful and concentrated, though again alcohol is an issue. 7/10

2002 Martha's Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, 14.5% alcohol.
Dark ruby color. This wine has a slightly more herbaceous nose, but combined with black currants and baking spices. I found the palate to be surprisingly intense, after the nose. The tannin is ultra-silky, and the fruit is pure and exuberant. Impressively balanced. 7.5/10

1998 Bella Oaks Cabernet Sauvignon, 14.2% alcohol.
Ruby/garnet color. Distinct bell peppers, blackberries, and mintiness on the nose. It's intriguing and seductive. The palate is incredibly smooth and bright. This is an elegant, lean-styled wine with a 1 minute finish. My favorite of the flight. 8/10

1998 Martha's Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, 14.2% alcohol.
Pretty garnet color, with some youth still hanging on. The nose is lean and spicy, with brighter cherry and tart plum fruits. A little dill. The palate is silky and integrated, but not as powerful or elegant as the last two. 7/10