Cheers To You

Mary writes:

I confess. When it comes to where to plant wine grapes, I’m not the visionary that David Lake, MW was. I scoffed at the idea of planting Syrah back in 1989 when Lake produced Washington’s first Syrah. After all, Washington was the land of Cab and Merlot.

At this year’s Taste Washington I found out while sipping Proper Wines’ 2010 Syrah that Syrah has grown from 800 tons in 1999 — the first year it made the stat sheet — to 11,800 tons harvested last year.

After visiting the famed La Chapelle Vineyard in France’s Rhone Valley, Lake had this vision. By 2009, when Lake went to the great vineyard in the sky, Syrah was the third most widely planted red wine varietal.

Syrah is one of the world’s most diverse grape varieties, displaying a myriad of flavors. It can be floral, peppery, barnyardy, leathery, plummy, smoky and/or herbaceous depending on how old it is and terrior.

It grows best in hot, rocky climates such as the Rhone Valley, Sunny Spain, and the desert regions of California, Australia and Eastern Washington.

And that brings me to the wine of the day from Sunny Spain’s Castilla La Mancha wine region located in the southern half of a hot, dry plateau. Famous for Manchego cheese, Don Quixote and very fine wine.

Finca Sandoval Manchuela 2004, a blend of mostly Syrah and a dab of Monastrell and Bobal. It had been relaxing in my cellar, when a special occasion arose suddenly.

We popped it open and immediately the room was filled with aromas of violets, pepper, licorice, and cassis, which was surprising in itself because of the age. This wine has all the marks of a far more expensive Northern Rhone wine. It had intensity, velvety mouthfeel, wonderful balance and a finish of licorice, cassis and Asian spices.

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Brynn writes:
To keep my airline miles from expiring I recently had hundreds of magazines to choose from. The problem is I find I have no time to read magazines (just ask my husband, my growing stack of unread People’s is driving him nuts).

But while perusing the list there was one name that caught my eye: Wine Spectator. I thought “hey this is something I’d like to read for personal and professional reasons, and if I’m lucky the hubs will also want to read it and not get mad when the magazines start to accumulate around the house.”

So subscribe I did and a short number of days later our mailbox was filled with the oversized publication. The cover told us what we were in for: “Bordeaux at Its Best, 2010: A classic vintage; 450 at 90+”.

Washington winemakers produce some great Bordeaux blends and we’re starting to familiarize ourselves with those, but we decided we’d take the Wine Spectator opinion about the 2009 and 2010 vintages coming out of France (they’re calling them two of the best in recent history) and look for wines from the top-producing wine regions at our local grocer. The nice thing about France is you can often good wine from a region that is producing some of the world’s top wines, at an affordable price.

With a list of wine regions in his hand, my husband set out to try and find something in the $11 to $12 price range for us to compare. He came home with a 2010 Chateau Blouin from Bordeaux’s Right Bank and a 2010 Mouton Cadet, also from the Right Bank.

We decided to pour the two and try them against each other, and with our steak dinner, to decide which we preferred.

The Chateau Blouin is a blend of 8o percent merlot and 20 percent cabernet franc; the Cadet had a few more grapes, breaking down with 65 percent merlot, 20 percent cabernet sauvignon and 15 percent cab franc.

Both wines had good structure and were indicative of what you can expect of a Bordeaux — dark fruit flavors and berries with strong tannins, which made the wines a tight at first, but after some time in the glass they softened.

Our preference of the two with dinner was the Cadet. This wine had a beautiful ruby red robe, a great nose (I’m pretty sure that was thanks to the merlot) and a softer finish on the palate. I noted the finish was slightly lacking, which I think was a result of a minerality in the wine that kept it from opening across my palate.

The Chateau Blouin failed to impress me. It had the same beautiful robe with a stronger purple tint. The nose was musty, (although that might have been from my glass) and the finish was “tangy”. This wine had more earth flavors and was slightly vegetal.

After trying the wines with our steak dinner we decided we should probably see how they stood up to chocolate. So we paired them with dessert. The chocolate really seemed to bring out the flavors of the Cadet, while the Chateau Blouin remained closed. My husband felt that both wines did better with the chocolate than the steak, but part of that could also be that by the time we had them with chocolate they had time to breath and open up.

I’m not sure I’d buy them again, but then again for $11 and with enough time to open up in a decanter, I could probably be swayed to try the Cadet one more time.

If you’re interested in trying a similar comparison, look for some of these more affordable wines as recommended by James Molesworth of Wine Spectator (the name in parenthesis is the region where the grapes were grown):

• Chateau Montlabert, (St-Emilion) $20
• Chateau Bel Air, (Haut-Medoc) $23
• Chateau Belle-vue, (Haut-Medoc) $25
• Chateau de Carlmagnus, (Fronsac) $18
• Chateau Retout, (Haut-Medoc) $18
• Terra Burdigala, (Castillon Cotes de Bordeaux Chateau Manoir du Gravoux la Violette 2010) $20
• Chateau Paloumey, (Haut-Medoc) $17

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Brynn writes:

Every six months or so I try to get together with my girlfriend who I’ve known for 28 years. In that time her family moved to Orcas Island, we attended different schools, went off to college, graduated, lived in separate states, married and had children — her second child is just 5 weeks younger than our son, Ryland. What I love about our friendship is, it doesn’t matter how much time passes between our meetings, when we see each other it’s like nothing has changed.

She lives in Bellingham and so we make a practice of meeting at my mom’s house in the north end of King County because it’s our midway location. Typically we have dinner, uncork a bottle of wine and try to catch up, all the while chasing after our kiddos who don’t seem to understand that sometimes Mommies just need to unwind.

Our last catch up weekend was at the start of April. To keep it simple we did Thai takeout and she swung by Trader Joe’s on her way down and picked up a bottle of wine. She went for economical, I think the wine retails for $6 or less, but don’t let the price trick you into thinking you’re about to drink plonk.

This California red blend was a treat on my tongue. It was warm, full-bodied and exuded cedar and spice notes that hinted at time spent on oak. That oak aging also softened the blackberry and currant notes. The blend breakdown is 58 percent Merlot, 15 percent Petite Syrah, 16 percent Zinfandel and 11 percent Syrah.

If you happen to be at TJ’s looking for a decent red to have with dinner, I’d recommend this wine. I’m not sure how long it will be carried, my friend thought it might be on closeout, so if you see it, grab it.

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Mary writes:

Looking for a good bargain wine? You’ve come to the right place.

Being a seeker of great wine for under $10, I highly recommend wines from the northeast quarter of Spain known as Campo de Borja. This region is a Denominación de Origen (DO) with a mild climate, located in the shadow of the mountains of the Sistema Ibérico.

One wine from this area I’d recommend trying is Don Ramon Tinto Barrica 2010. Its color is ruby and has aromas of pepper and raspberries with a jammy raspberry flavor. It’s an easy drinking a blend of 75 percent grenache and 25 percent Tempranillo. It retails for $8.

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Mary writes:

Ravenswood makes dozens of Zinfandel, from “pinkie up” single vineyard to their everyday vintners blend.

This affordable, everyday wine from the master of Zinfandel, Joel Peterson,  has aromas of cherries and blackberries and rich black fruit flavors with good balance of tannins and fruits.

The blend is 75 percent zin, 16 percent petite sirah, 6 percent syrah and 3 percent mixed blacks (field blends of black grapes) that are sourced from old vineyards around California.

The best part? It’s under $10.

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Mary writes:

At Taste Washington, we took advantage of a couple of the seminars that were available. Not only could we sit and sip fabulous wines at eleven in the morning but the panelists are industry giants.

Saturday I attended the Intro to the World of Wine seminar because Washington vs. the World was sold out. And amazingly after 27 years in the industry, I learned more about what makes Washington wines so special.

Dr. Kevin Pogue, geology professor at Whitman College has written a few papers regarding the soils of eastern Washington from a different perspective. He thinks Washington has a unique place in the world of wine. And the terrior, which includes soil, has everything to do with that uniqueness.

There are very few vineyards in the world planted on loess with basalt bedrock.  Pronounced luss, and loosely translated means loose. This is silt-sized sediment, which is the accumulation of wind-blown dust left over from the Missoula Floods. Basalt is heavy and creates a warmer climate. This is what makes Washington wines so special. And so resistant to phylloxera, the dreaded root louse.

Benches of basalt are now covered in vineyards. Great examples would be the Wallula Gap or Horse Heaven Hills.

Thomas Price, Master Sommelier at The Metropolitan Grill and Linda Murphy, author of “American Wine, An Honest Drink” talked about the deductive process of tasting wine.

“You have to build up the card catalogue in your memory,” Price said. And to each their own card catalogue.

This was emphasized when they both described the flavors of the Kung Fu Girl Riesling 2012 hailing from Ancient Lakes AVA’s Evergreen Vineyards. It’s composed of calcium carbonate that adds limestone to the soil. That limestone element results in more mineral than fruit flavors in a wine. It’s also important to note that the lime flavors Price was describing, Murphy described as tangerine.

Panelist Thomas Henick-Kling, Washington State University by way of Australia and Germany, explained how Syrah is the most expressive grape and the best at revealing the vineyard terrior. As a result, the flavor range varies by terrior.

Black fruits, smoky, bacon fat, violets, licorice, earth and black pepper are some of the typical flavor profiles found in a Syrah depending on the soil and whether it’s a hot or cool vineyard. The Proper Wines 2010 Syrah had the black fruits and smoky bacon flavors of the warmer Walla Walla region.

Other wines tasted with panel comments:

Novelty Hill Stillwater Creek 2011 Chardonnay is from a higher elevation in the Frenchman Hills and a cooler site.

Obelisco 2009 Merlot was sourced from Red Mountain AVA where the Missoula Flood cobblestone gravels produce wines with elevated tannins. Red Mountain is a small AVA with 15 different soil types.

Chateau Ste Michelle Canoe Ridge 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon was luscious with black fruits, black olive, baking spices and clove and vanilla from the oak barrels. Canoe Ridge produces succulent texture to Cabernets accessible when young, planted in 1992 200 yards from the Columbia River. With 30 to 40 mph winds there, the vines don’t get very big.

Syncline Columbia Valley 2011 Subduction Red is a blend with a base of Grenache. Grenache in cooler vintages is all white pepper nose and raspberry with a brilliant purple rim.

The final round was an interesting question about what varietal the panelists would like to see more of in Washington State. Murphy had consulted in Washington in the early years when Hogue had four Chenin Blancs available. Now this grape is hard to find.

Price thought the Picpoul grape has a place in the dry warm regions of the state. McCrea vineyards Picpoul was mentioned.

Henick-Kling, having spent time in Australia, would like to see more Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon planted here.

Curious, isn’t it?  With total wine production in 2012 at 12 million cases, the ratio of reds to whites is 50.3 percent to 49.7 percent. They all mentioned white grapes. Maybe to even things up?

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Mary writes:

My last wine tour had a bunch of us walking around Woodinville. There is a boatload of wonderful wineries there, including an old, old favorite of mine.

A pioneer (1983!) of the Washington wine industry, Jerry Bookwalter, like many of Washington’s wine pioneers, migrated from California after years of working in the wine and agricultural industries. Bookwalter managed a couple of large corporate farms in the San Joaquin Valley before being recruited in 1976 to plant and manage Washington State’s Bacchus, Dionysus and Sagemoor Vineyards.

In 1983, Bookwalter Winery was established in Richland. The first wines were gold medal winners. The streak continued when Bookwalter Winery was recognized as one of three Washington Wineries to watch.

In 1997, son John started working with the family business after more than 10 years selling beverages for Seattle area distributors. Having a background in marketing, John found Zelma Long to do some consulting at Bookwalter. Zelma has a phenomenal reputation in the wine industry having worked for 30 years to put Simi Winery on the wine map. Success with their 2000 Columbia Valley Merlot as one of five Washington Merlots to score 90 points or higher was proof that things were going very well.

In 2002, the winery opened Washington’s first wine lounge in Richland, pairing Bookwalter wines with hand crafted cheeses.

They also have a presence in Woodinville, making it easier for those of us on the west side of the state to enjoy the fruits of their labor. They can be found at the Woodinville Tasting Studio, an open air picnic lounge that is both relaxing and educational at the same time.

Bookwalter Winery produces wonderful whites and classic reds. Here’s a few to become acquainted with:

Foreshadow 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon: With its wonderful aromas of red fruits and herbs, this wine is so well balanced and rich with cherries and raspberries and balanced by herbs and acidity.

Protagonist 2010: Another mostly cabernet/merlot blend, with a touch of syrah from a very cold vintage, which translates to balanced fruit sweetness and lower alcohol than wines from hotter years. Less fruit sugars to turn into alcohol. Lots of cherries and raspberries in the nose and on the palate with a bit of herbs and mocha.

And I can’t tell you enough to try the Riesling. Remember old wines make great wines. Bookwalter has been making very good Riesling for almost 30 years.

Snag a bottle and save it for shrimp season. You’ll see what I mean.

Cheers!

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This post really should be titled “What we hope to be drinking” because it’s our short list of wineries we hope to visit while attending the Taste Washington event at the end of this month. (If you want more details on the event or how to get tickets, see our previous post here.)

How is it time for Taste Washington again, you might ask? Good question — we’re asking ourselves the same thing. It seems like only yesterday I was 8 months pregnant, waddling around the CenturyLink Event Center with Mary and Jeff taking tiny sips (and spitting) some great wines.

Thank goodness this year I’m free and clear to do as much wine tasting as my palate will allow (the baby is being dropped off at Grandma’s so mom and dad can get some good wine tasting quality time).

Before attending these large-scale tastings we always create a game plan — review the list of wineries and what they expect to pour, and then decide who we just can’t miss. Last year Jeff’s plan was to taste all of the most expensive wines being poured. That was a lot of fun.

While we create a plan, we almost never stick to it — winery ADD takes over when we get into the building. Nevertheless, we still like to pretend we have a plan.

This is who we’re excited to visit this year:

Mary’s list:

• Doubleback: Only time I’ll get to taste the most expensive wine at this event.
• Desert Wind: Love their wines and want to see what they’re up too.
• Two Mountain: Really love the wines, the guys who run it and just tasted a homemade port made from Two Mountain grapes.
• Buty Winery: Love their wine and they are sooo affordable.
• Powers Winery: Here’s a winery that has been around forever and still produces quality, affordable wines.
• Smasne: Tough to find in Kitsap so here’s my chance to see what they’ve been up to.
• Robert Ramsey: Ditto.
• Rotie: Have to try these as they produced our favorite wine last year.

Brynn’s list:

• Canoe Ridge Vineyard: After recently drinking a cab from this winery I’d like to see what else they have.
• Cave B: At our first Taste WA experience I tried their chardonnay and fell in love, it’s time to rekindle that romance.
• Efeste: I see their label everywhere but have never given then a try, now’s my chance.
• Maison Bleue Winery: Tried the wines a couple years ago at the Rhone Rangers tasting in Seattle, loved everything he poured.
• Rotie: Tops my list because I have a few bottles of their Northern Red(which was my all-time favorite wine tasted at last year’s Taste Washington).
• Woodward Canyon: Last on the Taste WA list, but certainly at the top of my list, especially because one of the winery owners has Bremerton roots.

Tom Douglas at Taste Washington 2012

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Brynn writes:

A couple weeks ago I was having a rough couple of days, well more like a rough long weekend. It wasn’t any one thing that was making it stressful, it was more like 100 things.

I decided to allow myself the luxury of a glass (or two, or three) of wine to relax after a long day of juggling work and being a single mom while my husband was away covering a wrestling tournament at the Tacoma Dome. (Have you ever tried to write a 40-inch story while trying to keep a 9.5 month old entertained? I don’t recommend it.)

I had a hankering for white wine, but when I went to our collection I realized the whites I had to choose from were a little pricier than what I was looking for. Don’t get me wrong, I’m more than happy to pull the cork on a nice, $40 bottle of white, but when I’m drinking just a glass (or two, or three) I feel better pulling it from a $8 to $10 bottle.

Deciding to remedy this problem, I went to Fred Meyer to look for some “everyday” whites. And that’s where the J. Lohr Estates Riverstone Chardonnay caught my eye.

I’ve had this white before and really like it. (Warning if you’re not a fan of oaky chardonnays, this wine is not for you). What I like about this wine is, for roughly $12 you get a wine that tastes like it comes from a much higher price point. It’s full-bodied mouthfeel is creamy and rich and balanced by acidity.

Here’s what the website says about the California-based winery’s 2011 vintage:

2011 joins 1991, 1998, 1999 and 2010 as the coolest vintages of the last twenty years. These years are characterized by either El Niño or La Niña Pacific Ocean influence, with above-average rainfall and unseasonably cool summers. Despite the challenges that cold weather can bring, such as increased mildew and botrytis pressure, these cold vintages have produced outstanding varietal definition in our Chardonnay and White Riesling in the Arroyo Seco. The Chardonnay showed ripe apple, citrus and nectarine flavors with high levels of natural grape acidity. As a result, we incorporated higher levels of malolactic fermentation to balance the acidity in our 2011 Riverstone Chardonnay, creating a wine with intense varietal character, palate weight and palate-cleansing acidity.

Winemaker’s comments:

This elegant Chardonnay has an attractive pale straw-yellow color. The aromas are of nectarine, pear and apple, combined with a perfumed roasted hazelnut and butterscotch bouquet from the barrel fermentation and sur lie aging. The flavors are very soft with ripe pear, tangelo citrus and vanilla toastiness, producing layers of complexity with a silky balance of fresh fruit acidity and palate weight. —Jeff Meier, Winemaker

Food pairings:
Pair with dishes such as lobster pappardelle with chive butter, grilled late summer vegetables and creamy butternut squash soup.

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Mary writes:

This weekend is the second-annual wine release party at Mosquito Fleet Winery in Belfair (21 Od Belfair Highway) and we highly recommend you make the visit. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. the winery will be open for people to taste the six newly released 2010 wines, paired with chocolates, cheeses and listen to live music. The cost is $10 but it’s waived with a wine purchase.

Brian Petersen of Mosquito Fleet Winery invited us to barrel taste these wine twice now, and we’re grateful for this learning opportunity.

Barrel tastings are more about the grape than the final blend in the bottle. It’s wine in a basic elemental state, still showing all of its angular youthfulness. What the final blend will taste like at this point is left to imagination and many months of tasting and blending until the winemaker has achieved the final product.

Barrels are one of the tools that winemakers use to spice up the wine. Barrels, in addition to a few other techniques, are sort of the salt and pepper of the winemaking world.

The staves of the barrel are generally toasted to some degree. Light, medium, medium plus and heavy are the different levels of toast that a winemaker will ask for when ordering barrels. The barrel heads are also sometimes toasted. With “toasted heads” more flavors are imparted in to the wine.

With barrel toasting, strong tannins aren’t as easily extracted while the wine ages in the barrel. Considering some tannic, heavy reds may spend two to three years in a barrel, judicious use of oak is needed.

Our first invite to attend a barrel tasting at Mosquito Fleet was last spring. Brynn was unable to attend because she’d just had the baby, so I went down solo. It was one of nicest, educational barrel tastings I’ve attended. Six months later we were invited back — this time Brynn came along, and so did the baby — and it gave me the chance to taste what six months of aging did for the wine before the final blend and bottling.

The following are notes from the spring and fall tastings:

2010 Pepperbridge Cabernet: We began with this in the barrel which was 100 percent cabernet sourced from Walla Walla’s Pepperbridge Vineyard. Winemaker Brian Petersen planned to eventually blend it with a little cabernet franc before bottling. This medium-bodied wine had a bracing amount of acidity with raspberry fruit. It was aging in a barrel with medium plus toast on its staves and barrel heads.

2010 Syrah: In barrel more body, less chunk; bright raspberry fruit and nice spicy finish. Very bright.

2010 Syrah: This was blended with 19 percent mourvedre and 7 percent cabernet. In puncheon saturated color. Stinky nose, nice up-front fruit; thick with an astringent finish.

2010 Petite Verdot: In barrel with minor amounts of mourvèdre and syrah. Bready nose up front from aging sur-lie. Brilliant purple robe, long legs, spicy raspberry with a hint of herbs and spice. The nose needs to develop.

2010 Cab Franc:From Pepperbridge Vineyard. In barrel there was of raspberry and black berry fruit. Soft. Not the final blend.

2010 Meritage: In the barrel there was 100 percent cabernet from Pepperbridge Vineyard. Pepperbridge fruit adds some bracing tannins that will soften with age. Brix at harvest was 24.2 with a PH of 3.8 and alcohol 13.9 percent. Elevage for 22 months on new French oak with a small amount of  American oak. Beautiful nose of red and black fruits, nice balance, medium-bodied with a red fruit finish and a bit of mocha.

Touriga Nacional Port 2010: Made with two of the six port grapes — 82 percent Touriga Nacional and 18 percent Tinta Roriz from Two Mountains Vineyard on Elephant Mountain. Brix at harvest was 23.5 with a PH of 3.81 and alcohol of 21 percent RRS 8.6 percent. Elevage 24 months on French oak; bottled November 2012. There are 72 demi cases 6/500ml. Black-red color, sweet nose with caramel and alcohol, black cherry. This is a thick rich, well-balanced, fabulous wine.

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