Almost two years ago, tasting through
seventy or so new wines, one stood out - Fidelitas' Meritage
2000.
Complex, rich, a blend of Cabernet
Sauvignon and Merlot, the wine was memorable
young, and continues to improve with cellaring. When I want
to pull something out for friends, something ready to drink,
yet
with depth and many changing flavors, the Fidelitas
Meritage 2000 continues to be a frequent choice. While Charlie describes
the wine as "concentrated black cherry and blackberry aromas
and flavors", I find more cassis, black fruit liquor, and really
pleasant hints of cedar and desert herbs enticing me with their
ephemeral here/not here/barely-there flavors.
Charlie has just released the 2001
Meritage,
and it lives up to its older brother, with the intriguing addition
of Malbec and Cabernet Franc to the blend. Malbec features
in the blends of a number of new releases from the NW, and
it adds a dark intensity that accentuates the flavors of the
other varietals. As more and more Malbec is grown in OR and
WA, I predict it will show up in many more red blends.
Back in January 2003, Oregon's
best Pinot noir producers started facing the realities
of the wine market, and began
offering under $20 Pinots under "second labels" such as Adelsheim's
Wallace Brook, Sineann's Jezebel, and Hamacher's "H". Now
Washington wineries seem to have caught the trend, and
some of Washington's best wineries are offering lower
cost "Red Table" wines at excellent prices.
Perhaps the first of these "Red Table
Wines" from a top winery was Quilceda Creek's "Red Table"
$40, although the price seems high when compared to such
lush and complex delights as Sheridan Vineyard's new
Kamikin 02 $19.99. It's black- purple in color
and has a smoky note that integrates well with plummy, fullbodied
fruit flavors.
Fidelitas just released a real bargain,
their "Red
Table 2002" at $19.99. Charlie Hoppes makes
award winning wine for Canon de Sol and a handfull of other
up and coming wineries. Now he turns his talents to his own
winery with this full bodied, well balanced, lively and interesting
blend.
Sheridan's
Kamiakin Red Wine $19.99, Colvin's Fascinating Carmenere
02 $19.99, Forgeron Red Table Wine $17.69, and Maryhill
Fort Rock
Red $14.99 are the standouts among the new releases. The best
of the bunch are at the top of the "Best
Deal Big Reds under $20" page.
Although Washington wineries dominate
the "Big Reds" category, several standouts from Oregon
must be mentioned. Peter Rosback continues his tradition
of making
big, juicy wines with the second label, vlue priced Jezebel
Syrah 02 $18.49. If you liked Owen Roe's
popular "Sinister
Hand" red blend, with its smoky flavor, you don't want
to miss the Jezebel Syrah 02. It's made from the same fruit,
from the Lewis Vineyard, on the fireline of the big 2002
forest fire. Very smoky.
Speaking of Owen Roe, the amazingly popular Abbot's
Table 03 $22.00 is
out. It's juicier than last years, with a higher proportion
of Zinfandel and Syrah. Made from the much the same fruit as
the highly rated Owen Roe Dubrul Cab, Merlot, and Syrah, the
Abbot's Table gives a significant sense of Owen Roe's world
class complexity and depth of flavor at an "everyday wine"
price.
Maybe it's the beautiful presentation,
the obviously carefully crafted labels and foil treatment,
the lush vanilla hits interspersed with the berry-driven
Pinot flavors, but this wine is a favorite of Avalon's employees.
Lucky us, for we almost didn't discover it.
Jason called me, looking for new, small
wineries who might join him in a special event next year, and
I, hackles raised,
gave him a hard time about calling me for help selling his
wines somewhere other than my website (MY center of the universe,
you'd think I'd be a little less self centered at 50.) Anyway,
after more talk and some fierce inner chastisement (bad selfcentered
greedy jean!), I gave him some names and he generously left
me a sample bottle
of
his
Pinot at the Abbey. My goodness! Good plonk. Very very yummy
plonk. Granted, the 2002 vintage was one that most people could
make
a fine wine from but this wine is something special. Maybe growing
up around his Dad, David Lett (Eyrie) helped, or maybe it's his
meticulous scientific streak, but the wine is an outstanding
example of the vintage and we look forward to future releases.
Fun Wine-
Kiona's Vivacious
Vickie's Red and White
Kiona
makes very reasonably priced wines with a big following,
especially for their Ice Wine, their
Cabernet Sauvignon, and now, for their values priced Vivacious
Vickie red and white.
Both "VV" wines are full of flavor, with
no harsh edges, and appealing fresh and lively flavors. For
the labels alone,
the wines are worth a try, as they will bring a smile to
the most morose person. Named for the winemaker's wife, we
want to meet this woman!
The
wines of Andrew Rich are some of the most consistently well
made and well priced that Avalon sells. Year after year,
his wines are dependably flawless and delicious, and priced
at levels well below many equivalent or not as good offerings.
This summer of 2004, Andrew has released more different wines,
uniformly delicious, than ever before. The unusually high quality
of grapes in 2002 allowed him to make reserve wines, both a
Syrah and a Pinot noir.
The highlights of the new Andrew Rich
selections include:
Andrew Rich Pinot noir 02 $29.99/$26.99
The minute we opened this wine, a warm, spicy blackbery scented
nose was right there out front and center. The intense flavors
blossomed in the mouth like the wine had been carefully decanted,
even upon immediate tasting. The wine has excellent grip,
fine-grained well integrated tannins that structure the spicy,
sweet, rounded
fruit flavors
of berry, berry, berry- loganberry, blackberry, marionberry,
black raspberry- they just keep coming. A hedonistic bomb of
a Pinot, without sacrificing authentic Pinot noir characteristics.
Andrew Rich Syrah 02 $24/$21.60
Juicy, with a hint of gamey fresh woodsy scents and flavors,
beautiful dark plum color, sweet spice notes, and plush,
viscous, rich texture.
Andrew Rich Coup D'Etat Red Rhone Blend
$24/$21.60
Here's where Andrew really gets to show off his stuff. Andrew
has a special affinity for the wines of the Rhone and this
blend gives him a chance to show his skills. The wine has rustic,
Southern French qualities like reminiscent of Southern Rhone
blends. It is a mix of Grenache, Mourvedre, Syrah, and Counoise,
all grown in the NW. There are well managed chewy tannins,
a sense of fresh turned earth, and if you close your eyes,
you might be sitting on the patio of a bistro in Provence.
Avalon's employees love this
wine. Heather, Wendy, and Lindsay recommend this winery,
especially
the Serience
Red. If you
like huge reds with a little bit of a difference, Zefina
seems to
specialize in
them. This wine, a combination of 36% Grenache, 36% Syrah,
14% Mouvedre, and 14% Counoise. It's huge,
lush, viscous, with mocha, toasted espresso bean, dark plum
and black berry flavors.
A Yumm Bucket.
Dan Berger, eminent California winewriter,
says:
"Exceptional'
- Dan Berger's Vintage Experiences
"
Huge aroma of cranberry, fresh plums, spices and jam. The taste
is utterly succulent, with loads of jammy/spicy fruit and an
almost sweet finish. Not a long aging wine, but this Grenache-Syrah
blend from Washington is a beguiling effort that's simply smashing
with almost any food. Limited, but I encourage orders."
Dai Crisp has managed numerous vineyards
in the Willamette Valley for the last 15 years, and now he
offers his own wines under the Lumos label. They get our
vote for great value, well crafted, easy to enjoy wines at
a price that people on a budget can enjoy.
The Chardonnay at $17/$15.30, the Pinot
gris at $14/$12.60, and the Pinot noir at $23 are all yummy,
and fit the bill for everyday and special times. When I want
to take a reasopnably priced wine to a party, or suggest wines
for a wedding or special event, Lumos often comes to mind.
Wild man Charles Smith and partner in
wine Christophe Baron of Cayuse fame continue to make huge,
lush, massive wines with
panache and well, lets face it, wierd labels.
While the wines of Cayuse are practically
impossible to obtain, Christophe also makes the K Vintners
wines with Charles and
his master craftsmanship shows. The guy was born and raised
in a multigenerational French winemaking family, and he's got
red wine in his veins. And I don't mean to shortchange Charles,
whose passion for wine brings exhuberant energy to "K".
So far this summer, we've seen "The
Boy", the one with the
blank label and the strange phraseology on the back (sold
out), and "The
Beautiful" Syrah
02 $39/$35.10 (still available).
Later this summer we'll see several more wines from "K" and
the related Magnificent Wine Company. And I'm sure they will
be memorable. Stay tuned.
Canadian Ice Wines
Finally after years of tasting these wines as a wine judge,
but not being able to purchase them, several British Columbia
Wineries are selling their wines in the USA.
Inniskillin and Jackson
Triggs Ice
wines win international awards all the time, and we have
good supply. Pricey as all get out, the winery has to go
through heck and high water to make the wine, rushing out
to the vineyard in the middle of the night to pick tiny little
marbles of frozen grape, then chasing them into the winery
to press before they melt. And they get a miniscule amount
of wine per ton... dinky. Thus the price.
But it is indeed Ambrosia of the Gods
when made by someone who knows what they are doing. A lot
of ice wines lack acidity to balance the extreme sweetness,
but these winemakers have the formula down pat, and the wines
are pretty unforgettable.
If the pricetag is simply too stunning,
there are several good ice-style wines made in the NW with
lower price tags. Andrew
Rich's Gewurztraminer Ice Wine 02 375ml $20/$18 is made from grapes frozen after harvest rather
than picked from the vine in the freezing cold night. The
wine routinely receives rave reviews and is quite a good
value. The Kiona
Chenin Blanc Ice Wine $22/$19.80 is also
a super nice example of the genre.
Top
NW Wines of Summer 2004
Kiona
makes very reasonably priced wines with a big following,
especially for their Ice Wine, their
Cabernet Sauvignon, and now, for their values priced Vivacious
Vickie red and white.
