New
NW Wine Releases
March 2005

Several new wines stand out from the pack this month.

The new vintage of K Vintner's extremely popular
K Vintners "House" Wine 03 $12.00/$10.80 is out, and it's excellent. A rough, hearty, big country wine, in the style of Southern France, with lots and lots of rich flavor. Outstanding value.

Roots Pinot noir 03 $22/$19.80 is a favorite of customers at Avalon's store in Corvallis. Chris Berg's tiny vineyard is producing some wonderful grapes, and he's turning them into a rich wine of depth and character that is also a crowd pleaser. This is an outstanding value in Pinot noir.

Those who were fortunate enough to grab some of Jason Lett's Black Cap Pinot noir 03 $40/$36 last month will be pleased to know that the Bishop Creek Pinot noir 03 $26/$23.40 is now available. Jason is the vineyard manager for Bishop Creek Vineyard and assisted Rob Stuart in the winemaking. Although not quite as rich and sharply defined as the Black Cap, the Bishop Creek is a lovely wine at a quite reasonable price for what you get.

Lone Canary has been on our site for about 8 months, but we've recently re-tasted their wines, and heartily recommend them. The wines are super values, especially the Lone Canary Rosso 02. The Lone Canary Red (non-vintage) at $14/$12.59 offers lots of big red flavors for the price.

Beaux Freres' 2003 Pinot noirs have been announced (shipping in April, 2005).

We've added the wines of Ray Sandidge, (CR Sandidge Winery) to the site. He makes some big, hearty reds -- especially, check out the syrahs.

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Pheasant Valley comes to Avalon

Pheasant Valley Vineyard began as a dream of owners Scott & Gail Hagee, whose 40 acre farm on the south side of the Columbia Gorge in Hood River, Oregon is now a vineyard, winery, and bed & breakfast. Winemaker Rich Cushman crafts their wines, with occasional help from Peter Rosback of Sineann. Most of the wines are made from fruit sourced from Oregon and Washington vineyards in the Columbia Gorge Appellation.

Check out the Pheasant Valley Pinot noir 03 $25/$22.50, made by Peter Rosback from Wyeast Vineyard fruit, and very well priced - the Sineann Wyeast Pinot noir 03 was $44 in comparison.

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New Wineries
Added to Avalon's Website First Quarter 2005

Alloro Vineyard
Alloro Vineyard has a winemaker with experience of over 20 Oregon vintages, a dedication to artisan winemaking, and a state-of-the-art vineyard; qualities that make this a winery to watch.

Ann Amie Winery
Chateau Benoit Winery, purchased six years ago by Dr. Robert Pamplin, has been extensively revamped. renamed Ann Amie, the winery is now offering limited production Pinot noirs.

Bergevin
Bergevin Lane Vineyards makes delicious, rich wines that show off Walla Walla's outstanding vineyards and offer highly recommended value for the price. The Calico Red, in particular, is just about the best priced Walla Walla red on the market.

Carter Vineyard
Wines made by Ken Wright for the owners of Carter Vineyard, the new 2003 vintage received 92 points from Wine Spectator. A winery to watch, tiny production, very limited.

Cherry Hill Winery
Cherry Hill Winery is a newly-constructed 12,000 square foot winery in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. The winery produces about 5,000 cases of estate-grown Pinot Noir each year from the 55-acre Cherry Hill Estate vineyard, planted in 1998 and 1999 to Pinot noir.

C.R. Sandidge
Ray Sandidge worked most recently for Kestrel Winery, where he expanded his reputation for making excellent Germ style wines to include delicious Big Reds.Now he is on his own, making small amounts of very hearty red wines.

Elemental Cellars & Witness Tree
Witness Tree makes small amounts of very highly rated Pinot noir and Chardonnay. A small amount of dessert wine, Pinot Blanc, and Viognier were made from the 2002 harvest.

Elemental Cellars is a second label at Witness Tree. A non-vintage Pinot noir is made from declassified fruit, and delicious dry rosé and a nice fruity Syrah are also available in small quantities.

James Leigh Cellars
A new Walla Walla Winery, the winemkaer was trained by Rusty Figgins of Glen Fiona and Eric Dunham of Dunham Cellars.

Medici Vineyards
Did you know that the nationally know, cult status Sineann Winery is based at Medici VIneyards? Yes, Peter Rosback works his magic from a wood shingled cottage high on the hills over the Willamette Valley. He also makes small amounts of Estate wines for owner Hal Medici. We are pleased to offer these interesting and affordable wines.

Natalies Estate
Natalies Estate is an offshoot of Sineann- the winemaker worked for Peter Rosback for several years and sources his fruit from many of the vineyards that Sineann uses.

Ransom Winery
Ransom Winery is a one-man-show, making not only a range of wines, a second label, Jigsaw, buyt also a line of distilled spirits. Excellent prices for wellmade Willamette Valley whites and reds.

Roots
Roots is Chris Berg, assistant winemaker for Adea and owner of a small estate winery near Willakenzie and Penner-Ash.

Syncline Wine Cellars
This winery specializes in Rhone varietals, grown in the Columbia Gorge on both OR and WA sides.

Tyrus Evan
Tyrus Evan is Ken Wright's label for non-Pinot noir wines, made from Southern Oregon and Washington fruit. The reds are remarkably rich and well balanced, possibly the best Southern Oregon Rhone varietal based wines we've seen.

 

About Jean Yates

Jean Yates is owner of Avalon Wine, and has worked to promote Orregon and Washington wine for over 15 years through her wine shop, web site, and articles.

Jean previously worked in the computer industry and does most of the work on the Avalon website. She is a passionate photographer and most of the images on this site are hers

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