Walla Walla Winery Series #2 (Patit Creek)

In my second installment of Walla Walla wineries, I will be discussing another wonderful winery located out at the old airport, Patit Creek Cellars. Typical of many wineries in the Walla Walla valley, they have a very nice tasting room, and their staff was great.

While they had been traditionally exclusively focused on Cab and Merlot, the winery is beginning to venture out under their new owners. The first step is a dry riesling. I found their 2007 release ($16) to be fairly typical of a dry riesling, and pleasant to enjoy (though I've had better ones elsewhere, East Fork Cellars in Ridgefield, WA makes a delicious one).

Moving on...

*2005 Merlot - sourced from Pepperbridge and Seven Hills vineyards, very balanced wine and quite tasty. $29
*2004 Merlot - from Columbia Valley (as most of the grapes in Walla Walla were lost due to bad weather that year), rich, earthy, bold fruit, and I felt it was better than the 05. $35
*2005 Cab - walla walla, currant and black cherry on palate, delicious! expect to get even better in 3-4 years. $29
*2004 Cab - Columbia Valley, smooth, a bit lighter, but very fruity and very good
*2002 Cab - its been my experience that on rare occasions a winery will open one of their library (or older) vintages. and when they do, its a treat! this cab was sourced from the Walla Walla valley, and it was spectacular! a perfectly balanced cab.

WINE TIDBIT: Aging Walla Walla Wines
As soon as I became interested in wine several years ago, I wanted to better understand the concept of aging wine and how best to go about it. Some of the most incredible wines I've tasted were stored carefully for decades before they were enjoyed. However, I have also been reading that perhaps the era of laying up wines for decades is coming to an end. In fact, I've heard an owner of a winery in Walla Walla comment that since he's in his seventies, he wants to be able to enjoin his wines now. Can't blame him there! That said, here's what I've discovered. By and large, the standard expectation of any wine coming out of Walla Walla is that it can be enjoyed right now. That is especially true of the $15-20 red table wines that make for great daily consumption. However, a number of the single red varietals (esp cab) can really become something else if given the chance to age just 12-18months. Maybe even 2-3 years. Allowing them to have that small time frame really enables these wines to fully come together, especially if they come from one of the better vintages. If you want to learn more about cellaring wine, check out my review of Jeff Cox's Cellaring Wine.

FORTHCOMING...
* Continued installments of Walla Walla Wineries
* Summary of my visit next week to several wineries located in Clark County, WA, just north of Portland.

Walla Walla Winery Series #1 (Tamarack)

I am beginning a new series based on my tasting notes from my last trip (July 5-7, 2008) to the Walla Walla valley. In each installment, I will limit my discussion to a single winery in order to highlight as many individual wines as possible and to provide you with an idea of what types of wines are being produced where. The tasting notes themselves are not always extremely detailed as the trip included 15 wines and 125 wines in three days. With that in mind, a lack of notes should not be interpreted as a negative review, simply that it was not able to distinctively stand out during a weekend of tasting spectacular wines.

In this first installment, I will be discussing Tamarack Cellars. This is my first time both visiting Tamarack as well as tasting their wines. And in case you were wondering, they are one of a number of wineries conveniently located out at the old airport just outside of town. Their tasting room is great and their staff provided a nice tasting experience.

* 2006 Chardonnay - good, but not distinctive
* 2006 Sangiovese - alright
* 2006 Firehouse Red - a blend of seven varietals, very tasty, best value!
* 2006 Merlot - really good
* 2006 Cab Franc - also good
* 2005 Cab - delicious
* 2004 Syrah - deep fruit and earthy on nose, nice, but not the best WaWa syrah
* 2005 Dubrul Vineyard Reserve (61 Cab/32 Merlot/7 Cab Franc) - especially great

Summary: All of their wines are quite good, so in the future, I will not hesitate to try anything coming out of Tamarack. If the wallet allows, the Dubrul Vineyard Reserve is lovely. But certainly, the best all-around (taste & value) goes to their Firehouse Red. Whether in a wine shop or at a restaurant, this table red wine is immensely versatile.

2005 Cadence Tapteil Vineyard Red Wine

I tried the 05 Cadence Tapteil Vineyard from Red Mountain (50% Cab, 30% Merlot, 20% Cab Franc), and it really didn't do much for me. I was expecting great things from it (especially when one considers the price ~$50), but was ultimately disappointed. If I had it to do over again, I would have tried opening (and most likely decanting) it several hours before drinking. On the nose, there was predominately berry jam and leather. There was bright fruit on the palate, but I was too distracted by the feeling that the wine wasn't balanced well and too tannic. My hunch is that it will be significantly better after several years of laying down, but honestly, I wont be spending the money to try. Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar gave it a 92, but I would still recommend passing on this one.

UPDATE: After discussing my experience with others, it appears that I just got a bad bottle, and would like to give Cadence another try down the road.

Walla Walla Wine Country

This past weekend, Troy, Betty, Dustin, Marie, and myself made our first pilgrimage to Walla Walla wine country. And what a weekend it was! Three days, twelve wineries, and seventy-four wines later (at least that was my personal tally), I think its fair to say we all have much more developed palates. Which is a good thing because that was our sole objective: increase our knowledge of wine so we better know whats out there and what we each like. (right, the crew at Kiona)

I was a little anxious as we headed east because I was in charge of planning our itinerary, but I had some great input from my parents and our friend, Jacky. Though, with a better grasp now of whats in Walla Walla, its pretty hard not to find great wineries. So a brief summary of our adventure... On friday morning, Marie, Dustin, and I all piled into my car for the long drive ahead (troy and betty would join us late that evening). Our first stop was actually in Richland at Barnard Griffin. Then we proceeded east, stopping at Woodward Canyon and L’Ecole No 41 just outside of town. After that we checked into the Holiday Inn Express, grabbed some dinner at the MillCreek Beerpub, and then hit the pool and hot tub when Troy and Betty caught up to us.

Saturday morning began fairly early with our heading out to Pepperbridge, followed by a stop at the joint tasting room of Trust and Chateau Rollat. Then we headed down to Milton-Freewater to visit Otis Kenyon, which was the unanimous highlight of the trip. I had emailed Muriel, the head of sales, at OK beforehand to schedule a visit since they do not yet have a tasting room. After driving up the gravel driveway, past the sketchy-looking house neighboring OK, Muriel greeted us with a big smile and took us into the converted appleshed which now houses their barrels. It was such a great atmosphere (above right, the crew while tasting amongst the barrels). We also met Dreux the assistant winemaker (whos been working with winemaker Dave Stephenson, and is taking a much more active role in the newer vintages). The two of then were absolutely fantastic and super friendly! And if there was such a proverb about the quality of people translating into the quality of their wine, it would certainly be true at OK. Their 05 Merlot and 05 Syrah were voted by our little party to be the favorites of the entire weekend. Dreux was also gracious enough to let us sample his unfinished Reisling, which was quite an experience for us and very enjoyable as well.

After Otis Kenyon, we took Muriel's advice at stopped at the Ice Burg drive-in for lunch. Then we continued on to Forgeron, and finally arrived at Seven Hills. It was a long day of wine tasting and by the time we made it to the last wines at Seven Hills (left, enjoying their tasting room), our palates were all struggling. We spent the rest of the afternoon back at the hotel taking it easy, and I was able to get into my most recent book, Reading the Old Testament with the Ancient Church by Heine. For dinner we hit up the bar at 26 Brix, which we had heard such great things about. Honestly, we weren't super impressed, but there were a couple tasty things there.

While we had entertained the idea of catching the 8am service at St Paul's Episcopal on Sunday morning, daylight savings stole our sleep and any chance to getting up that early. After our final breakfast at the hotel, we made our way out to the old Airport which has a number of wineries. We stopped at Cougar Crest after finding Tamarack mysteriously closed (must have missed the time change), and then after finding two other closed wineries, we headed back through town to Reininger, where they offered twelve wines to taste... not bad at all! We also made a quick stop at L'Ecole again so Troy and Betty could taste a couple of their wines. This brought our time in Walla Walla to a close, but our wine adventure wasn't done yet. We made another stop at Barnard Griffin, and our final destination (which took quite a few wrongs turns before we made it) was Kiona in Benton City.

As I look back on this weekend, I believe our trip was quite a success, both in terms of fun and great wines! Oh, and how could I not also share my absolute favorites of the weekend. In no particular order, my top picks were L'Ecole 41's 2005 Perigee, Otis Kenyon's 2005 Syrah and Merlot, Trust's 2005 Cab, Chateaux Rollat's 2005 Cab, Seven Hills 2005 Pentad (right, Dustin and I partaking), and Reiniger's 2002 Cima. Since many of these were simply out of my price range, my other favorites that I was able to bring home included Barnard Griffin's 2007 Rose of Sangiovese (great summer wine!), the two from Otis Kenyon, Cougar Crest's Dedication One, and Kiona's Vivacious Vicky Rose and their Late Harvest Riesling. I hope that before I head off to school in the fall, I will be able to make one more trek out there, so until then...

2005 Seven Hills Petit Verdot, McClellan Estate Vineyard

As I have been venturing into the world of wine, this particular one represents a unique moment for me. Certainly, it is my first Petit Verdot, a varietal that is typically blended in a Bordeaux. What struck me is that this wine is not at all representative of my absolute favorite reds, and yet I am able to deeply appreciate it for what it is. Further, one of my primary goals has been to develop my palate, as the truth is you'll never detect black currants if you have no idea what they taste like. That said, the moment I first tasted this Petit Verdot, a number of the great old french bordeauxs I've had recently came rushing to mind because now I understand the distinctive flavor which this varietal contributes. As for the wine itself, the nose is very enjoyable with predominantly dried fruit like raisins. On the palate, there is a subtle fruit balanced with an earthiness and very aggressive tannins. It almost felt like the tannins were pulling the wine across my tongue and down my throat. Very little sweetness or acidity. Definitely should be paired with bold flavored food. I'm very curious how this wine will age, but with its extremely limited release (only 75 cases!), I may never find out. Ultimately, I would recommend it with a 90 rating and for the simple factor that its so rare to find a single vineyard bottling of this varietal.