Wineries without Websites

I'm loving trying Washington wines, and learning about the various vineyards, and wineries, and winemakers. There are lots of wonderful resources on the Web for Washington wine, ranging from blogs like Sean Sullivan's Washington Wine Report, Wahington Wine Wench's Write for Wine, Terry Christiani of The Winos, Bloggers of Washington Wine (BOWW), and Wild 4 Washington Wine, to larger, more general Washington wine sites like the Washington Wines Commission and Wines Northwest and Go Taste Wine. But there are far too many of the more than 600 Washington wineries that have no Web site at all, or a frustrating placeholder page.

Rulo winery, which I keep hearing lovely things about, has no Web site. I can glean some information from reviews, and this page, but while there's a rulo.com domain reserved, it's a squatter site. Richard Fairfield's amazing boutique winery Cedar Ridge is another with a domain, and no site. ETA: Rulo winery has  page now, here.

I do realize that the intense effort and all-consuming demands of running a winery preclude having the time or the money to spend on a Web site. But a Web site in the 21st century is no longer a luxury; it's a requirement. It can be as basic as the elegant but effective Goose Ridge Winery site. It's a simple but extremely effective Web site. You can create a Web site entirely using free software; and, with certain restrictions, you can even avoid server fees. Bluntly put, a Web site allows you direct contact with your customers, and with potential customers. You can provide not only the obvious information: who you are, the wines you make, how to locate the winery, your event and tasting schedules, where to find your wines. You can even avoid direct mail costs by creating elegant, informative html newsletters. Many wineries email an occasional newsletter; the Columbia Crest newsletter is an excellent model; it's straightforward, informative, and attractive.

Most importantly of all, using the Web, you can create a virtual community for you and your customers. A blog is one of the easiest and most effective marketing and outreach tools you have; you can quickly easily let people know what you're doing, or the great press you've just received, or link to another blog with a positive review—and your customers can respond via the blog's comment feature. Your customers are your best wine evangelists; they like your wines, they're enthusiastic about them, and they will serve to inform those who aren't yet customers.

There's an awful lot of hype, and foolishness, and spam related to marketing using the Web. Ignore most of what you've heard or been told; it isn't cheaper, or easier, or faster. What the Web allows you to do is have the kind of conversations you have with your customers when they come to your tasting room—even when they're 3,000 miles away. There's a really famous book about how the Web works in terms of communicating (which is what you want to do with customers) called The Cluetrain Manifesto; it's about to be updated in a second edition in June, so don't rush out and buy it now. But you can read some samples here. One of the most important points The Cluetrain Manifesto makes is

A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter--and getting smarter faster than most companies.

These markets are conversations.

You can use the Internet, including your Web site, and social networking sites, and Twitter to start, and continue conversations with your customers. Think of the Web as a series of places, of neighborhoods, even. Twitter is one neighborhood, and it connects to others—especially blogs. Conversations spill over and around the various neighborhoods; they move from Twitter to blogs, to Facebook (another social network), and back, and offline to the office and to the woman at the market who asked which Cabernet I liked the best. By interacting with your customers, and providing a way for them to interact with each other, you create community, a community built around a common interest in your wine.

Part of the beauty of conversations on the Internet, the conversations are many-to-many; they don't stop with you providing a fact sheet to your customers; they continue, if you're a good host, because your customers continue the conversation without you—ideally, over glasses of wine with their friends, real and virtual. For instance; wine blogger Sean Sullivan has a monthly "virtual tasting." He selects a particular wine several weeks in advance, announces the selected wine, and the time for the virtual tasting, and his readers buy the wine, and then, we all try it at the same time, and discuss it on his blog via the Comments.

If you seriously just don't have the funds, or don't have a clue about where to start, even a free site on Blogger or Google Sites or LiveJournal would help enormously. FaceBook is free, and there are already several FaceBook groups for people interested in Washington Wine. If I were a Washington winery of any size at all, I'd get a free Twitter account, and make announcements about when I'm harvesting, what wines I'm releasing, what wines have received reviews, as sort of micro press releases. I note that I'm not the only Washington Wine blogger on Twitter, either. There are a fair number of us blogging about Washington wine; make it easy for us and for your other customers to follow your wines and your winery.

Decanting Wine

My mother has three decanters that I know of. One is part of a sherry set, and my parents did sometimes use the set to serve sherry and port, and on at least one occasion the port truly did need to be decanted. The other two are wine decanters, and I don't remember ever seeing them used. One of them my mother bought and used fairly frequently when she was living in Germany, and drinking German and Italian wines. She was quite clear about the reasons she used it, when I asked her; some wines had sediment in them, sediment that could be seen when you held the bottle just right. And some, particularly red wines, just needed "a little air," as she put it, to taste right. Plus, they looked pretty.

My mother, as is the way of mothers, was absolutely right. There are two reasons to decant wine, that is, to pour the wine from its native bottle into another glass container of a similar size. The first reason is because the wine, either from age or from the production methods used to create it, has sediment in it, and by decanting it, often using a wine filter (don't tell an oenophile I said this, but coffee filters work quite well) to remove the sediment (this is often true of port). The other reason, typically associated with red wines, is to expose the wine to oxygen, and thus "open up" the wine to reveal its natural aroma and flavors properly. Wine experts tend to advise that "young full bodied reds" will benefit from being decanted. And honestly a little judicious experimentation suggests that wine experts do in fact know what they're talking about. Ever opened up a bottle of red wine, let it breathe a bit, and then had the first glass? Ever noticed that the second or third glass an hour or two later is substantially better? Yeah, so have I, so I deliberately experimented with decanting the wine.

I should stop and point out that white wines may also benefit from decanting, particularly, for Washington folk, some of the older Rieslings and even Gewürtztramminers. These are generally referred to as "aged whites," but honestly, with the exception of sparkling wines, I'm not sure that you'd go to wine hell for mistakenly decanting a white wine. There's the issue of taking a white wine right out of the fridge and having to wait for it to warm up, sometimes, before it's ready to drink; pouring it into a room temperature decanter, carefully, will help that process.

I don't have my mom's lovely German and Czech decanters, nor was I about to go buy one of the "special" wide-bottomed glass decanters; we used a very clean glass half-gallon milk bottle. It worked just fine. Keep in mind that the point of decanting a wine like this is to expose it to air, so don't be excessively delicate, or fussy; let it splash down inside the bottle. And yes, of course, a wide-bottomed decanter would be ideal, but honestly any clean glass container that's large enough would work. I've seen modern glass vases of the sort that commercial florists use to deliver mixed flower bouquets in that would be perfect, frankly. Do use clean glass; ceramic could cause problems because of the chemicals used in the glaze, and metal is absolutely a very bad idea. There's a reason that the very early Roman wine glasses were made out of wood and horn; they didn't react with the acids in wine.

Now, when it's sediment that's the issue, the traditional method involves using a candle or other bright light source directed at the neck of the bottle while you're carefully, slowly (even religiously) pouring the wine into the decanter; the idea is to watch the neck so that when the sediment starts to rise, you can avoid decanting it as well as the wine. But, honestly, a coffee filter works really well; just don't decant it this way in front of your sophisticated friends, and don't, for heaven's sake, tell anyone I suggested it; they'll laugh themselves silly. You do need to be gentle when decanting for sediment; some sediment, especially in Port, is very very fine, so jarring it even while decanting is a problem. Sometime I'll have to post about my poor father's dismay when we discovered a long forgotten old wine cellar in a very old house in New Hampshire, and I thoughtfully dusted off—and set upright—all the bottles.

In discussions of decanting wine for reasons other than sediment (like presentation) be aware that decanting is one of those religious issues, and thus will ultimately depend very much on personal taste. It's also worth remembering that there is a sort of bell curve for each individual wine, and wine-taster, where the wine's aroma and taste are tied to time; there's a rise, a peak, and then a fall; the idea is to find the peak, and drink the wine before the fall. I've linked, in the resource box below, to some interesting perspectives on decanting; Donald Dibbern in particular has a number of practical observations about when to decant, and why.

Washington Shiraz Reviews

I very much wanted to try different Washington state Shiraz—or Syrah—because I liked Australian Shiraz quite a lot, and there's a fair amount of buzz about Washington Shiraz; I heard people rave about it before I moved to Washington. Some wine experts were disappointed by the first few years of Washington Shiraz, and the consensus seemed to be that initially, at least, the wines promised more than they delivered. But more recently, with more mature vines, and more Shiraz in production, there's a degree of enthusiasm and quite a lot of optimism about the potential of Washington Shiraz to be something truly special. This local optimism led me off onto a taste-comparison of several local Shiraz. To be fair, I limited my samples to under $15 a bottle; wines I'd be comfortable purchasing to serve with an everyday meal. The results were interesting, and admittedly, a bit disappointing.

Washington Hills Shiraz 2005
Washington Hills Winery is in the Columbia valley. Washington Hills was purchased by Precept in 2003; Precept also owns Sockeye, Avery Lane, Shingleback, Pavin and Riley and Barrelstone. In 2006 they started producing a line of "affordable" table wines, meant for sale at state liquor stores and chain groceries for around $5.00 per bottle, though they seem to be slightly higher at the grocery stores. This Shiraz in the "core" line rather than the "Summit Reserve." After removing the artificial cork, and letting the wine breathe, the wine in the glass is a lovely dark red; very very fruity, mild, and fairly sweet. It was markedly better an hour or so after opening. This wine is 13.5% alcohol. It's certainly quaffable, maybe with a good burger, but if this were my only Shiraz experience, I wouldn't bother trying another. We purchased this at the local bargain grocery for $4.99. I note that another customer praised Washington Hills Cab-Merlot blend.

Stonecap Syrah 2005
Stonecap wines are made from grapes grown on the Goose Ridge estates. The bottle has an easy-to-open screwcap. There's a smokey bacon note to the scent, noticeable immediately on opening the bottle. The bouquet improves with time. The flavor is noticeably fruity, but smokey too; noticeably less sweet than many Shiraz. There's a little alcohol burn. Overall, not bad, but the bouquet promises more than the wine actually delivers. Again, it's not a wine I'll actively look for in my local grocery store, the next time I want to serve a Shiraz with dinner.

Snoqualmie 2006 Syrah Columbia Valley
Snoqualmie is unusual in that they use only certified organic grapes. The Columbia Valley line is Snoqualmie's "table wine" tier. This bottle was purchased this at the local Co-op for $7.99, but Snoqualmie wines are widely available even outside Washington. You shouldn't have much trouble finding this at your local chain grocery. The bottle uses real cork; the initial fragrance on opening is slightly acidic, a little shallow, but it definitely opens up a bit. Definitely a Shiraz, right from the start. The wine has a little tannic quality, but it's a pleasant balance to the fruity qualities. The wine is definitely fruity, but it's not like cooked fruit. I'd definitely buy it again. Thus far, it's the favorite, but I note that even this is a blend, sort of. The wine sheet points out what the bottle does not; it's 99.75% Syrah, and 0.26 Grenache. Yes, I know, the math doesn't work, but that's what it says here. I confess that I'm curious as to just how much difference the Grenache makes, and why they added it. Was it related to sugar (I note that the brix is 26.5, and alcohol is 13.9%)? Or color? Or taste, or even all three? I'm going to have to go to Prosser, I think.

Columbia Crest Grand Estates Shiraz 2006
This was on the list to try anyway, but I noticed Sean Sullivan chose Columbia Crest Grand Estates Shiraz for his April "Virtual tasting." Rich; robust. Full. Fruit, but also a little smokey. Bacon. Dark amandine garnet. More purple than red. Tart, rather than sweet. This Shiraz is 13.5% alcoho, and it's actually a blend of Shiraz and Viognier, added before fermentation. I'd rather have the Red Diamond, frankly. That said, it does seem unfair to compare a 2006 to a 2004.

Red Diamond Shiraz 2004 Shiraz
This Red Diamond Shiraz is the one that led me to try other Washington Shiraz. I notice that the bottle simply identifies it as Shiraz, but further research reveals that it is actually a blend; I may have known this, and forgotten; in any case it's hardly a fare comparison. The 2004 Red Diamond Shiraz is 89% Shiraz, 4% Merlot, 3% Viognier, 2% Cabernat sauvignon, 2% Grenache. So it's hardly fair to use it as the Shiraz to base my opinions of Shiraz on. I do like it better than the Columbia Crest Grand Estates; it's richer, slightly pinker—grape garnet. Robust, a little more alcoholic but this is a wine with body.

I'll buy, and enjoy the Red Diamond, and I do like the Snoqualmie, and I'd certainly buy it again, but I'm still looking for a "real," unblended Shiraz. In comments on his blog, Sean Sullivan mentioned both the Rulo Syrah, and their Syrac, a Cab-Syrah blend—if I can find them, I look forward to trying both of them. But I'm still looking for the "automatic reach for" Washington Shiraz, preferably in the under $25.00 range. I suspect I'll have more luck when I can actually visit the wineries, since there are so many that have limited distribution.

Washington Wine Bicycle Tours

A reader left the following question in a comment:

We are looking for bike tours of the wine region in August. Can you suggest some?

That sounds like a great deal of fun. I'm hoping that by posting your question, readers other Washington wine bloggers might have suggestions to make in comments, or possibly repost the question for their own readers.

I don't know of any Washington wine bicycle tours this August; however, I do know that for several years there's been a bike tour of Yakima Washington wineries in September. There's an old 2006 Seattle Times article about them here, with some contact information. There's one this September of Wenatchee wineries; this is a striking culturally rich area of Washington. There's some information about it here.

What I'd be awfully tempted to do, is build my own wine tour by bicycle. You could look at the bicycle tour company itineraries for ideas. There are several. Then I'd match those against Washington wine tours, using these sites designed primarily for drivers, or those who are driven:

You could use books from the usual suspects who offer suggestions for bed and breakfast places, hotels, and restaurants along the way, though increasingly these too are listed online. I'd plan a day to rest at the end of the trip, and possibly the beginning too. Personally I'd pick a region—like Yakima, or Woodinville, and concentrate on it for your trip. The wineries are densely packed in these areas, but you could easily pace yourself, visiting two or three a day, at a leisurely pace, and still see some of the area. I note that, if you have any interest in beer, there are some very fine microbreweries in the area. I further note that if you decide on Woodinville, the San Juan Islands are not far, and are well worth a trip, and yes, there are wineries there too. The coast is incredibly lovely, and there are a lot of bike trails off the main routes.

About Pinot Noir

Pinot noir is a truly ancient grape, with a long history of use in wine. A dark grape, famed as an ingredient in the French Burgundy red wine blends, pinot noir has traditionally been regarded as a "difficult" grape to cultivate, outside of the narrow regions of France's Burgundy region. The name Pinot noir, French for "black pine," describes the typically tightly bunched grape cluster, similar in shape to a pine cone. The pinot noir is technically Vitis vinifera, but the grape, favored by the Romans as early as the first century C. E., has a variety of different names, as does the wine made from Pinot noir. To the Romans, it was Helvenacia Minor, mentioned with favor by Pliny. In Austria and Germany, it is known as Spätburgunder, while it's called Pinto nero in Italy.

An "early" ripening variety, Pinot noir is oddly sensitive to frost, and pretty much every other grape blight known to vintners. Consistent efforts, and a lot of careful cloning, has successfully translated the Pinot Noir grape from the narrow strip of France known as the Côte d'Or to Calfornia, South America, Australia, and yes, even Washington. Genetically, Pinot noir is complex, and mutates if a grower looks at the vine sideways; hence there are thousands of varietal clones, in comparison to say a dozen or so of Cabernet sauvignon. The Pinot noir grapes themselves are delicate, thin of skin, and can thus over ripen and "raisin" very quickly. A sweet grape, Pinot noir can produce wines that are higher in alcohol. It is particularly high in beneficial anti-oxidants, especially resveratrol, which may have some part (but only some) in the extreme popularity of California Pinot noir wines; I suspect the film Sideways has even more to do with it.

In flavor, Pinot noir is exceedingly complex, and the descriptors range widely, with berry fruits, particularly strawberry, and sweeter spices like cinnamon, sassafras, and rosemary often called into play for comparisons, along with rhubarb, and green tea. The range of color is fairly broad; some Pinots noir wines are quite light in color. The growing conditions, and aging, also have a great deal of effect on the flavor. Since Pinot noir is an "old" wine, classical French cooking is rich with dishes that are traditionally served with Pinot noir, including cassoulet, Coq au Vin, Boeuf Bourginon, and grilled fish.

Washington has not had a great deal of success with Pinot noir, though Oregon's Willamette valley has done quite well. In fact, there seems to be a decline in Washington's Pinot noir grape harvest; 1,200 tons in 2004, compared to 900 tons in 2006. There are a few vineyards in Washington's Columbia Gorge (not the same as the Columbia Valley; the Gorge extends across the Washington/Oregon border, on the eastern edge of the Cascades). The foothills of this region both shelter and provide irrigation, and help to render the weather somewhat less than predictable, as does the high altitude. Syncline Winery is one of the wineries on the Washington side of the Gorge producing Pinot noir wine. Gorge Crest Farms is another. Klickitat Canyon Winery produces organic biodynamic Pinot noir. White Salmon offers both a Pinot noir and a Pinto noir Rosé. Wind River Cellars offers a Pinot noir from Celilo Vineyard.

About Shiraz (or Syrah)

One of the very first red wines I ever tried and liked was an Australian Shiraz in 2001 from Rosemont Estates that I bought at Trader Joe's. I liked it so much, I later went back and bought a couple of other bottles, including another Australian Shiraz from Black Opal. But none of them were anything like as enjoyable as that first. After moving to Washington, the very first wine I liked enough to buy by the case was Washington's Red Diamond Shiraz. I've not had a lot of chances to try Shiraz, but I'm about to embark and some fairly devoted exploration.

The first thing to know is that Shiraz is essentially Australian for Syrah, a grape with a noble history in the north of France. The reason for the difference in name escapes me, and the attempts to explain why Shiraz is used in Australia for exactly the same grape often rely on pseudo linguistics that just don't work, at least not for this philologist. That said, we do know, thanks to the work of the DNA researchers under the direction of Dr. Carole Meredith of the University of California at Davis that Shiraz is a descendant of two venerable French grapes; Dureza, and Mondneuse Blanche. Neither of these grapes are overly common today and were apparently never very popular. Both are varieties that are limited to southeastern France, near northern Rhêne, the home region of Syrah. Dureza is a dark-skinned, richly purple grape, a color that is also characteristic of Shiraz. I should also note, less others be as confused as I was at first, that Petite Sirah is an entirely different grape, a cross between Syrah and Peloursin, and is not to be considered the same as Shiraz or Syrah.

Even now, Shiraz (as Syrah, of course) is largely used in French wine blends that feature Cabernet sauvignon and Grenache. It is a primary ingredient of that most famous of French blends, the Châteauneuf du Pape of the southern Rhône. Shiraz was already a popular viniculture grape in Australia by the 1860s; today Australian Shiraz is even used for sparkling wine and is grown throughout the Barossa and Hunter Valleys. I note that my Australian oenophile friends tell me that in Australia a particularly good Shiraz is kept for as long as five years, and that two to three years is very common indeed, particularly in the case of Australian wineries who maintain a library or "back list."

In terms of flavor and aroma, Shiraz is typically fruity, and intense, one reason it's so very popular in blended wines. Depending on the wine, and where the grapes were grows, people typically make comparisons involving various berries, pepper, chocolate, and even, sometimes, cloves and espresso. I note that the areas in Washington growing the most Shiraz (Columbia Valley, Red Mountain, the Yakima Valley, and Walla Walla) each assert individual differences. It's one of those reds where the shape of the wine is really important; you want not just the fruit/sweet taste, but the tannins too—hence the frequent use of words like "smokey" to describe Shiraz. Shiraz is a popular pairing with grilled foods, wild game, and red meats, particularly beef stew and rich roasts. I should probably openly acknowledge that I favor it with a really good pizza, and with burgers.

The shiraz grape arrived in Washington in 1985, thanks to the good offices of Columbia Winery. In 1990, according to the Washington Wine Commission, 40 acres in Washington were planted with Shiraz. By 2001 3,000 acres of Shiraz vines were flourishing in Washington. Shiraz has flourished in the state, to the extent that it's one of the more popular varieties. There's a Shiraz for every budget, and, given the geographic and geological nature of the various growing areas in Washington (principally the Yakima and Columbia valleys) there are some marked differences in taste, never mind the differences made by various winemaker's choices. There are offerings from Washington Hills Wine for budget and less-budget minded folk, Hogue Cellars, Columbia Crest, Snoqualmie, and Covey Run, with offerings for a variety of budgets. In the $10.00 to $15.00 dollar range, there's my first Washington Shiraz, Red Diamond Shiraz (available in the seven to eight dollar range), and the Columbia Crest Two Vines Shiraz. Plus there some very good wine in the middle range from "tiered" wineries like Ste. Michelle, and Columbia Crest Grand Estates, and Hogue Cellars Genesis Syrah. There are also a lot of very good but less throughly distributed wines in the 25.00 to 30.00 range, like Forgeron Cellars 2003 Syrah, or Isenhower Cellars Horse Heaven Hills 2006 River Beauty Syrah, or their 2007 Wild Beauty Alfalfa Syrah, which look interesting for the future. There are numerous, interesting, smaller wineries too, like Cayuse Cailloux Vineyard, whose Shiraz is so very much favored that the 2005 Shiraz is well over $100.00 a bottle, if you can find it. You are also likely to find several Syrahs from McCrea Cellars on the wine lists of Washington restaurants.

My fellow Washington wine blogger, the far more knowledgeable Sean Sullivan over at Washington Wine Report, has a monthly "virtual wine tasting." You can see last month's virtual tasting here. This month, on Wednesday, April 22, Sean is hosting a virtual wine tasting of Columbia Crest's 2006 Grand Estates Shiraz. The Grand Estates label is Columbia's "middle tier," and generally runs around $12.00 a bottle (hint: check out RiteAid at $10.00 or $8.00). I'm going to play along at home; I encourage you to do the same. In the meantime, I'm going to be looking for a few other Washington Shiraz to try, beginning by re-visiting that Red Diamond I liked so much last fall.

Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews

In this post, I mention my somewhat shamefaced desire to find a Washington cabernet sauvignon that was as good or better, and as affordable as my favorite California cabernet sauvignon, from Meridian. I set out to find one, pursuing my goal with dedication, due diligence, and a cork screw. Here are my findings.

Meridian Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 California
It's a very dark red, with ruby highlights. The first impression of the wine is the ripe fruit scent, followed by a deeper hint of the tannins. The wine coats the glass nicely. Both fruit (currants, dark cherries?) and tannin notes are present, but each is nicely balanced. For the price (we're currently getting Meridian cabernet at Rite Aid, for $5.99 a bottle) this is going to be tough to beat. And since the point of this exercise was to find a Washington Cabernet Sauvignon that's at least the equivalent in terms of quality and wine experience, this is the wine to beat in the under-ten-dollar range.

Stimson Estate Cellars Washington
No date on the bottle; I suspect that this is part of an "end of the branding" bottling. Real cork; large 1.5 liter bottle. $8.99 Rite Aid. Actually a blended wine; based on the Web page for the 2002 version 14% Merlot. Rich purple-red; pure rhodolite garnet. Good reliable table wine; you definitely taste the merlot. Perfect for that spontaneous lasagne dinner, because it's stolid, robust, and not particularly spicy or complex in and of itself. http://www.stimson-estate-cellars.com/2002cabsauv.cfm. The line takes its name from the winery's location on the former estate of Frederick Stimson, an early twentieth-century Seattle lumber magnate. The grapes come from the Columbia valley in eastern Washington. Stimson Estate Cellars is a subsidiary of Ste. Michelle Wine Estates (SMWE). They are owned, like Ste. Michelle, and Red Diamond, and Stag's Leap, and Columbia Crest, by UST Inc. UST Inc. other primary business is smokeless tobacco. On January 6, 2009, UST became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Altria Group, Inc.

Avery Lane 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Washington
Dark red, with rhodolite garnet highlights Slightly acidic; vivid fruit overtones and scent, more raspberry than anything else. This is a wine that needs a good steak; it's just a little too vapid on its own. I won't go out of my way to try it again. This wine was rather slight, without the depth, complexity, or interest that I usually associate with cabernet sauvignon. It's pretty hard to find any current information about the winery, other than an address in Seattle and a defunct Web site; I suspect it's a casualty of the economy.

Red Diamond Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 Washington
Shallow; more raspberry in color. Mostly sweet, very fruity. Sort of thin, Palest of all the cabs. Considering how very much I like the Red Diamond Shiraz, this wine was a bit of a disappointment, overall. Not awful, just nothing special, either. Probably my least favorite of the cabernet sauvignons we've sampled so far, and I don't plan to buy it again.

Columbia Crest Two Vines Cabernet Sauvignon Washington 2006
Very dark crimson, the wine coats the glass. Definite blackberry notes to the scent. The flavor is of of ripe, luxurious blackberry followed by tannins present but mellow. The wine coats the glass, and definitely changes as it warms. Columbia Crest is the largest producer in the state. The winery uses an artificial cork on some bottles, but apparently not all. Definitely a mellow, drinkable table wine, a good accompaniment for food or chocolate. Not as complex or as spicy as either the Meridian or the Grand Estates cabs, but well worth keeping a couple of bottles on hand to have when friends drop by for burgers, pizza, or other straightforward fare. It won't embarrass you.

Lindemans Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 South Africa
Okay, so a wine from South Africa is cheating. It's most definitely not a Washington cab. It was on sale for a ridiculously low price at the local food co-op, though, so who could resist? Uses an artificial cork. Richer; slightly tart undertones. Very rich red with rhodolite purple tint.Very drinkable. This would be worth buying at twice the $4.99 we paid for it. We've had it with spaghetti and with cheeseburgers, and after dinner with chocolate, and it stands up very well.

Washington Hills Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 Washington
Artificial cork. Dark red, crimson-ruby highlights. Very drinkable, on its own or with food. Slightly acidic, but not at all unpleasant. This isn't as enjoyable, complex, or interesting as some of the other cabs we've tried, but it's certainly not awful—just a bit shallower, and ultimately easy to forget about in the face of the competition. I wouldn't refuse a glass, but I also wouldn't expect that glass to be a particularly memorable experience.

Columbia Crest Grand Estates Cabernet Sauvignon 2006
Real cork. Very very dark rich purple-crimson, the darkest of all the cabs we tried. Ruby highlights. Scent of plums. Mellow, rich, rounded, fruit—plums, dark cherries, with a firm tannin base. Complex. Really really lovely. This is a really high-quality table wine to have with an excellent steak, or to share with some terrific dark chocolate. We found this wine for $8.99 at Rite Aid, and it's definitely comparable or even superior to the Meridian California cabernet sauvignon we like so very much. So far, it's the only Washington cab we've found for under $10 bottle that can easily stand up to a head-to-head comparison. And yes, I'm going to be buying more.

Conclusions? I found a cabernet sauvignon that I like as much, and possibly better (more research is required) than my beloved Meridian cabernet sauvignon, the Columbia Crest Grand Estates Cabernet Sauvignon. That said, I'd buy Columbia Crest Two Vines Cabernet Sauvignon and the Lindeman's again. I'm looking at the rest of the Grand Estates wines now; in fact I might have to start exploring shiraz. The comparisons have also made me curious about the various geographies, and their soil, or "terroir" for those who know what they're talking about (not me!) and how that affects the grapes, and hence the wines, of a region.

Washington Wine Conglomerate

Before I moved to Washington, when I was still in Southern California, I started researching Washington, and Washington wines. One of the few Washington wines I could find fairly reliably locally and affordably were wines from Chateau Ste. Michelle. I tried a few, but mostly favored the Riesling. Now that I'm in Washington and have a wide variety of local affordable wines to try, I'm a bit nonplussed to discover that the same thing that's happened to publishing—smaller publishers over the last twenty years have all been swallowed, so that in some ways there are essentially three huge U.S. publishing conglomerates—seems to be happening with Washington wine.

Yes, of course, there are well over 500 wineries in Washington, and no, that number isn't shrinking, it's growing, something I'm very happy about. But in terms of what average consumers (the person who just wants a nice bottle of wine to go with dinner that's somewhere in the $10.00 to $20.00 range) see in local grocery and liquor stores, the shelf space is being taken up by just a few wineries, most of which seem to be owned by a single corporate entity. Now, please don't mistake me here; this is not a complaint as much as it is an observation, having realized that some of my very favorite table wines are essentially all produced by the same corporate entity, albeit the wines themselves come from different wineries, vineyards, and vintners.

For the confused, and the curious; here's a potted (bottled?) history. The very first commercial winery in Washington was Chateau Ste. Michelle, though not under that name. In 1934, in Washington's Columbia Valley, the Pommerelle Wine Company and the National Wine Company were both born, in part as a response to the end of Prohibition. They planted grenache vines, followed by other varieties, in Washington's Columbia Valley in 1951. In 1954 they merged together as American Wine Growers; they mostly produced sweet fortified wines. They planted white Riesling vines in the Valley in 1965. In 1967 American Wine Growers began to experiment with a new line of wines that were intended to be premium, single variety wines from vinifera grapes grown in eastern Washington under the new label of Ste. Michelle Vintners. The initial release included Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot noir, Semillon, and Grenache rosé. Ste. Michelle planted their first vines on 500 acres in Eastern Washington's Cold Creek Vineyard in 1972. Those vines are still producing grapes today, though admittedly, the resulting wines are out of my usual price range. Ste. Michelle chose Woodinville, WA as their headquarters in 1972, and built the French chateau on their labels on the estate of former Seattle lumber baron Frederick Stimson. In 1983, a new winery opened at the River Ridge Vineyard, producing  varietal wines and eventually named Columbia Crest.

Over the course of years, Ste. Michelle became Ste. Michelle Wine Estates (SMWE). SMWE is owned by UST Inc., UST Inc. is essentially two different businesses; wineries, and smokeless tobacco. UST Inc., as of January 6, 2009, became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Altria Group, Inc. with SMWE as one of its subsidiaries. SMWE includes the following wineries and labels:

In Washington: Chateau Ste. Michelle, Col Solare. Columbia Crest, Domaine Ste. Michelle, Northstar, Red Diamond, Snoqualmie, Spring Valley Vineyard, 14 Hands. In California: Conn Creek, Hawk Crest, Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, Villa Mt. Eden. In Oregon, they own Erath winery. Keep in mind that some of these wineries themselves own other, smaller wineries, and many have more than one vineyard label.

In other words, SMWE is the Random House (or the Gallo) of Washington wines. Now, obviously, I don't know much at all about wines, or wine production and distribution, but I wonder if the shelf presence of SMWE wines is serving to limit the shelf presence of smaller wineries, much the way the distribution prowess of Random House or Von Holtzbrinck Publishing can crowd out smaller indie publishers with books that are just as good as the mainstream John Grisham, Stephanie Meyers, and Nora Roberts?

Granted, I'm talking about wineries—particularly Columbia Crest—whose wines I look for, and enjoy. Yet Columbia Crest alone sold over 2 million cases of wine in 2008. Keep in mind as well that the marketing behind this conglomerate is very much aware that there are people like me, who buy wine regularly as part of our meal planning, that is, table wine, but who will also buy mid-range, and sometimes, even higher priced wines. We are a separate market; we are not generally those oenophiles with temperature-controlled wine cellars, and insurance policies for our reds. The marketing materials for SMWE speak pointedly, and specifically about "tiered wines," and tier marketing. They don't actually use the phrase "upselling," but the concept is there (I note that I routinely buy in the two lower tiers; so sue me).

Cabernet Sauvignon Experiment

I'm slightly embarrassed to confess this, but I have thus far not tried Washington cabernet sauvignons. I've had some lovely Washington cab blends—including Two Vines Red, and CMS House—but I've not even really tried Washington cabernet sauvignons. Why, you ask? Well, because early on I discovered the excellent 2005 cabernet sauvignon from Meridian Winery in California. Meridian's cabernet is a full bodied rich, cabernet sauvignon, with just the right combination of black currant and tannic to suit me, and while it routinely sells for between $7.00 and $10.00, we've been buying it locally for $5.99 a bottle. That's pretty hard to beat, frankly. And since this cab is excellent, accompanies food just beautifully, and I like cab better than most other reds, I just didn't feel too inclined to experiment.

After sharing a bottle of Meridian cab over steak sandwiches the other night, though, it occurred to me that in the spirit of discovering Washington wines I should try to find a Washington cabernet sauvignon that I like as well as—or better than—the Meridian California cabernet sauvignon I've been buying and so thoroughly enjoying. So I'm about to embark on some dedicated research into Washington cabernet sauvignons.

Then I started thinking that if I'm going to do taste-testing, I should not only do it methodically, but I should blog about it to include anyone reading this who might have fun playing along at home. So you're cordially invited to assist with this very interesting line of inquire. Because, you know, Washington wines deserve priority over California wines—at least they do if one is a recent and enthusiastic Washington transplant.

The rules:

  1. It must be a Washington cabernet sauvignon; not a cabernet sauvignon-merlot blend, and not a blend of Washington and "other" cabernet sauvignon grapes. Not even an Idaho or Oregon cab. Those are wines for later experiments.

  2. It needs to be roughly the same age as the Meridan cabernet sauvignon; that is, 2005 or 2006. Even that feels a little bit unfair‐really they ought to be the same year. But it's hard to find cabs that are all 2005, and that's the age of the Meridian I've been drinking.

  3. The chosen cabernet sauvignons need to be $10.00 or less a bottle, or at least in that ball park. We're talking about table wine, after all. Maybe you can drink an $80 bottle of wine for simple curiosity's sake, but I'm not going to.

So far, we've located and purchased a Red Diamond cabernet sauvignon, and Columbia Crest Two Vines cabernet sauvignon. I'm looking for other suggestions; we're wondering about Chateau Ste. Michelle, Hogue, Kiona, Hedges, or Sagelands. What do you suggest?

Cabernet Sauvignon

Cabernet sauvignon is a black grape variety, and one of the most recognizable names among consumers. There was a time in the late eighties and the nineties when cabernet sauvignon was frequently treated as a synonym for red wine, largely because of the sudden popularity of California cabernets. It's not an ancient variety; its history apparently goes back only as far as the eighteenth century, when it was a popular grape in France's Médoc region. Researchers at the University of California at Davis in the 1990s, under the direction of Dr. Carole Meredith, determined via DNA testing that cabernet sauvignon is a cross of cabernet franc and sauvignon blanc.

California put American cabernet sauvignons "on the map," so to speak, in the 1976 Paris Blind Tasting, where a number of France's best wine-tasting experts were gathered together by English wine importer Steven Spurrier. Spurrier, who made his living exporting French wines, was confident that in a blind taste test experienced French wine experts would naturally find French wines superior to their American counterparts. In both white and red tasting panels, California wines captured the honors, including a California cab, the 1973 Stags Leap Wine Cellars cabernet sauvignon won the red category. So confident was Spurrier that French wines would be victorious, that he invited a reporter from Time magazine. That Paris blind tasting contest put California wines firmly on the map, and subsequent taste tests continued to confirm California cabs as equal or better to their French counterparts. The American public, filled with Bicentennial fervor, adopted California wines, particularly cabs, and their popularity has not waned since.

Cabernet sauvignon is a popular grape for growers in Australia, New Zealand, France, Italy, South America (especially Chile), South Africa, and particularly, California, where it is still the most popular red wine variety. It thrives in moderately warm, semi-arid regions, with well-drained soils, and favors a long growing season. It's surprisingly hardy, and forgiving, as grapes go, and does well where more delicate varietals fail. Quite often the vines are so heavy with fruit, that in some vineyards the bunches are hand-culled while the grapes are still green. Cabernet sauvignon is actually a logical grape for planting in Washington, which shares the same latititude as Bordeaux, the most popular Cabernet Sauvignon growing region in France. Cabernet sauvignon was initially planted in Washington's Columbia valley in the early sixties by Associated Vintners, better known today as Chateau Ste. Michelle and Columbia Winery, using vines cloned from Oregon vine stock.

Sometimes when the growing season is a little too short, the grapes lend a slightly "green" herbal flavor, often compared to green peppers, to the wine. One of the most common associations you'll see with Washington cabernet sauvignon in reviews is a reference to "herbal" or green overtones. If the grapes are left on the vine to over-ripen, the wine sometimes is a little sweet; it's been compared by some to stewed currants. The tannic overtones associated with Cabernets are not necessarily a fault either; they help shape and add interest to the fruit overtones the grape is known for.

Because cabernet sauvignons tend to age well, they are one of the most popular "collector" wines, which has served to keep the prices inclining steadily. The fact that cabs age well have also contributed to their popularity as ingredients in blended wines. Cabernet sauvignon is exceedingly popular as a blend element, in Bordeaux, as well as in the so-called Meritage wines of America. Cabernet sauvignon, especially in the last ten years or so, has done particularly well in cabernet sauvignon - Merlot blends. The natural qualities of the cabernet sauvignon grape lend wines two essential qualities; the "fruit" notes so very much associated with cabs, and then the naturally occurring tannins, which serve to keep cabernet sauvignon from becoming too sweet to be interesting.

Traditionally cabernet sauvignon is paired with steak, roasts or robustly flavored entrées. I favor Cabernet with a good burger, pot roast, or hearty tomato based dishes as well, though the Cabernet sauvignons I like the best tend to be eminently drinkable on their own, and fabulous with a good dark 70% or better cacao chocolate.

There is a Washington cabernet Sauvignon to suit every palate and pocket book—and I do mean every. You can find highly rated limited quantity Washington cabernet sauvignon like this Quilceda Creek Vintners 2006 Cabernet sauvignon, which retails for $180.00 a bottle. If that's a bit rich for your pocket, there's a 2004 old vines Sineann Block One Cabernet Sauvignon, which retails around $70.00 a bottle. There's a considerable number of wines and wineries to choose from in the $30.00 to $20.00 range; including a 2005 Columbia Crest Cabernet Reserve, that lists for $27.00, (but with a little alert shopping can be found for $15.00), Gordon Brothers Family Winery has a well thought of 2005 cabernet sauvignon that retails for $20.00. Careful shopping can be well worth the effort, especially at this time of year, when wineries and retailers both are having spring sales to make room for new stock in the months to come. There are, moreover, a fair number of very affordable cabernet sauvignons from Columbia Crest, Hogue, Ste. Michelle, and Kiona, which retail between $10.00 and $20.00. There are in fact enough cabs from Washington that I expect to be exploring the range for quite some time.

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