Washington Wine Month: The Real Thing

I will admit to some disappointment. I was hoping not only for some good prices, but most especially, for some wines from the smaller wineries. There are lower prices, and yes, the lower prices do qualify for a case discount, and I do appreciate that. But even the "special wines" available for the month are from the larger and very well distributed wineries like Avery, Kiona, Washington Hills, Chateau Ste. Michelle, Columbia Crest, and Hogue. I'm very glad to see a wider range from Kiona and Barnard Griffin, and yes, I do like the price on the Barnard Griffin Fumé Blanc, but I was hoping for more from wineries like Bergevin Lane (my local Washington Liquor Store is only carrying the Viognier, and only for this month), Pacific Rim, Rulo. That said, I'm very glad to see Canoe Ridge and Mary Hill represented, even if only temporarily. There's a good "comparison list" of the featured wines and sale prices from the News Tribune.

It seems to me that the Washington State Liquor stores really could be doing a lot more for Washington wineries. I'll check out two others in the area in the next few days, in case my local store is an oddity. It has a nice display area in the front, but there's absolutely no signage, at all, about this being Washington Wine month, or that there's a Washington shelving area. At the very least, they could put up some of the marketing material—most wineries are providing .pdfs for that purpose on their Web sites.

Barnard Griffin 2007 Fume Blanc Columbia Valley

Barnard Griffin 2007 Fume Blanc Columbia Valley

The text under the name on the label describes as

"dry sauvignon blanc." That's quite accurate. The first thing I noticed about the wine was the incredibly fragrant and complex aroma. It is slightly floral, with a hint of citrus. The taste is delicate without being watery or weak. I noticed the citrus again, but also, something else that's elusive and lovely—that's a bit like the mineral quality of artesian well water—I suppose this may be the "mineral" quality that people who know what they're doing write about.

I think Barnard Griffin 2007 Fume Blanc Columbia Valley may be my perfect summer wine. I've had a chance to try a second bottle, and was just as good as the first. It's quite a bit like summer in a bottle. This is one of those wine I'm happy to drink on its own, but that very much changes and is changed by food. I think this may be the perfect wine for crab or lobster. I note from the Bernard Griffin Website that's it's 82.8% Sauvignon Blanc, 16.5% Semillon, using grapes from Sagemoor Vineyard (Columbia Valley), Gunkel Vineyard (Columbia Valley, Eastern Columbia River Gorge), Aldercreek Vineyard (Horse Heaven Hills), and Caroway Vineyard (Columbia Valley). The ABV is a mere 12.6%. I'm definitely going to be buying more of this wine, as well as trying other Sauvignon blanc, but this particular wine has also made me curious about Semillon—a wine that I've been previously underwhelmed by in its California forms.

The first bottle of Barnard Griffin 2007 Fume Blanc Columbia Valley was a spontaneous-spur-of-the-moment purchase at the Washington state liquor store, where right now the wine is selling at a bargain $5.99 a bottle, with a 10% discount on six or more bottles—I suspect it's a price designed to make room for the 2009 vintage. My initial purchase was serendipity in its purest form—my first Barnard Griffin wine, and my first Sauvignon Blanc. It's not only made me go back for more, I'm planning on looking more closely at Barnard Griffin winery.

Barnard Griffin Winery

The Barnard Griffin Winery is one that a friend who works

in the U. C. Davis botany department told me to be sure to look out for, when I first came to Washington. He said enthusiastic things about the wine, and about the winemaker, Rob Griffin, whom he described as being "innovative within the tradition." The Barnard Griffin Winery was founded in 1983 by Rob Griffin and Deborah Barnard. Griffin, who has a degree from U. C. Davis, has been working in the Washington wine industry since the mid seventies, first at Preston, and then at Hogue Cellars. His own winery is right smack in the heart of Washington wine country in the south-central region of the state, where the Yakima, Columbia and Snake rivers meet. Barnard and Griffin started producing their own wines in 1983, with their first efforts focusing on Chardonnay, Fumé Blanc, and Riesling. In the intervening years since then Barnard Griffin has established a reputation for high quality varietals. In 1996, the winery opened their own tasting room in Richland, Washington.

Their Barnard Griffin 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon, Columbia Valley won a gold medal, and it's not the only wine, by any means, to receive accolades. The 2007 Syrah, Columbia Valley won double gold at the San Francisco Chronicle Competition and the Barnard Griffin 2007 Rose of Sangiovese won best rosé, for the third time in a row. The Barnard Griffin 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon, Columbia Valley won all sorts of accolades at the 2008 Tri-States Festival. In March of this year Barnard Griffin's 2006 Reserve Merlot, Columbia Valley won best red in the Monterey Wine Festival, as well as a gold. In fact, Barnard Griffin has several medals at this year's festival including a gold for its 2007 Syrah, Columbia Valley. With the exception of the Reserve Merlot, which retails at around $30.00, all of these wines were released at under $20.00.

One of the things I like, very much, about the Barnard Griffin winery is that it is still family owned, even now. And they're still producing top quality, highly individual varietal wines, but in the $20 to $30 range. You may have to hunt a little to find them; Washington State Liquor Stores, and Haggen have been my best successes, but can also buy right from the winery. My first Barnard Griffin Wine was their lovely Fumé Blanc. I'm still looking for a bottle of their Rose of Sangiovese, which was released in February, but which has, as far as I can tell, completely sold out.

Sauvignon Blanc

I will confess that until very recently, the only things I knew about Sauvignon Blanc were that it

was one of the parent grapes of Cabernet Sauvignon, that it was a green-skinned white wine grape, and that it was a frequent ingredient of several of the Washington white blends I've tried and enjoyed. The name Sauvignon or "savage" refers to the grape's ancestry as "wild" stock; it's a native, so to speak, of western France's Loire valley and Bordeaux areas. It is, as far as we can tell, an indigenous grape that spontaneously appeared in southwestern France before the middle ages. Sauvignon blanc has since been carefully cultivated just about everywhere wine grapes are grown. It's used in a variety of blends as well as for dessert wines like Chateau Y'Quem Sauternes, made after the very ripe grapes have developed Botrytis cinerea or "Noble Rot."

Sauvignon Blanc wines from France's Loire valley are often given names like Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé; the use of fumé is a reference to the thick, almost smokey morning fog that rises from the Loire in the traditional growing area for Sauvignon Blanc in France. We can thank Robert Mondavi for popularizing Fumé Blanc as a name for Sauvignon Blanc. Mondavi borrowed the name to label his dry Sauvignon Blancs, and the wine industry, particularly in California, and the Pacific Northwest, ran with it. Many wineries use the Fumé Blanc label for dry Sauvignon Blanc wines and wines that have been aged in oak in a deliberate homage to the French style wines.

Sauvignon Blanc vines grow well in just about every wine-producing region, world-wide, and are prolific producers. It is very common to see table Sauvignon Blanc wines from the new world in screw-cap bottles for immediate consumption, especially for bottles from Australia and New Zealand. Descriptions of Cabernet Sauvignon typically refer to citrus or apple, and use the phrase "elegant and crisp" very often. In fact, it's somewhat unusual to find a reference to the wine on bottles or in reviews that doesn't use "elegant" or "crisp." Cabernet Sauvignon is traditionally paired with goat cheeses, seafood, and shellfish, and is increasingly popular when served with sushi.

I recently stopped by the Washington State Liquor store to check on the plans for next month's Washington Wine month celebration, and noticed a bottle of Barnard Griffin Sauvignon Blanc (the label reads Fumé Blanc) on sale. Barnard Griffin is one of the Washington wineries I'd been told to watch for, and the price on the bottle was heartbreakingly low. I had been so very pleasantly surprised by Washingon state Chardonnay, I thought I'd give Sauvignon Blanc a try. I liked it; very much, in fact. You can read about my reactions in the review I'll be posting, but I liked the wine so much I've decided to give Sauvignon Blanc a closer look. I note that a number of Washington wineries produce a Sauvignon Blanc varietal, though more than a few are blending Sauvignon Blanc with another white, typically with Semillion.

Washington Wine and the Recession

The news about California is pretty bad; layoffs, winery foreclosures and vineyard sales in the midst of a grape glut. But even though Washington wineries are noticing the same buying

patterns—restaurants selling from their cellar, customers buying at the $25.00 and under price tier instead of the higher ranges—right now, it doesn't seem quite so drastic in Washington. That doesn't mean Washington wineries are ignoring the recession, by any means. Wineries and grape-growers are both very much cash-dependent businesses. Wineries have to sell last year's wines to make space for this year's, and they have to pay for packaging and shipping, as well as inventory, production and staffing costs. Washington vineyards have the same problems as their California sisters, including the effects of unpredictable weather on the grape harvest.

But what seems to be happening is that while restaurant purchases are down and higher-tiered vintage wines are not selling as well as they might, consumers are buying just as much wine, but spending their money on the middle and lower-tiers. According to Robin Pollard, executive director of the Washington Wine Commission "Rather than buying a $60 bottle, they'll buy three $20 bottles." Keith Love, the vice president of Washington's largest winery, Chateau Ste. Michelle Wine Estates in Washington observed that 99% of Ste. Michelle's 2 million-case production retail price point is $10 to $20 a bottle, but at the same time suggests that he expects slower sales for the winery's higher tiered lines like Spring Valley, Col Solare and Northstar. These are wines which retail for $40 or more a bottle, and are primarily sold to restaurants—restaurants who have cut back, drastically, on their purchases.

It's all well and good for a company like Ste. Michelle to turn to their lower tiers to make up for possible lost sales. They've got exceedingly good distribution. It's a bit different for the smaller Washington wineries, particularly the independents. It's a little harder for the smaller wineries to reach the consumer. That doesn't mean that smaller wineries are done for, but it does mean that local purchases at the winery are more important than ever. Keep in mind that you can often get a case discount even for online purchases, and that at the winery are some fabulous deals, often for amazing wines that are produced in quantities too small to distribute widely. It's looking like this will be a good harvest for Washington, with 2009 on a bottle being something to remember. Let's try to do our part to keep Washington wines alive. Buy Washington, and try to buy from the winery, directly.

Haggen Washington Wine Case Sale

Even though the Washington State Liquor Stores have delayed Washington Wine Month until September, other participating businesses have not. Haggen Food, a very community-minded Washington grocery chain, is featuring some pretty amazing deals on cases of Washington wine. These are cases of mixed wine from a single winery, you choose, and include a sale price with a 20% case discount, and a mail in rebate. Here are some specific numbers for you:

Columbia Crest Two Vines and V10 Case
Regularly at 95.88; on sale for $76.70, with an $18.00 mail-in rebate, for a final price of $58.70 (plus taxes, natch)

Columbia Crest Grand Estates
Regularly $95.58; on sale for $76.70, with an $18.00 mail-in rebate, for a final price of $77.90 (plus taxes)

Other Washington wines are also on sale; primarily those from the "usual" Washington conglomerate. Bernard Griffin, H3, Washington Hills, Chateau Ste. Michelle, with an additional 20% off for four or more bottles.

I note that it looks like the Washington State Liquor Stores have posted their Washington Wine Month price list as a .pdf here. Notice that at the top it says August/September 2009. The .pdf merely lists the single bottle prices, not the case price, but you can get a pretty good idea. You might want to pay special attention to the last two pages, with the heading "Special August/September one-time-only special purchase wines washington wine month." Mostly, I'm seeing the "usual suspects"; I'm hoping for a bit more variety in the actual store, since individual store buyers/managers do have some leeway for personal choices.

Washington Wine Month Postponed

Every August, the Washington State Liquor stores celebrate Washington wine by

having a spectacular month-long sale on Washington wine. This year, because of "computer problems," the State Liquor Commission is postponing the sale a month, until September, 2009.

This will be my first "Washington Wine Month," so I'm eagerly looking forward to it. It's my understanding that the wine on sale is discounted by as much as 50%, in addition to the already often lower prices (the Liquor Commission doesn't tax itself on sales) that there's an additional 10% discount on case sales, even on mixed cases.

Employees at one of the state liquor stores told me that the computer glitch has made inventory and ordering a nightmare—and that for this event in particular, they go through large amounts of inventory very very rapidly, and need to be not only fully stocked in front but in back. They also need to be able to order special orders of case lots, and get them delivered on time. I'm told that most people who are buying Washington wine at the even walk away with a case at least.

If you're curious, you can read about last year's sale here.

I don't know if the other "Washington Wine Month" activities hosted by wineries are going to be affected or not.

Honey Moon Washington Mead

I'm rather fond of mead, as I've noted before. While it's made from fermented honey, mead is very much considered a wine. Honey Moon meadery in Bellingham, Washington makes their mead in a funky refurbished glass factory. They use local

blackberry and fireweed honey. They make their meads (and melomels, traditionally made by infusing mead with fruit or other seasonings) in small batches, so that while there are a number of meads available in bottles, there are also several that are only available in the Bellingham tasting room.

I recently stopped by Honey Moon's tasting room. I had a sample of their current offerings. For a dollar per 3 ounce glass, Honey Moon encourages customers to try the current offerings. On my recent visit, I sampled:

Lovers Mead
This is very much a traditional mead. It's very light, a pale champagne. the aroma is fragrant, but not overpoweringly honey-scented. The flavor is sweet, but not overpowering. This is a good starter mead, and would go well with food, or as a dessert wine for a cheese or sweet course.
Orange mead
Technically, this is a melomel, made by infusing mead with orange and tangerine peel. It's a slightly darker gold, with a distinct aroma reminiscent of orange blossoms. The citrus note is apparent but not overpowering. I'd like to try cooking with this, in terms of a reduction or a glaze. It's a lovely dessert wine as well.
Wassail Mead
This particular mead was originally a seasonal offering for the holidays but it proved so very popular that it's available all year round. It's mead flavored with cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon. This is a robust mead, one that would be equally lovely served as is or heated. The flavor is intense without being overpowering.
Midnight Blue
Midnight Blue is a melomel infused with blueberries. It's a lovely light garnet-purple in color, with an intense bluberry odor. It's slightly more noticeably alcoholic in flavor but it's very much like bottled summer.
Rhubarb Mead
This is a light amber in color, and very very different. Were this to be offered to me without any explanation, I'd think it was an exotic dry dessert wine. This is quite frankly my favorite of the meads I've tried, ever, and I'm more than a little disappointed that it's made in such very small batches that it is only available in the tasting room.

More Washington Chardonnays

Covey Run Chardonnay 2006

According to the Web site, the 2006 harvest was allowed to linger on the vine until fully ripe, then the pressed juice was placed in both stainless steel tanks and oak barrels. The stainless steel tanks were cool-fermented, with the goal of protecting the "fruitiness" of the wine, while the rest of the wine was placed in oak barrels (half French, and half American) on the lees, and stirred frequently during the winter. The site then notes "Those lots with higher acidity levels underwent malolactic fermentation," and then the wine from both barrels and tanks were blended before bottling.

The wine is acidic, the much vaunted "green apple taste" is more sharply tannin, with very little fruity quality. The wine is slightly softer than California Chardonnay, but otherwise, I'd have thought this was from California. The Quail line is the lowest tier of Covey Run's , and very much meant as a budget table wine. I suspect that the dual tanks, and the subsequent blending (which honestly reminds me a lot of homogenizing milk), is why this Chardonnay seems to be caught between what I'm beginning to think of a California Chardonnay traditions, and Washington Chardonnay; it's designed to result in a pleasant, almost featureless wine, with very little character of its own but fairly easy to drink. This is very much a Washington equivalent of a budget California Chardonnay.

Columbia Crest 2007 Horse Heaven Hills H3 Chardonnay

Horse Heaven Hills is one of the oldest, and best known, Washington appellations.They're east of the Cascade Mountains, which means that they're

sheltered from Pacific-driven rain. The vineyards are on southern slopes. The juice from the pressed grapes was reserved in a stainless steel tank at 50 degrees for two days, before 40% was barrel fermented in new American and French oak, and 30% in older oak barrels. 30% of the juice was fermented in stainless steel, with the goal of retaining the mineral quality associated with Horse Heaven Hills. The wines were also subjected to malolactic fermentation, all the barrels were hand-stirred weekly for six to nine months, and then blended before bottling. This process is very similar to the process Columbia Crest used for the lower tier Columbia Crest Grand Estates Chardonnay. In terms of Columbia Crest's tiers, H3 is the next the the "highest"; we've found it locally for around $10.00, though the list is $15.00

The H3 Chardonnay was recognizably a relative of the Grand Estates Chardonnay, but it was also more complex. It was vastly changed when accompanied by food; the wine opened up. The "official" description of the wine from Columbia Crest describes the H3 Chardonnay as "Aromatics of slight mineral, apple, pear and caramelized sugar open this elegant, medium-bodied Chardonnay. The balanced palate of pineapple and coconut leads to a seductive, creamy vanilla finish." We did notice the mineral quality, as well as pear and citrus notes, with a very mellow, buttery finish, and we will absolutely be serving Columbia Crest's H3 Chardonnay again with food.

Columbia Winery's 2006 Chardonnay

Just for fun, we also tried Columbia Winery's 2006 Chardonnay. It too is a blend of Chardonnay that's been barrel fermented, much of which has had a secondary malolactic fermentation—at this point I'm beginning to wonder if the sharper, more "green apple"quality I associate with California Chardonnay is because California wineries don't generally seem to use malolactic fermentation, while Washington wineries do. This particular Chardonnay is generally tamer, and more quaffable than the others we've tried. It's a good summer sipping wine for a lazy afternoon. It was more reminiscent of pineapple than pear, and very drinkable. It was rather swamped by the food though; though something less dominant than crab and bearnaise sauce might have been fairer to the wine.

Washington Budget Chardonnay Reviews

Having resolved to give Chardonnay a second chance, and to specifically try more Washington Chardonnays, I thought it was only fair to start by trying a California Chardonnay. I'm looking at the "budget" category, since I'm quite sure my former employer wouldn't pay more than $10.00 a bottle for staff parties, but given the popularity of Chardonnay, that's not really a huge issue; there are far more "budget" tier Chardonnays locally than there are almost any other varietal.

Meridian Chardonnay

Merridian is very much a solid, reliable California winery, one that frequently appears on the wine lists of California restaurants. It's not one of the Chardonnays I experienced at work, but it's very widely distributed and it might have been. This is what I thought Chardonnay was, slightly acidic, tannic, though this is much more enjoyable than I expected it to be, definitely not the sort of thing served at the office parties I went to (maybe I'm in the wrong industry for decent wine at parties), and it's much better with food. This is a California "big wine" style Chardonnay; it's robust, almost pungent. I could very much see this as the wine to use in making a cheese fondue, as well as serve with cheese fondue, but this particular Chardonnay does rather need food.

Red Diamond Chardonnay

This is also very different, and mellower, than the California Chardonnay I'm used to. It's more fruity than tannin, not acidic or sharp at all. It's quaffable—in some ways, this reminds me of a pear cider that's been over-sweetened with pear juice after fermenting. According to the Web site, much of the wine was fermented for five months in aged French and American oak barrels, and the rest in stainless steel tanks. It's a bit of a non-entity, but that's not necessarily bad. It's the sort of thing I might offer to someone who doesn't like wine. It's forgettable but not at all unpleasant, and very very different from the equivalent in California Chardonnay terms.

Two Vines Chardonnay

The Washington Chardonnay that's made me reappraise my views on Chardonnay was a Columbia Crest Two Vines Chardonnay, and it was lovely. I suppose in hindsight, I shouldn't have been quite so surprised to discover I liked it, given how much I like the Two Vines Vineyard 10 White blend, which is predominantly Washington Chardonnay.

Columbia Grand Estates Chardonnay 2007

Chardonnay for grownups; lovely on its own, and an asset to food. A very definite pear aroma, and even a slightly pear-cider taste, but full bodied, with just

the right touch of oak. Honestly, if someone had told me that Chardonnay could be a bit like pear cider, I'd have been a lot more enthusiastic about trying California Chardonnays. The Grand Estates Charddonnay appeals to me even more than the Columbia Crest Two Vines, and at $8.99, it's a steal. I note that Wine Spectator gave this wine 89 points; last year's version was rated at 90, and a "best buy." I note that they use the somewhat controversial practice of re-innoculating the wine with carefully chosen cultures to convert the naturally occurring lactic acid to the also naturally occurring malic acid, in order to affect the flavor and aroma of the wine. Lactic acid is associated with the "buttery" taste of Chardonnay, while malic acid is associated with the more acidic "green apple" tastes and aromas. After an initial fermentation in order to kick-start malolactic fermentation, the barrels are all hand-stirred for six months, then blended after six more months in barrels.

I'm now convinced that I do like Chardonnay, especially Washington Chardonnay, and am ready to start looking at slightly more expensive Chardonnays from Washington. I liked the Grand Estates Chardonnay enough to look for the mid-range Columbia Crest Chardonnay, the Columbia Crest Horse Heaven Hills (H3) version, as well as their Columbia Crest Reserve Chardonnay. I'm thinking Washington Chardonnay bears a bit more attention.

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