Catching Up

I recently returned from a 10-day vacation to Japan, which explains why this blog has been light on content of late. I would like to thank my friend Nick for posting a few items while I was gone.

During my travels, I did not have a single sip of wine, which was… odd. I missed it and plan to drink heavily in the coming weeks to make up for lost time. Wine is hard to come by in urban Japan and impossible to find in rural Japan, where we spent most of our time. But sake flows like water out there, as does beer, so fear not: my alcohol intake was not entirely abolished.

This is an exciting week, with Taste Washington coming up over the weekend. I have a media credential that gets me into both days, and here is a sneak preview of the content I hope to generate:

• Pouring at Taste Washington from the perspective of rookie, sophomore, and veteran wineries;
• Dick Boushey’s vision of the future of Washington wine;
• Who is responsible for wine being consumed at its peak: wineries, retailers, or consumers?

I will be at the Grand Tasting from 2-8 PM on Sunday, which is a long time. So if you have any suggestions for wineries to visit, or winemakers/winegrowers to interview, please pass them along in e-mails or comments.

It’s good to be back.

CellarTracker: Notes From User #53973

Perhaps no tool has been more important in turning my strong interest in wine into outright zealotry than CellarTracker. The designer and builder of the site is Eric LeVine, a former Microsoft project and product manager, and he still manages the site mostly by himself. The site was originally designed as a way for Eric, and then other owners of wine cellars, to easily track their inventories online. But as more and more users were drawn to CellarTracker’s outstanding functionality, the site became much richer.

The number of wines in the CellarTracker database is staggering. On average, out of every 50 bottles I purchase, I only need to enter 1 into the site’s database; the other 49 already exist, generated by a different user. This makes it an excellent research tool, both for reading and understanding complex labels, and for reviewing tasting notes. While the notes are not written by professionals, there is power in the sheer number of notes, and I appreciate the populist approach to wine evaluation anyway.

I have heard gripes here and there about the user interface of the site, but I have mostly found the interface to be friendly, which makes me wonder if people are confusing aesthetics with usability. It’s not a flashy site, nor is it colorful, but it is robustly functional, and that’s what matters most to me. It’s also a free site, so I recommend taking it out for a test drive. You could start by perusing my inventory and telling me all the different holes in my collection. (note: there is a suggested annual donation of $30 if you use the site regularly)

I have met Eric on a few occasions, and he is a very sharp, very friendly guy. He is also dedicated to the consistent improvement of CellarTracker, and I would expect to see some big changes in the not-too-distant future.

2000 Mountain Dome Brut – $17 @ QFC

Rating: 4

Exceptionally pure nose of lemon shortbread cookies. On the palate, this is a liquid loaf of bread, well-baked and lightly-toasted. Great, rich, yeasty flavors, along with palate-cleansing bubbles and acid. Two-thirds Pinot Noir; one-third Chardonnay.

Sometimes the wine gods smile down on me. Earlier this week I was walking down the canned vegetable aisle at QFC, and in the middle of the aisle was a shopping cart full of clearance wines. I did a triple-take when I saw this bottle sitting there. Mountain Dome is the only Washington winery that doesn’t end with “Ste Michelle” to produce sparkling wine, and their bottles are difficult to find (the best place to find them in Seattle is at The Tasting Room in Pike Place Market).

This bottle looked a little beat up, but I was willing to take the chance for a nine-year-old, single-vintage sparkler at $17. And wow, what a pleasant surprise this turned out to be. As soon as I popped the cork, I could tell the contents were still in great shape. The color was a deep yellow, and the bubbles were plentiful. It’s hard to imagine the path this bottle took to wind up in a clearance shopping cart at QFC, but I certainly feel lucky that it did.

Mountain Dome has a fascinating, and at times sad, back-story. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I will point you to a great writeup by Christina Kelly.

2005 Ross Andrew Red Table Wine – $25 @ Winery

Rating: 4

The nose began with dense fruit (black cherries, strawberries). With time, big earthy and grassy notes emerged, along with roast beef. On the palate, mouthwatering red fruit up front, driven towards bitter chocolate in the middle. Bright acidity and chalky mouthfeel; this is built for pleasure and is drinking beautifully. 55% Cabernet Sauvignon and 45% Merlot.

As I mentioned last week, Ross Mickel is the winemaker, and he was the assistant winemaker for years at Betz Family Winery. He has access to great fruit and seems to have a truly deft touch with coaxing complex aromas out of his wines. For the quality of Ross Andrew wines, the prices are outrageous.

Why Wine 4: Wine as Misunderstood

“Why did you choose wine for a career?”

On five Wednesdays, I am going to attempt to answer that question. I have distilled my love of wine into five reasons why I find the topic so endlessly fascinating. The final document should be something that is partly my own personal wine manifesto and partly a raison d’etre for my future business.

1. Wine as Pleasure
2. Wine as Rebellion
3. Wine as Barbiturate Delivery Device
4. Wine as Misunderstood
5. Wine as Life

Wine as Misunderstood

I recently wrote a post about the difference in treatment I have experienced at wineries and wine shops depending on how nicely I am dressed, and a commenter to that post said: “Wine by nature is a fancy experience.” One of my biggest career goals is to render that statement patently untrue.

That comment underscores for me the idea that wine is misunderstood. No product is “by nature” fancier than any other. Fanciness or fashionability is all culturally determined, and in the United States, I will readily admit that wine has cultural baggage, including suitcases full of elitist connotations. In restaurants, movies, and other cultural flotsam, we see consistent images of the effete wine schmuck, ever-so-gently swirling his glass so as to release the barest hint of an aroma. I recently watched the movie Bottle Shock and can sum up Alan Rickman’s role thusly: Sniff. Double-take. Taste. Rapturous look. Repeat.

I submit that through exposure to many such images, a number of Americans decide that wine is not for them, right before they tap the Rockies. I have friends who simply won’t drink wine because they consider it affected, phony, and downright snobby.

But ours is not the only model for wine consumption. In large swaths of Europe, wine is as much an everyday beverage as beer is here in the United States. Why is this so? Again, I suspect that it’s cultural. The places where wine is consumed regularly, and without fanfare, are the same places where it has been grown for centuries: France, Spain, Italy. In those countries, wine is less of an opaque subject. Children grow up in families that regularly drink and talk about wine. Through their many thousands of tiny discussions observed and references overheard, culture is formed.

What, then, are we to do in the United States, where wine, for most of us, is not (yet) part of our cultural heritage? I argue that to achieve a level of wine egalitarianism (which will be the mission of my career), the only substitute for culture is education. No doubt wine is a complex topic, but (nerd alert!) I love few things more than good information design: finding simplifying techniques for complex information. And in what other school are you encouraged to drink in class?

Taste Washington

The Washington Wine Commission puts on a number of Taste Washington events around the country, each designed to showcase the breadth and depth of Washington winemaking. The granddaddy of them all is the event in Seattle, which this year takes place on the April 4-5 weekend.

The main event is the Grand Tasting on Sunday at the Qwest Field Event Center, where a full third of the state’s 600 wineries will be pouring wine. For $85, you can taste from 4-8 PM, or for $125, you can start a few hours earlier and go from 2-8 PM.

Six hours is a lot of tasting time, and I could see how it would be easy to turn into the drunk a-hole that causes several wineries to never want to do another Taste Washington. To avoid that, I recommend thinking of the event less as a visit to Old Country Buffet and more as a visit to the Seattle Art Museum. Don’t try to “drink your money’s worth.” Do a little research ahead of time and determine which wineries you really want to hit. Hydrate regularly. Spend some time at the restaurant tables. And unless you want to wake up in a hospital bed hooked up to an IV, spit!

But maybe you don’t want to spend $85 to elbow your way through a horde of ravenous vinophiles. Okay. Saturday’s seminars, which involve discussions and tasting, might be better for you. Here is the list:

10:45 AM – 12:00 PM

Common Ground I – Klipsun Vineyard ($45): Wines from this famous Red Mountain vineyard
What Does Puget Sound Like? ($40): Wines from the Puget Sound AVA
Le Value Challenge ($40): Washington vs. France in the $10-$20 segment
Best New Chefs’ Best New Washington Wines ($55): Favorite wines from badass Seattle chefs
Party Like It’s 1999! ($99): The 1999 and 2006 vintages from five different producers

2:15 PM – 3:30 PM

Common Ground II – Champoux Vineyard ($45): Wines from this famous Horse Heaven Hills vineyard
Winery-less Wines ($45): Wines from Chateau-free wineries
All In The Family:  The New Vintage ($55): Wines from multi-generational Washington winemakers
The Other Cabernet: Presented by Seattle Magazine ($45): Five Cabernet Francs

4:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Which One’s Washington?! ($60): Guess the Washington wines in a blind tasting

For overall bang-for-buck, I would recommend either Common Ground seminar, as well as The Other Cabernet and Winery-less Wines. If money is no object, Party Like It’s 1999 should be illuminating, and Which One’s Washington will be a fun way to wrap up the day. I should also mention that lunch (from 12-2 PM) is included with the purchase of any seminar.

I will be attending both days, as there is truly no better snapshot of the Washington wine industry than Taste Washington.

NV Va Piano Bruno’s Blend IV – $23 @ Cellar 46

Rating: 3

The nose on this was elusive in the best way: just intriguing enough aromas of graphite, plums, and smoke to want to sniff again. On the palate, lots of toasty spices and a coffee-flavored finish. Not quite enough acidity to make the flavors really pop, and minimal tannins. Pleasant sipper with good individual components that never quite seemed to harmonize. Unusual blend of 35% Syrah, 30% Malbec, 25% Merlot, and the rest Cab and Cab (Franc and Sauvignon).

Along with their regular lineup,  Va Piano each year releases a special cuvee called “Bruno’s Blend.” In his current life, Father Bruno Segatta is a one-man philanthropic whirlwind, traveling the world and selling his paintings to support a number of charitable causes. In his former life, Father Bruno ran Gonzaga University’s Italian exchange program, a program whose former participant was a younger Justin Wylie (Va Piano’s winemaker). Justin never forgot Father Bruno, and his paintings now adorn Va Piano’s most creative blend. Furthermore, a portion of the proceeds from Bruno’s Blend helps support Father Bruno’s outreach around the world. (note: this paragraph was lifted from a promotional e-mail I wrote for Cellar 46; I am plagirizing only myself)

Why Wine 3: Wine as Barbiturate Delivery Device

“Why did you choose wine for a career?”

On five Wednesdays, I am going to attempt to answer that question. I have distilled my love of wine into five reasons why I find the topic so endlessly fascinating. The final document should be something that is partly my own personal wine manifesto and partly a raison d’etre for my future business.

1. Wine as Pleasure

2. Wine as Rebellion

3. Wine as Barbiturate Delivery Device

4. Wine as Misunderstood

5. Wine as Life

Wine as Barbiturate Delivery Device

I have a tendency to read a lot of tasting notes, to the point where the phrase “crème de cassis” is enough to make my eyes glaze over. When reading those notes, it can seem at times that wine is a non-alcoholic beverage. We read about the wine’s gorgeous bouquet, its bone-rattling acidity, its monstrous tannins, and maybe we’ll get a small hint about the alcohol being in balance. But many tasting notes never even mention alcohol. To be clear, I’m not criticizing tasting-note writers (after all, people on glass laptops shouldn’t throw those types of keystroke stones). I’m just acknowledging that for me, part of my appreciation of wine is its ability to deliver barbiturates into my system.

As a young person, I used to be socially awkward in ways numerous and painful. These days, that awkwardness has faded to manageable levels, but I still appreciate wine’s effects as a social lubricant. I have used wine to relax at the end of a grueling work day. I have used wine to obliterate grueling work days from my mind entirely. I have used wine to enhance celebrations of weddings, graduations, birthdays, and many of life’s other, quieter victories.

There is no denying it; I like a good alcohol buzz. And for my money (and my wife’s money while I toil away at grad school), there is no more beautiful, enjoyable, and complex way to achieve that buzz than through the consumption of fermented vitis vinifera.

Two Wines w/ Dinner @ Cellar 46

During UW’s winter quarter (which comes to an end this week), I was helping out one day a week at Cellar 46, a wine shop, wine bar, and restaurant on Mercer Island. Now that my tenure there has come to an end, I feel more comfortable touting its finer qualities without fear of besmirching my smirch-free status as an independent purveyor of Washington wine info.

The best thing about eating at Cellar 46’s restaurant is that they currently have no corkage fees for wines purchased in their retail shop. This is a beautiful model, because it immediately gives them the equivalent of a massive wine list with prices that are half that of most restaurants.

With that in mind, I had dinner there over the weekend, and I tasted the following two wines:

2005 Chateau Rollat Cabernet Sauvignon Rollat – $38

Rating: 4

Big, dark, ripe nose. This wine uses just 1/3 new oak, so it is the rich, black fruit that is the showcase here. The oak provides delicious background notes of tobacco and coffee that interplay beautifully with the sweetness of the fruit. Moderate acidity and fine, sweet tannins. Gorgeous.

Chateau Rollat is a Walla Walla winery focusing on Bordeaux blends. The Rollat (I know; confusing name, what with the double Rollat) is the middle of their three-wine lineup, sitting in between the mostly-Merlot Sophie de Rollat at $27 and the mostly-Cab Edouard de Rollat at $62. It’s 80% Cab, 15% Merlot, and 5% Cab Franc, almost entirely from Pepperbridge Vineyard.

For more info on Rollat, check out Washington Wine Report, where Sean gives his typically thorough accounting of the whole Rollat lineup.

2001 Andrake Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon – $23 for a split (375 ml bottle)

Rating: 3

The nose on this represents the better part of my spice cabinet. The palate follows with a mouthful of Red Hots candy. Loads of cinnamon, with good acid and pretty well-integrated tannins. The spices on this were a little overwhelming, making for one of the more unusual bottles I have tasted recently. All fruit was from Red Mountain.

I have a feeling Andrake Cellars might not be around anymore. The most recent vintage on CellarTracker is 2004, and their website is defunct. Anyone know the fate suffered by this winery?

On the Road: Woodinville Warehouse Tasting

Because I had pre-ordered some wine at Pomum Cellars, I needed to trek up to Woodinville over the weekend to pick up my stash. Pomum is located in the Woodinville warehouse district, along with a number of other wineries, so I decided to make a day of it with a few friends. In the end, from our parking space in front of Pomum, we hit three wineries.

All told, I found the experience thoroughly enjoyable, and I will tell you why, in hopes of encouraging more people to visit this part of Woodinville.

Geography. First, Woodinville can be reached from Seattle in about 20 minutes. Second, it is a pleasure to have so many wineries within walking distance of one another. The only other area in Washington where I experienced this was the Walla Walla airport, and I loved that as well.

Focus. Pomum, Hestia and Ross Andrew poured four wines each. Perfect. These wineries are focused on quality; on only doing a few things, but doing them well. It makes me nuts when wineries offer a lineup of ten wines, all of which are unmemorable, and that wasn’t happening on Saturday.

People. Each of these three wineries is open for tasting on Saturdays only, usually for just four or five hours. This is a good thing because it means that the person pouring the wine is usually the winemaker. While I have experienced many tasting room staffers who know a ton about the wine, there is no one with more intimate knowledge than the winemaker, and it is a pleasure to be able to try the wine and chat with its creator. At all three wineries, the pours were generous and the winemakers were garrulous; a dynamite combination.

I enjoyed many of the wines that we tasted, but I want to give special callouts to three:

2005 Hestia Meritage (58% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Cabernet Franc, 12% Malbec) – $39

This is such a young, tightly-wound beast, with loads of potential. There is deep, dark fruit here, but it is wrapped up in leathery tannins that suggest that this will drink better in 2019 than in 2009. If you can’t wait that long, I would suggest dropping this into a decanter in the morning for evening drinking.

Shannon Jones is the winemaker and an all-around nice guy who can wax eloquent about all sorts of wine related topics. He has a deft hand with white wines (evidenced by his outstanding 2006 Semillon), so I am excited to see what he does with a Chenin Blanc/Viognier blend, which Hestia will release later this year.

2005 Ross Andrew Red Table Wine (55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 45% Merlot) – $25

The nose on every single wine we tasted from Ross was exquisite. That man knows his way around an aroma wheel. The red table wine smelled like a cookout, with lots of smoke, charcoal, and meat (and a few red fruits for dessert). The palate brought black cherries, smoked meats, and big, grippy tannins. This is drinking great right now.

Ross Mickel is the winemaker, and he spent many years as the assistant winemaker at Betz Family Winery, learning from one of the masters, Bob Betz. Ross is now making incredible wines on his own (including the gloriously stinky 2006 Boushey Vineyard Syrah), and I challenge you to name me another winery in the state this is producing higher quality wines in the $15-$35 price segment.

2006 Pomum Cellars Tinto (80% Tempranillo, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon) – $23

The great grape of the Rioja region of Spain is not grown much yet in Washington, but I have tasted some bottles in the past that make me think the grape might have a future here. This is a nice example of Tempranillo’s potential. Although the vines are still young, the wine has nice red fruit and little hints of tobacco, and there is a good whack of Cab there to add heft. The winemaker, Javier Alfonso, is Spanish himself, so he knows his way around this grape, and at $23, this is also the least expensive Tempranillo I have seen from the state.

Here is the list of the other wines I tasted, with brief notes. If you want more details on any of them, please contact me directly:

• 2008 Pomum Riesling ($18): low sugar; high acid; good.
• 2006 Pomum Syrah ($34): round and rich; lots of fruit.
• 2006 Pomum Shya ($36): young; lots of cola and spice; big tannins; needs time but huge potential.
• 2006 Hestia Semillon ($24): figs galore; soft and creamy; great fruit; less acid than six months ago; drinking great.
• 2006 Hestia Merlot ($29): cherries and a whiff of menthol; big crowd-pleaser.
• 2006 Hestia Syrah ($32): sap and salinity, a killer combination for me; this is fantastic.
• 2007 Ross Andrew Meadow ($16): fun white blend from Oregon; such a pretty nose; nice acid.
• 2005 Ross Andrew Cabernet Sauvignon ($30): musky tobacco nose; restrained fruit; good.
• 2006 Ross Andrew Syrah Boushey ($28): ridiculously good; bacon and cabbage; yes please.