I had a chance last week to watch a screener copy of the documentary Merlove with Sean from Washington Wine Report (thanks again for hosting, Lindy). The movie was a little muddled (to be fair, the version we watched was not the final edit), but I think the point of the film was to rebut Miles’ now-famous “I am NOT drinking any f***ing Merlot!” line from Sideways and rescue this noble grape. The filmmakers certainly managed to get access to a wide variety of wine-world luminaries, and taken as a series of interviews, there were compelling moments. Taken as a film, the piece doesn’t entirely hang together, but it does touch on interesting issues: Parkerization, Merlot in California vs Washington, and wine culture in America vs Europe, to name a few. And for lovers of Washington wine, there are lots of chances to hear some of our brightest stars share their insights.

You would be incorrect if you think we watched this movie without drinking Merlot (or to put a finer point on it, Merlot-dominant blends). Here are tasting notes from the bottles opened:

2003 Baer Ursa – Rating 4

Drinking beautifully right now, this had a minty, herbal nose hovering over deep, sweet scents of blue fruit. Incredible mouthfeel: grainy, chalky, muddy texture and brilliant acids. Fresh blue fruit. Delicious.

2005 Soos Creek Sundance – Rating 3(?)

This improved with time open, and I think it has the potential for improvement. On this night, the oak was a little too prominent for my taste. Still, this is technically-excellent wine, with red raspberry and brown spices on the nose and rich red fruit on the palate. With time, the oak flavors integrated, and the palate shifted to caramel, coffee, and Dr. Pepper.

Rating: 4

We brought this bottle up to Gaudi last night (home of truly transcendent paella marinera) to help celebrate my mom’s retirement and my completion of grad school.

Big, ripe, sweet nose of dark cherries, with hints of tobacco, earth, and dark chocolate. This is round and rich, especially on entry, but the acid and tannins are much more prominent than I remember from previous tastings, and they balance the initial blast of sweet cherry fruit. The taste moves from red fruit to plums and finishes with grainy, espressoey, drying tannins. This was good a few months ago but has achieved a new level of power and deliciousness with time in the bottle. Highly recommended as an example of the exciting potential Tempranillo has in Washington. 80% Tempranillo; 20% Cabernet Sauvignon.

Earlier this week, I had one final evening class to finish up my grad program, and I was looking for a wine that would be waiting for me when I got home, ready to envelop me in its warm embrace. After perusing my CellarTracker inventory, I settled on the Sequel. Other tasting notes made it sound like the kind of rich, celebratory wine I was looking for, and at 14.7% alcohol, it looked like more of a cocktail wine than a dinner wine. In my case, it served as a digestif.

Rating: 4

Beautiful, evolving nose: first blackberry liqueur and grilled bread with butter; then bacon and smoke; then cocoa and funk, moving towards briney olives. Moderate acid and medium-low tannins. This is what a well-made, well-integrated, high-octane Syrah smells and tastes like, with oak as a supporting actor and not playing the lead role.

Long Shadows is a project brought to life by Allen Shoup, former CEO of Ste Michelle Estates. His vision has been to bring established, world-class winemakers to the northwest, to make wine with the best fruit Washington has to offer. Sequel is the Syrah project, and the consulting winemaker is John Duval. Duval made his name in Australia with Penfolds, but after stepping down in 2002, he was looking for his next great challenge. The “sequel” to his life’s work has been his collaboration with Long Shadows, and he has made Sequel since the 2003 vintage.

This normally retails in the $55 range, so when it showed up on Winebid for $30, I pounced. That, as it turns out, was a good decision.

Rating: 4

As a warmup to last week’s blind Cab tasting, we cracked open this rosé with a year of bottle age under its belt. And lo and behold; it’s drinking great!

Compellingly musky nose of melon, hay, and green peppers. Bright, juicy palate with strawberries, orange creamsicles, and green apple candy. But it’s the finish, filled with spicy, poblano peppers, that seals the deal for me. Fantastic!

Once Full Pull is up and running, blind tastings will be a regular part of the business, so I decided to call this the last official Swordfern Blind Tasting. We went out in style, drinking an impressive lineup of Cabs, including 3 from Washington and 1 from California:

2005 Moon Mountain Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve – $40 @ Retail

Rating: 3

Big nose of purple fruit and grape jelly. On the palate, more purple fruit, peaches, and a nice citrus component. Moderate acid, low tannins, and a spicy kick to the finish. 79% Cab along with Cab Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, and Malbec.

2005 Basel Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Pheasant Run Vineyard – $20 @ Cellar 46

Rating: 4

Massive nose that starts out with dark chocolate and plums. With time, notes of damp earth, tobacco, and black olives emerge. Bright red fruit and lots of chocolate on the palate. The tannins have the gritty texture, and some of the flavor, of biting into banana skin. Very interesting bottle that was still evolving as we finished it off, and at the price I paid, wonderful QPR. 100% Cab, and I believe this was made by Trey Busch before he left Basel to form Sleight of Hand.

2006 Dusted Valley Vintners Cabernet Sauvignon – $26 @ Winery

Rating: 4

Much more tropical nose than the other three: part pina colada, part orange-mango nantucket nectar (a great beverage in its own right). Also the lightest-bodied of the lineup and the freshest fruit profile (raspberries and peaches). Cocoa and spice on the finish of this nicely-balanced wine. 100% Cab.

2005 Boudreaux Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon – $50 @ Winery

Rating: 4

My favorite of the night. Lovely, medicinal nose that brings dark cherries and berries screaming up out of the glass, along with cola and caramel notes. Generous, fascinating palate with waves of flavors: dark-chocolate-covered cherries, tropical fruits, Dr. Pepper, brambly blackberries, baking spices. Grainy-tannins, medium-low acid, and a lingering finish. My preference is usually for high-acid, leaner wines, but this is a good reminder to me that an occasional bottle like this, which is so rich and brings so much pleasure, is worth savoring. 80% Cab; the rest Merlot, Cab Franc, Malbec, Petit Verdot, Syrah, Sangiovese. That’s 7 varietals, from 10 vineyards, aged in 5 different types of oak. Before I die, I want to attend blending trials with Rob Newsome.

Rating: 4

Fresh and compelling nose of dark fruit and soy, with background notes of coffee and purple flowers. Wonderfully plush mouthfeel, and the fruit here is so bright and fresh: loads of cranberries and pomegranate along with cedar notes. Long, mouthwatering finish of cinnamon and red fruit.

I picked this up after reading about it at Washington Wine Report, and I was not disappointed. This delicious blend of 35% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Syrah, 25% Merlot, and 15% Cabernet Franc is mostly estate fruit, with a dash of Pepper Bridge Syrah added to the mix.

Let’s dispense with the shameless plug first. Today at Full Pull Wines, we opened our mailing list for the first time. People who sign up now will be able to participate in our month-long beta-test at launch, which should happen later in the summer. The plan is to work out some of the kinks of the business model during the beta, so I need to keep the list relatively small during that period, which means I will close the list if it starts to reach critical mass. If you’re interested in being part of the beta, probably best to sign up sooner rather than later.

Now for the non-shameless (and yet also non-shameful; how does that work?) plug. Tonight is the virtual tasting over at Washington Wine Report. I just picked up my bottle of 2007 Charles Smith Boom Boom Syrah, and you should too!

In between dodging rattlesnakes and climbing Palouse buttes over the long weekend, I managed to sneak in a few hours of wine-tasting in Walla Walla. If you want a more comprehensive report on the Walla Walla, check out Sean Sullivan’s sneak preview of his Spring Release report, the full version of which should come out soon. If you want to hear about the three wineries we had time to visit, read on.

JLC

For my money, this is the best under-the-radar winery in Washington. Every wine coming out of Spofford Station (the estate vineyards) the last few years seems to be outstanding, and the Syrahs are especially mind-boggling. The 2005 Syrah Spofford Station was recently released and was the highlight of the tasting for me. Smelling this wine is like walking into a diner at 9 AM on a Saturday; just waves of breakfast meats rolling out of the glass. At $32, this is very good quality-price-ratio territory.

Tamarack Cellars

After loving their 2006 DuBrul Vineyard Reserve at Taste Washington, I was intrigued to visit this winery, and I wasn’t disappointed. They were pouring an impressive lineup of wines, with the 2006 Merlot (pure, focused red fruit; $28), 2005 Syrah (peppered bacon, dark fruit; $28), and the DuBrul Reserve (the dark lord; black fruit and smoke; $50) as the standouts.

K Vintners

Charles Smith was alternately pouring and prepping for a visit from Jay Miller of Wine Advocate. The heavy hitters from this lineup were the 2007 The Boy Grenache (tons of earth and red fruit; $45), 2006 Guido (80% Sangiovese, 20% Syrah; massively tannic; needs time, but fascinating enough right now; $40), and 2007 Syrah Pheasant Vineyard ($35).

The Pheasant Syrah was a real show-stopper: an incredibly generous wine, with waves of blue and purple fruit. Pheasant Vineyard is one of the Wahluke Slope sites farmed by the Milbrandt brothers, and the quality of the fruit blew me away completely. This is actually one of K’s cheaper Syrahs, and I highly recommend it.

I’m about to head to eastern Washington for a Kelli-birthday road-trip. It will mostly be a hiking trip, but we will be spending a few precious hours in Walla Walla. My order of priority right now is 1) JLC (what the hell is going on with this winery? have they released the 2005 Syrah Spofford Station yet?); 2) Trust/Rollat tasting room; 3) Waters; 4) Gramercy. Time permitting, I have K, Buty, and Sleight of Hand on the radar as well.

Anyone want to advocate for additions/replacements to this list?

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

Rating: 3

Loads of cherry licorice on the nose, and those aromas carried through on a fairly linear palate. A variety of brown spices and slight green notes also appeared on the palate: cumin, nutmeg, coriander. This was a palate-expander that is definitely worth trying, but I found it to be a little flat, and a little one-note.

Cinsault is a grape best known for its use as a blending varietal, especially in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in south-central France. Browsing CellarTracker, it looks like maybe 15-20 producers in the US and another 15-20 in France have tried bottling this grape varietally. I can see the attraction as a blender, because it would put some of those licorice and spice notes into the background instead of in the foreground.

Morrison Lane is a Walla Walla winery (and vineyard) that seems to have a soft-spot for grapes that are a bit on the fringes in Washington, including Roussanne, Nebbiolo, Carmenère, Cinsault, Counoise, Dolcetto, and Sangiovese. If you’re a bit bored with Cabs, Merlots, and Chardonnays, Morrison Lane would be a good place to check out!