Wine Tasting/Tweetup at Northwest Totem Cellars

Tonight I had the pleasure of attending a tasting at Northwest Totem Cellars.  This was a tweetup arranged by Barbara, known on Twitter as @SeattleWineGal.  For those unfamiliar with "tweetups", a tweetup is a gathering of Twitter users.

I've been intending to get to Northwest Totem ever since I first learned of them, about two years ago.  But they're in my own backyard, so I just haven't gotten around to it.  Thanks to Barbara, that has been corrected.  I first learned of Northwest Totem Cellars when I was researching wineries that use glass stoppers (I know of two versions of the glass stoppers - Vino Lok and Vino-Seal).  I've been saving my glass stoppers (trying to find the perfect reuse for them). You can also, I've been told, toss them in your recycle bin. Or brink them back to Northwest Totem Cellars and they will sterilize them and reuse them. Regardless of how you choose to recycle them, rest assured that they are eco-friendly. 

We started the evening with a barrel tasting.  First we sampled a Grenache.  At this stage the wine was very fruity and quite delicious.  After the Grenache, we moved on to Tempranillo.  Both wines were very good and show great potential.  The winemaker, Mike Sharadin (who I briefly renamed John...oops), talked about the winemaking process.  In the photo, below, he was discussing methods that winemakers use to impart more oak flavor to wine.  As it turns out, wine barrels are quite expensive (around $1200) and the oak flavor quickly dissipates.  So extending the usability of the barrels is a very worthwhile endeavor.  Beyond the financial benefit to the winemaker, it is also an environmentally good thing to do.

 

After the barrel tasting, we moved into the kitchen to sample the offerings from the winery.  In addition to the wine, Mike's wife, Kate, put together an amazing spread of vegan food for us to enjoy with the wine.  

I won't do a full review of the wines we sampled.  When I review wine I am pretty regimented in my process (a side effect of my career, which relies heavily upon rigorous processes), so in fairness to all parties, I make every attempt to keep my reviews on an even playing field.  That said, I thoroughly enjoyed every wine he served.  They were all very good, and I would proudly serve them to guests in my home.  Now that I know how good these wines are, I will be stopping in and buying some of them to review (and some for my personal collection).  My personal favorite of the night was the 2006 Low Man Bordeaux blend, closely followed by the 2007 Cab Franc. Both of the dessert wines (2008 Salish and 2007 Late Harvest Viognier) were heavenly. 

Besides the great wine, it was very nice to meet @SeattleWineGal, @Shona425, @winebeerWA, @WriteforWine, @DivaTink, @WABrokers.  And of course, our gracious host Mike (@NWTotemCellars). 

Nashwauk 2006 Tempranillo

The Winery:  Nashwauk
The Wine:  2006 Tempranillo
The Price:  $20 at Jack Cellars

Nashwauk is an Australian winery, located near Adelaide, the capital of South Australia.  Nashwauk was founded by Kaesler wines, who makes a variety of other interesting looking wines.  

The bottle was stopped with a natural cork, and the wine was decanted 45 minutes prior to tasting.

The wine is very deep purple in color.  It has aromas of cherries, blackberries and leather.  It has a big, fruity cherry flavor with a spicy undertone.  There is enough flavor that the wine would stand up well with a spicy meal, yet the spicy flavor is not so pronounced as to overwhelm the fruit flavor. 

This is a really great wine!  I'd say it's easily my favorite of the Australian wines I've sampled. 

Torii Mor 2007 Pinot Noir

The Winery:  Torii Mor
The Wine:  2007 Pinot Noir
The Price:  $19.99 at Metropolitan Market (marked down from $29.99).

There are a few reasons that I decided to review this wine.  First, it's the first time I've seen Torii Mor for sale in Washington.  Second, I visited the Torii Mor tasting room about two years ago, and was pretty disappointed.  I was pretty harsh on my review of their tasting room, and I thought they were due a wine review.  The third reason that I wanted to review this wine is that they recently started following me on Twitter, so they were at the fore of my mind. 

The wine was stopped with a natural cork, always a plus in my book.  It was decanted an hour before tasting.

The wine is deep red in color, and has aromas of cherry, tobacco, mint and moss.  The wine has flavors of cherry and oak, with a very subtle pepper finish.  It's a fairly good Pinot Noir.  But I am much more enthusiastic about it at $20 than I would be at $30.  I think it's a bit thin and missing a the depth of flavor to compete in the $30 price range.  That said, I think that this wine compares quite favorably against the $30 Pinot Noirs I've sampled from California. 

This wine is far better than I recall the last wine I sampled from Torii Mor, so I'm glad that I was able to review it.  As I said in my write up of their tasting room, I really liked their Port a lot.  It's good to see that they're making strides with their Pinot Noir.  Oregon is the quintessential Pinot Noir producing state, so the bar is fairly high.  By comparison, I find this wine to be far superior to Cloud Line, and a couple of notches below Sokol Blosser.  Not a bad position to be in.  Given their improvements over the last two years, I can see them becoming one of the premier Oregon Pinot Noir producers in the near future.

Argyle 2007 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir

The Winery:  Argyle
The Wine:  2007 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir
The Price: $21.99 at Safeway

Argyle is one of the many wineries in Oregon's Willamette Valley.  Argyle was founded in 1987 by Rollin Soles.  Argyle specializes in Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and sparkling wine. 

The wine was stopped with a screw cap and was decanted an hour before tasting.

The Willamette Valley Pinot Noir is red in color, and far less dark than I am accustomed to seeing in Pinot Noirs from Oregon. 

The wine has aromas of cherry, raspberry and pepper.  The wine has a bright, almost tart cherry flavor, blended with berry.  This is a good Pinot Noir.  It's not my personal favorite, but it's a good wine and priced appropriately in the mid-range of Pinot Noirs. 

Spellbound 2007 Petite Sirah

The Winery:  Spellbound
The Wine:  2007 Petite Sirah
The Price:  $10.99 at QFC (marked down from $15.99)

Spellbound is a partnership between Robert and Lydia Mondavi, Patti Romano and Geoff Whitman. The partners also own Medusa Wines.  Robert is the grandson of the Robert Mondavi who founded Robert Mondavi Wines, so he is no stranger to the industy.

The Spellbound Petite Sirah is made from 98% Petite Sirah and 2% "Other Red" grapes.  The bottle was stopped with a synthetic cork, and decanted an hour before tasting.

The wine is dark purple in color and has aromas of prune, blackberry, vanilla and pepper.  This is a big, bold, fruity wine with a mild pepper finish.  It has flavors of strawberry jam, raspberry and vanilla, with just that hint of pepper.  This is a pretty incredible Petite Sirah, espcially given the price.  I highly recommend this one!

Waterbrook 2007 Melange Noir

The Winery: Waterbrook
The Wine:  2007 Melange Noir
The Price:  $11.99 at QFC

Waterbrook Melange is a wine that I discovered several years ago, well before I started reviewing wine.  And well before I even had more than the barest of interest in wine.  I only discovered it at that time because of an article in the paper.  In my mind, it was an outrageously priced wine at around $10, but I gave it a shot anyway.  I haven't had it in ages, and I don't recall what it tasted like.  So when I saw it in the store, I thought I should review it.

The wine is a blend of 43% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Cabernet Franc, 13% Sangiovese and1% Tempranillo.  The bottle is stopped with a natural cork and the wine was decanted an hour before tasting.

The 2007 Melange is dark purple and has aromas of cedar, blackberry, prune and pepper.

The wine has flavors of blackberry, cherry and chocolate with a mild pepper finish.  This wine is very good.  The more I taste it, the more the flavor develops.  It is an interesting and fun wine.  This one will be in my rotation for sure!

Delille Cellars 2007 D2

The Winery:  Delille Cellars
The Wine:  2007 D2
The Price:  This wine was given to me by my friend, Elena (thanks, Elena!).  Delille sells this wine on their website for $35.

Delille is a local winery for me.  They're located in Woodinville, Washington.  They are an independent winery that has been making wine since 1992.

The D2 wine from Delille has an interesting story.  The wine is made from the same grapes that were selected for their premium Chaleur Estate wine, but is comprised of juices that did not quite have the qualities that they were looking for in their Chaleur Estate label.  This is a common practice in Bordeaux, although in Bordeaux, the second label typically utilizes the fruit from the vineyard's younger vines.  As an aside, by looking for the second label for a Château from Bordeaux, you can often find a very good wine at a great savings over the Château label.  

The D2 is a blend of 51% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7.5% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petite Verdot.  The wine was corked with a natural cork and decanted an hour before tasting.  It is very dark purple in color.

The D2 has aromas of black cherry, plum, blackberry and vanilla.  It has flavors of cherry, berry, chocolate and spice.  The spicy flavor is fairly prominent, so if you don't like a lot of spice in your wine, then this isn't one for you.  Personally, I like this wine very much.  The spicy flavor is a nice balance to the fruit flavors.  While it's very good now, this is a wine that would likely benefit from a few years of additional aging.   

San Greal 2007 Red Supper Wine

The Winery: San Greal
The Wine:  2007 Red Supper Wine
The Price:  $6.99 at Trader Joe's

San Greal takes their name from the French for Holy Grail.  The winery is located in California's Mendocino County, in the Russian River valley; the origin of many fine wines. 

The wine is a blend of 55% Syrah, 23% Merlot and 22% Sangiovese.  This is information that they left off the label, but I was able to find it on their website.  The wine is dark red in color.  The bottle was stopped with a screw cap, and the wine was decanted 45 minutes before tasting. 

The wine has aromas of blackberry, cherry and black pepper. 

The wine is fairly awful.  It has a very gritty mouth-feel.  It has a strong alcohol flavor, which overwhelms the flavor of the wine.  Once you get through the alcohol flavor, there are flavors of berries and spice. But the berry flavor is fairly tart and not at all appealing. 

They call this Red Supper Wine.  Last Supper is more like it.  Yuck!  As I said at the beginning, Mendocino's Russian River Valley is the origin of many fine wines. This, however, is not one of them.

La Marca Prosseco

The Winery:  La Marca
The Wine:  Prosseco
The Price:  $13.99 (marked down from $19.99)

As the holidays approach, I thought I would take time to review a few sparkling wines.  This is partly selfish - I like to serve sparkling white wine throughout the holiday season, so this is a great opportunity for me to sample some wines before serving them to others. 

La Marca is an Italian winery, thus it is a sparkling white, not a Champagne. The Prosseco wines are named for the grapes from which they are made.  They are generally less complex than Champagne.

The wine is a very pale straw color.  It has steady streams of bubbles bursting forth, creating a thin layer of froth on the surface of the wine.

The wine has aromas of apples, pears and peaches.  It has a very crisp apple flavor with a peach undertone.  It has a bit of a creamy feel to it.  It's a good wine, but not a great one. 

While I like this wine, and it is interesting, this one won't see my table this holiday season.  For the price of one bottle, I could pick up two bottles of more enjoyable local sparkling white wine. 

Saviah Cellars 2007 The Jack

The Winery:  Saviah Cellars
The Wine:  2007 The Jack
The Price:  $12.99 at QFC (marked down from $19.99)

Saviah Cellars is a family-owned winery in Washington's Walla Walla Valley.  They were founded in 2000, so will be celebrating their 10th anniversary next year.

The Jack is a blend of 86% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Cabernet Franc, 2% Syrah and 2% Petite Verdot.

The wine was stopped with a natural cork, and was decanted one hour before tasting. 

The Jack is very dark purple in color.  It has aromas of blackberries, cherries, vanilla and a slight hint of pepper. 

The wine is absolutely delicious.  It has a big berry flavor, with a subtle pepper finish.  While the wine would benefit from some further aging, it is very drinkable today and is a bargain at $12.99.

I must admit that I knew before sampling that I would like this wine.  That's because I recently had occasion to sample the wine and liked it quite a bit.  So I sought out a bottle that I could review.