Columbia Crest 2007 Grand Estates Cabernet Sauvignon

The Winery:  Columbia Crest
The Wine:  2007 Grand Estates Cabernet Sauvignon
The Price:  $8.99 (marked down from $12.99 at Safeway)

I think this is the first time I've reviewed two wines from the same winery in back-to-back reviews.  It wasn't my intent to do so, but the latest issue of Wine Spectator listed this wine as a Best Value selection, so I had to give it a try.  They rated it an 89 

This wine is a blend of 95% Cabernet Sauvignon, with the remainder a combination of Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Syrah.  The bottle was sealed with a natural cork, and the wine was decanted 30 minutes before tasting.


The wine is very dark red in color.  It has aromas of cherry, currant, blackberry and chocolate.  It is a fruity wine, with a velvety blackberry flavor underscored by a chocolate finish.  This is an exceptionally good wine at this price point.  It would stand up well against many wines at twice (or more) the cost.  This is a wine that is very much worth stocking up on. 

Columbia Crest 2007 Horse Heaven Hills Cabernet Sauvignon

The Winery:  Columbia Crest
The Wine:  2007 Horse Heaven Hills Cabernet Sauvignon
The Price: $11.69 at Safeway (marked down from $16.49)

This wine is the second that I've reviewed from Columbia Crest's Horse Heaven Hills (H3) line.  In addition to the Cabernet Sauvignon, they make Chardonnay, which I have reviewed, and a Merlot, which I have not.  Columbia Crest has been growing grapes in Horse Heaven Hills for over 20 years.  Horse Heaven Hills was officially recognized as an AVA in 2005.  

This wine is a blend of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc.  The bottle was stopped with a natural cork, and decanted an hour prior to tasting.

The wine is a very deep purple in color.  It has aromas of blackberry and cherry.  The wine has a pronounced berry flavor with just a bit of a spicy bite.  It's a very velvety smooth wine.  I highly recommend giving this one a try.  It's well worth the price.    

The Other Guys 2008 Hey Mambo Sultry Red

The Winery:  The Other Guys
The Wine:  2008 Hey Mambo Sultry Red
The Price:  $10.99 at Safeway (marked down from $15.49).

I don't normally do this, but I purchased the wine for this review based on the label.  I know, I'm a sucker.  But I liked the simplicity of the label and the fun spirit that it embodies.

I like the attitude that the winery displays on both their website and their bottle.  They seem like a fun-loving and spirited group.  The kind of people I could see hanging out with.

The wine is a blend of Syrah, Barbera, Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, Malbec, and Alicante Bouchet grapes.  The bottle was stopped with a natural cork, and decanted 30 minutes before tasting.

The wine is a deep ruby color.  It has aromas of cherry, blackberry and tobacco.  It has flavors of cherry and cranberry with a pepper finish.  It's a very good, very fun wine.  I'd definitely recommend giving this one a try.

Alandra Red Wine

The Winery:  Alandra

The Wine:  Red Wine
The Price:  $6.99 at QFC (marked down from $7.99)

Alandra is located in Portugal.  Portugal is well known for Port and Madeira, and less so for it's red wines and Vinho Verde.    I have been unable to find any information regarding the grapes that are used in this wine.  The winery is located in Portual's Alentejo region, which mostly grows Syrah and Alicante Bouschet, so I would presume that one or both of those grapes are in this wine. Beyond that I have no idea. 

The bottle was stopped with a natural cork and decanted an hour before tasting.

The wine actually had a small grape leaf in the bottle.  I've never encountered that before.  It surprised me to see it because it seems like the leaf should have been filtered out at some point during the production or bottling process.

The wine is medium-dark red in color.  It has aromas of berry, black olive and bell pepper.  It has flavors of raspberry and cherry and mild spices.  For the price it's a pretty good wine.  The flavors are not bold or very pronounced, so I think most people will find it drinkable.  It's kind of an everyday wine at an everyday price.    

Brian Carter Cellars 2005 L'Etalon

The Winery:  Brian Carter Cellars
The Wine:  2005 L'Etalon
The Price:  $19.89 at Costco (a screaming deal - it sells for $17/half-bottle on their website!)

L'Etalon is French for The Stallion.  They've mysteriously renamed the wine L'Cousier, French for The Steed (I'm curious about the renaming - was it a prompted by a scandal ala Andersen Consulting becoming Accenture, was it a legal battle, or simply the whims of a winemaker?).  Back to the wine.  It's a Bordeaux style wine, blended from 55% Merlot, 28% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc and 7% Malbec. 

The wine was stopped with a natural cork, and decanted an hour before sampling.  The wine is a very deep burgundy in color.  It has aromas of blackberry, cherry and cedar.

The wine has a very velvety-smooth feeling to it.  It has a melt-in-your-mouth lusciousness.  It has flavors of berry, cherry and chocolate.  With Valentine's Day just around the corner, this would be a great choice for snuggling on the couch with that special someone, while enjoying some great dark chocolate.     

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!