Firesteed 2006 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir

The Winery: Firesteed
The Wine: 2006 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir
The Price: $22.99 at Safeway

Firesteed is an Oregon winery that has been producing wine since 1992. It appears that 2006 was the last year they made the Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, but they are currently producing their Oregon Pinot Noir. If it's not abundantly obvious, the Willamette Valley Pinot Noir is made from grapes from Oregon's Willamette Valley. The Oregon Pinot Noir is made from grapes from throughout Oregon, including the Willamette, Umpqua, Rogue and Walla Walla valleys.

The wine bottle was stopped with a natural cork and decanted 45 minutes before sampling.

The wine is dark purple in color with a brown cast to it.  It has aromas of blackberries, blueberries, cassis and vanilla.

This is a pretty disappointing Pinot Noir.  The flavor is harsh, with a strong alcohol flavor.  Buried underneath the alcohol flavor lingers flavors of blackberry and cherry.  But you really have to search long and hard to find those flavors.  I'd really expect a 4 year old wine to have been far less harsh than this.

Skip this one. Blech.

Ferrari-Carano 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon

The Winery:  Ferrari-Carano
The Wine:  2007 Cabernet Sauvignon
The Price:  $18.99 at QFC (marked down from $34.99)

Ferrari-Carano is a California winery.  The Cabernet Sauvignon is from grapes grown in the Alexander Valley.  The wine is a blend of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 14% Syrah and 11% Petit Verdot.

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

The wine is very deep red in color and has aromas of cassis, black cherry and vanilla.   The aromas are very deep and rich; very pronounced an velvety.

The wine has extremely smooth flavors of black cherry and cassis, with a subtle hint of licorice.  This is an absolutely fabulous Cabernet Sauvignon.  I highly recommend this one!  It is nothing short of fantastic!

Sokol Blosser 2009 Willamette Valley Müller-Thurgau

The Winery:  Sokol Blosser
The Wine:  2009 Willamette Valley Müller-Thurgau
The Price:  $22 on their website

I would venture to guess that many of you have never heard of, let alone sampled, Müller-Thurgau (pronounced MYOO-ler TOOR-gow).  Having lived most of my life in Oregon, I am quite familiar with it.  Müller-Thurgau grapes are generally used in low-end German wines, such as Liebfraumilch.  But there are a handful of vineyards in Oregon that grow the grapes, and make a pretty good wine.  In the dozen years that I've lived in Seattle, I've never seen a bottle of Müller-Thurgau in a store, so it is apparently not widely exported. 

I was surprised when I saw Sokol Blosser was offering Müller-Thurgau, so I asked them about it.  They told me that they only make it in years that the grapes are extraordinarily good, which was the case in 2009.  They produced 300 cases of the Müller-Thurgau in 2009.

The wine bottle was sealed with a natural cork.  One thing that I appreciate about Sokol Blosser is that they don't put wrapper over the cork.  They just put a circular label on top of the cork itself.  It makes for easy opening and less waste.

The wine is a very pale straw color.  It has aromas of peach, pineapple and melon.

This is far and away the best Müller-Thurgau I have ever tasted!  It has flavors of peach, pear and a honey.  It is deliciously bright and refreshing.  It's sweet without being too sweet.  I highly recommend trying this one!  



 

Concannon 2007 Petite Syrah

The Winery:  Concannon
The Wine:  Conservancy 2007 Petite Sirah
The Price:  $9.99 at Safeway

Concannon is a California winery, located on the central coast in Livermore.  The winery was built in 1883, so they've been at this a long time.  They claim that they were the first California winery to bottle Petite Sirah, more than 40 years ago.

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

The wine is deep purple in color.  The aroma is fairly subdued.  The predominant aroma is cherry, with hints of vanilla and leather.

The wine has flavors of cherry, blackberry and vanilla.  It's smooth and well balanced, but a bit lacking in flavor.  This wine reminds me a lot of the Chariot Gypsy that I previously reviewed, and is twice the cost.  My recommendation is to skip the Concannon and go for the Chariot.  

Sagelands 2007 Malbec

The Winery:  Sagelands Vineyard
The Wine:  2007 Malbec
The Price:  $16.99 at Safeway

Sagelands is a Washington winery, located near Walla Walla, in southeastern Washington.  The grapes from this wine are 100% Malbec, all sourced from the Wahluke Slope AVA. The bottle was stopped with a natural cork, and decanted an hour before tasting.

The wine is dark purple in color, and has aromas of blackberries and blueberries.  It is a bold, smooth wine with jammy boysenberry flavor and a pepper finish.  This is great representation of a Washington Malbec, and definitely worth .  

Snoqualmie 2007 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon

The Winery:  Snoqualmie Vineyards
The Wine:  2007 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
The Price:  $18.00 at Safeway

Snoqualmie is one of those wineries that is local to me, yet I've never gotten around to reviewing their wine.  I am surrounded by so many great vineyards that I could just focus on Washington wines and never run out of wines to review. 

The wine is made from 100% Cabernet Sauvignon grapes.  The bottle was stopped with a natural cork and decanted 45 minutes prior to tasting.

The wine is dark purple in color and has aromas of black cherry, cassis and chocolate.  It is a big, fruity wine anchored by a black cherry flavor, accented by undertones of strawberry, cocoa and vanilla.  It's a very smooth and balanced wine, with tons of flavor.

All in all, it's a very good wine.  It's absolutely a wine worth checking out. 

2008 Evodia

The Winery:  Altovinum
The Wine:  2008 Evodia
The Price:  $9.99 at QFC

This is another wine from the Eric Solomon selection.  Eric Solomon specializes in importing Grenaches.  The last Solomon import I reviewed was 85% Grenache, 15% Syrah.  The Evodia is 100% Grenache from vineyards planted as long as 100 years ago.  The wine is from Calatayud appellation of Spain.

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

The wine is dark purple in color and has aromas of blackberries, cherries and cassis.  It is a very flavorful wine, bursting with blackberry and cherry flavors, with a bit of a vanilla undertone and a mildly peppery finish.

This is the second Eric Solomon wine I've tasted, and I must say that he really seems to know how to pick winners!  I highly recommend this one!

Mark West 2008 Pinot Noir

The Winery:  Mark West
The Wine:  2008 Pinot Noir
The Price:  $8.99 at Safeway

When I saw this ridiculously inexpensive California Pinot Noir at the store, I just knew I had to review it!  I just couldn't resist. 

Mark West is located in Sonoma County.  The only wine they make is Pinot Noir, which I think is a kind of cool approach - specializing in just one wine.  They age their wine for 8 months in French and Hungarian oak barrels before bottling.

Their website kind of sucks.  It uses unconventional navigation and most of the content is all on the home page.  It looks like it was designed by a graphic artist with no thought given to usability.  But enough about their website.  This is, after all, a wine review, not a website review.

The wine bottle was stopped with a natural cork, a nice touch on such a low-priced wine.  It was decanted an hour before tasting.

The wine is medium-dark red in color with a splash of brown.  It has aromas of strawberry, vanilla and cherry.

It has berry and cherry flavors, with a touch of pepper.  It's really a decent Pinot Noir, especially at this price point.  It isn't a velvety smooth Pinot, but it also isn't a watery, thin wine like I expect from a lower end Pinot.  I'm actually pleasantly surprised at how good this wine is.  I think I'll be stocking up on this one.   

Praxis 2008 Pinot Noir

The Winery:  Praxis
The Wine:  2008 Pinot Noir
The Price:  $20 at Jack Cellars

Praxis is a California winery, founded by Bill Arbios in 2000.  He started Praxis as to produce wines that are more affordable than those produced by his Arbios Cellars.

I am constantly on the lookout for a really good lower cost Pinot Noir, so when I saw this one I knew I had to try it.

The wine bottle was stopped with a natural cork, and decanted 30 minutes prior to tasting.

The wine is dark ruby in color and has aromas of cherry, plums and cassis.  It has flavors of cherry and blackberry.  It's a very fruity and bright wine.  It is absolutely the best $20 Pinot Noir I've ever tasted.  This one is definitely worth checking out.  It's very much a shining star in the field of $20 Pinot Noirs.   

Maryhill 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon

The Winery:  Maryhill
The Wine:  2005 Cabernet Sauvignon
The Price:  $14.99 at QFC

Maryhill is a Washington winery, located in the Columbia River Gorge, approximately 100 miles east of Portland.  The winery was established in 1999 on land adjacent to what was once planned to be a farming community.

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

The wine is dark red with a bit of a brown cast to it, and has aromas of plum, blackberry and cherry.  It has flavors of black cherry and dark chocolate.  The wine is very smooth and has a very balanced and thoroughly enjoyable blend of flavors.