2004 Forgeron Cabernet Sauvignon Champoux Vineyard Horse Heaven Hills

Happy springtime!  It's the first Saturday of May, which means it's Cellar Saturday, and on top of that it's an absolutely beautiful day here, sunny and in the mid-70s so what more could you want other than a nice mature glass of wine?  Tonight's selection is a lovely 2004 Forgeron Cabernet Sauvignon from the Champoux Vineyard in the Horse Heaven Hills AVA of Washington State.  This is a bottle I picked up a few years ago in a three-year vertical, this being the youngest with a limited production of just 175 cases.

The wine is a beautiful deep purple color in the glass, leading to a bright garnet along the edges with nice clarity.  The nose is quite interesting, with some jammy fruit notes, strawberry, blackberry and prune, overlaying some lovely floral notes of violet and sandalwood.  The taste is just delightful, with some cherry cola and blackberry notes up front leading to some earthy notes of dusty limestone and smoke midpalate.  The tannins are very well integrated making for a velvelty mouthfeel and a long, smooth, captivating finish.

Overall, I would rate this wine a solid 9, it's marvelous right now and showing the full potential of a great Washington Cabernet, and although I don't recall what I paid for it, Forgeron in general offers some of the best values of all the producers in the Columbia Valley.  Tonight I am enjoying this wine with a classic spaghetti dinner, but it would go well with a nice steak or a hearty beef stew, or just sipping on the patio with some firm cheeses.  Cheers!

2009 Powers Champoux Vineyard Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon

Well, it's been a long and arduous couple of weeks, so tonight I've decided to relax a bit.  You see, I just got back from vacation in Europe, and on that trip it seems I had a small stroke.  Nothing to be too concerned about, as I'm not paralyzed or anything like that.  It seems it was about 1 cm deep in the brain near the area that controls motor function on my right side, so the main symptom was waking up in the morning and not being able to control my right arm or leg.  So being a stupid guy, I just assumed I slept on them awkwardly, and that it was most likely due to the rather hard bed at the hotel where I was staying.  It wasn't until I arrived at another hotel in another city that I realized there was more to this.  So after a few days in the hospital in Zurich, I arrived home, thankful that I wasn't in the cargo hold on the flight back!

So what does this have to do with wine?  Well, first wine is about enjoying life, and it's impossible to enjoy life if you're not among the living.  So whoever you are, if you are in your 30s or 40s and still have this idea that you're invincible, stop kidding yourself.  If you notice strange happenings when you wake up or anytime, don't just hope it will go away, and don't make excuses for what it could be, just get checked out by a medical professional!  I was very lucky that I got past my stupidity.  The second thing this has to do with wine is that I will see my American doctors tomorrow and they may tell me I can no longer drink wine (let's hope not!) or that I may have to cut back on wine or some other thing, leading to a reduced number of posts on my blog.  We'll take that news as it comes, but until then, I've enjoyed a nice 2009 Powers Champoux Vineyard Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon this evening!

This wine has a lovely deep, inky purple color in the glass.  The nose is a lovely combination of leather, cherry, ripe plum and a bit of floral essence.  The taste is very pleasant throughout, from the initial burst of ripe berries and plum, to the smoke and mineral flavors that come through midpalate.  This finish is quite nice, with some nicely structured tannins and supple mouthfeel that provide the foundation for a long, exceptionally dry finish.  This is the type of wine that you are really happy to spend time with, sipping on the patio on a late summer afternoon, hoping the sun will never slip down beyond the trees.

Overall, I would rate this one a solid 8.5 as I really like this one, and it was a fairly decent value as well at under $20.  Tonight I am pairing this with a pan seared Scottish salmon filet with a lemon dill sour cream sauce (this was a Tyler Florence recipe on Foodnetwork.com that I highly recommend), some linguine with garlic and some steamed broccoli.  So we'll see what the doctor says tomorrow, but until then enjoy a nice dinner and a glass of wine!

2009 Soos Creek Champoux Vineyard Red Wine

Tonight I am enjoying a wine I received in the recent Snooth "Secret Santa" exchange, and what a delight, a new Washington red wine from a producer that I am not familiar with!  Now apparently Soos Creek is a family-owned winery that sources its wine grapes from the Champoux Vineyard in the Horse Heaven Hills AVA in Washington's Columbia Valley.  And of course Champoux Vineyard is well known for its outstanding Cabernet Sauvignon among others, and it's always a treat to have a bottle of wine made with such fine fruit.  This particular wine is a blend of 92% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8% Cabernet Franc, which were sourced from blocks of mostly older vines.

The wine itself is an inky purple color in the glass (so far so good!) just as you'd expect from a fine Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.  The nose is a lovely combination of leather, tobacco, and a wonderful combination of sweet fruits, cherries, blackberries that just seem to play around the edges.  Surprisingly, this is not a particularly fruit forward wine, instead I experienced a rush of floral notes at the outset, which was then followed by some very subdued flavors of ripe berries.  The finish was quite nice, with some earthy notes accented by some cedar and a hint of anise, as the rather young tannins made for a bit of tightness that might open up with a bit of time. 

This was really a wonderful example of a great Washington wine and overall I would rate this a solid 8.5!  It's always fun to try a new and undiscovered wine, and this "secret Santa" was a perfect opportunity to try something completely new.  And tonight I am enjoying this big, bold red with an unexpected meal of pan seared sea scallops, couscous and steamed broccoli (yeah, sometimes I get in weird cooking moods), as I find the floral notes and modest fruit play well against the richness of the sea scallops.  Salut!