2013 Cougar Crest Estate Walla Walla Cabernet Franc

Happy Easter!  I have to admit this has been such a strange time that my normal Easter dinner plans of ham and a banquet of comfort food has been tossed aside .  But at least we still have some wine, and tonight's is one that I recently ordered from Cougar Crest winery for a future wine club selection, the 2013 Cougar Crest Estate Walla Walla Cabernet Franc.  What better way to continue celebrating Walla Walla Valley Wine month with an underappreciated Bordeaux varietal, so let's see how this one tastes!

The wine is a bright ruby color in the glass, with great clarity, somewhat reminiscent of a Pinot Noir.  The nose presents aromas of red currant, pomegranate, lavender and a bit of strawberry, plenty of ripe red fruit to arouse your interest.  The taste is a rush of cherry, currant and red raspberry that transitions to some wonderfully earthy notes of tar and tobacco, with undertones of vanilla and caramel midpalate.  The tannins are well behaved and nicely integrated, providing for a long, dry finish.

Overall, I would rate this wine a solid 8, as it's just a pleasant drinking wine that would pair well with a broad range of hard to pair dishes, like Thai green curry, lighter fish dishes, or Indian food, which is what I'm pairing this wine with tonight, as I'm enjoying it with some chicken and vegetable Biryani over jasmine rice (I realized today I was out of basmati rice, so what else can you do during a pandemic?).  Cheers!

2017 Vacation to Walla Walla Wine Country - Day 2

You know there is certain truth the that saying about the best laid plans of mice and men...Today was my second day of a fabulous vacation in Walla Walla Wine Country, and although I had plans to visit several wineries, I ended up at only two, and of course that was just fine because it was the most awesome day anyway!  First I have to thank Jacque from Seven Hills who was so kind to lend me her car for the afternoon so I could head out to visit the wineries on the west side of town, it's just so amazing that the folks here in Walla Walla are so friendly and helpful!

The veggie hand rolls at Soi 71.

But first there was lunch!  There are many classic restaurants in town the I love to visit when I'm here, but then there are new ones, like Soi 71, a new Thai restaurant located next to another great restaurant, Saffron.  Had a lovely lunch of veggie hand rolls and Pad Kee Mao (which is the dish by which I judge all Thai restaurants) and it was delicious!

The beautiful tasting room at Cougar Crest Winery

Next I was on the road to the west side where I stopped at Cougar Crest to taste some wines (I am a big fan of their Dedication wine, as it's a great everyday wine for just $20!) and I also tried their "Syrillo" which was a blend of 50/50 Syrah and Tempranillo and it was very good.

The entrance at Reininger Winery

Next I was off to Reininger Winery, as I'm a big fan of their wonderful red wines, and I'm always impressed with the creativity of Chuck Reininger in combining different varietals and vintages to come up with some truly outstanding wines.  Over a nice charcuterie board, I had a very pleasant conversation with Chuck, as we share an appreciation for the wines of the Walla Walla Valley.

The painting the graces the label of "Mr. Owl's Red" as Chuck's kids had trouble
pronouncing winemaker Raul's name, so it came out "Mr. Owl"

So many other regions are known for particular varietals (think Napa Cabernet Sauvignon, Australian Shiraz, Lodi Zinfandel), but Walla Walla doesn't really have a signature varietal.  To me, this region is much more like Bordeaux, where different areas and varietals really exemplify the terroir, or sense of place where these wines were made.  This also makes the wines more subtle and nuanced, more of a thinking person's wine, not like some big bold wines that practically hit you in the face with a figurative 2x4.  These are the types of wines that you can sip on the patio for an entire afternoon and continually taste something new.

Cia and I in the barrel room, she was a wonderful host with an interesting background,
as she grew up in Walla Walla but then spent time teaching in Columbia.

Next it was off to the barrel room for some barrel tasting of some future wonderful wines.  I have to thank my hosts, Cia who hosted my entire afternoon, along with Dorian and Keith who were busy racking barrels.  For those unfamiliar with the process, as the wines are barrel aged, they are usually racked three times.  This is a process where the barrels are emptied and then the sediment is removed, after which the wine is returned to the barrel to continue aging.  The result is the removal of most of the sediment by the time the wine is ready to be bottled.

Dorian and Keith, Dorian is enthusiastic and great at walking me through what we
were tasting and really helping understand the reasons for how things come together.
Keith was a great young man who was working for the summer while attending college. 

The fun of barrel tasting is that you are literally tasting the future, and I must admit the future is looking very tasty at Reininger!  We had the chance to taste the third and fourth editions of CPR, a creation that exemplifies the creativity of Chuck Reininger.  The current, second edition CPR is a blend of seven varietals from five vineyards across vintages ranging from 2005 - 2012!  The third and fourth editions were quite delicious and I anxiously await their release.

Some wonderful future Reininger wines still growing up in the barrel!

In addition to CPR, we had the opportunity to taste the 2013 Cima (this should be another big winner), 2015 Malbec, 2016 Syrah and 2016 Cabernet Franc.  That last wine was interesting as it was fermented with skins of Viognier, which rally imparted a lovely floral note over the finish of the wine, again illustrating the creativity here and appreciation for old world techniques (think Cote Rotie, though this was done with Cabernet Franc instead of Syrah).  After this wonderful afternoon, I was back downtown to have a dinner of Moules Frites at Brasserie Four, always on my list of favorites when I visit Walla Walla.  Overall, it was a fantastic day, even though I didn't accomplish everything on my list!

2008 Cougar Crest Reserve Syrah

Here we are on a Sunday night after Labor Day, the first day of Autumn is rapidly approaching, so to celebrate the waning days of summer I decided to grill some brats and enjoy my Sunday dinner out on the patio, as I fear the days of outdoor dining may soon be at an end for this year.  And so go with the brats, I've opened a bottle of 2008 Cougar Crest Reserve Syrah which I recently bought from Wines Till Sold Out.  Cheers to them, but I've been a fan of Cougar Crest since I visited their tasting room back in 2010 (?) and I really liked the 2007 Reserve Syrah which you can see here.  But back to the here and now, this is a very nice wine that I think I like even better than the '07!

The wine is a deep inky purple color in the glass, with a bit of opacity.  The nose is lovely, with aromas of ripe fruit, plum, blackberries and cherry, with some hints of vanilla, clove and autumn spice.  The taste is just beautiful, with a blast of ripe fruit that easily transitions to some leather, green grass and white pepper notes midpalate.  The soft tannins provide for a supple mouthfeel and a velvety, smooth and absolutely dry finish that seems to last a minute or more.

Overall I would rate this wine a solid 8.5, as it's a great example of a Walla Walla Syrah and I found it for an absolute bargain price of just $20!  Of course tonight I'm enjoying this with some wine and cheese brats (ironic eh?) with some grilled peppers and onions, a perfect summer summer that pairs so well with this wine.  I wish summer could last a little longer, but even if it can't, I'll have a good reminder when the frost hits and I enjoy another bottle of this wine.  Cheers!

2007 Cougar Crest Reserve Syrah

Well it's Christmas Eve, time to wrap those last presents and hopefully enjoy a lovely dinner while watching a favorite Christmas movie, a perfect way to end the holiday rush. And with my special dinner I've opened a bottle of 2007 Cougar Crest Reserve Syrah!

The wine is a beautiful ruby color in the glass with great clarity. The nose is full of rich dark fruit, blackberries, plum and cherry over some rich leather and oak. The taste is a classic Walla Walla Syrah, with rich fruit up front, blackberry, ripe plum that transitions to some cherry cola, dark chocolate and mineral notes mid palate. The long, dry finish is supple and inviting, practically begging you to take another sip. 

Overall I would rate this wine a solid 8, as it's a great example of a solid Walla Walla Syrah at a spectacular value as I bought half a case from WTSO for only $20 a bottle!  Tonight I'm enjoying this wine with a Christmas Eve dinner of steamed lobster, grilled Brussels sprouts and a baked potato with butter and sour cream, a perfect end to the holiday rush! Salut!

2006 Walla Walla River Winery Syrah

Tonight is Walla Walla night, so I could think of no more appropriate wine to enjoy than the 2006 Walla Walla River Winery Syrah.  Now for a bit of background, Walla Walla River Winery is a second label from Cougar Crest, which I discovered on my Walla Walla adventure back in 2012, and also when I picked up this bottle (doesn't it show I have great discipline that I can hang on to a bottle for more than a year and never even think of opening it?).  But I digress.

Now for the wine, a beautiful ruby color in the glass, just as you would expect from a nice Syrah.  The nose is an interesting combination of ripe blackberry, tart cherry, smoke and some herb notes, perhaps it's a bit of tarragon that I'm picking up,  The taste is classic Walla Walla Syrah, with flavors of tart cherry, blackberry, leather and anise up front, which then transitions to some notes of dark chocolate, green grass and earthy basalt notes midpalate.  The finish is quite nice, with some well structured tannins that support a long, dry finish.  This wine is probably right about at its prime drinking right now, so I'm glad I opened this one!

Overall, I would rate this wine a solid 8, as I think it's a classic example of a Walla Walla Syrah, but that said it's probably not for everyone.  As for the appropriateness of this wine, tonight I am enjoying this one with a rare grilled Angus T-Bone, along with some home made beer batter onion rings made with Walla Walla Sweet Onions, hence it's Walla Walla day in my kitchen!  The wine just pairs so nicely with grilled steak, and provides a nice balance to the sweet onion rings, so delicious!

My Road Trip to Walla Walla Wine Country

So I just go back from my 2-week road trip driving cross country to visit my favorite wine region, Walla Walla! Now to be fair, I enjoyed wine on the way out and on the way back. I stopped in northwest Missouri to try some wines made from the Norton grape, which is the official grape of the state, as well as some wines in the Snake River Valley in Idaho, which is still an emerging wine region.

So back to Walla Walla, which was the point of this. It's been about 8 years since I last visited the valley, and more than a decade since my first visit in 2000 (I lived in Portland and then Seattle from 1999-2004). Back then, there were relatively few wineries, and Walla Walla was still a sleepy little region, but a good friend of mine from Santa Cruz who loved wine more than I do, convinced me to stop and pick up some wine on the way to visit her in Spokane. In fact, U.S. 12 was the main highway into town, and you would start at the western end at L'Ecole No. 41 and Woodward Canyon, then pass 3-Rivers and a couple others before the wine tour ended downtown at Seven Hills. The whole tasting tour could be done in an afternoon!

Today it seems like there are 150+ wineries, all over the city and surrounding areas, such that you could probably spend a week just to see a quarter of them! There is a new U.S. 12, which has been transformed into a 4-lane superhighway heading into downtown, but I felt a little bad for wineries like 3-Rivers, which was about 1/4 mile off the new highway and still on the old route 12. When I first visited, they had a nice new tasting room, and that was just left in the dust as progress rolled by them. In addition to so many new wineries, the other piece of good news was the addition of so many new restaurants to provide high quality food to enjoy with the wonderful wines (I had a lovely pan seared salmon salad at the Green Spoon, it was Copper River season!).

So, on my day of tasting (yes, unfortunately it was only a day since I was trying to cram so much into my 4,000 mile trip!) I started downtown at Seven Hills, which is probably my second favorite winery after L'Ecole. Enjoyed some of their Columbia Valley Merlot (it was surprisingly good), the Pentad and Ciel du Cheval, they were all quite wonderful, so I bought 5 or 6 bottles and asked for advice on where to go next (I got a new "wine guide" at the hotel, but since you have to pay to be in there, not all wineries are represented).

Based on their advice, I next went to visit Forgeron Cellars which has a tasting room downtown on 3rd street. The tasting room manager, Anne I think was her name, was such a wonderful host. We tasted through their current releases and I bought a bottle each of the wines that were only available in the tasting room, and of course I don't recall exactly which those were, I think it was the Petit Verdot and the Cab Franc, but I could easily be wrong! I also bought some other bottles, including a couple of the Walldeaux Smithie table wine, which was very nice!

Next stop was my favorite winery, L'Ecole No. 41. I've been in their wine club for quite some time and have ordered a bit of wine from them in the past. This was somewhat funny, since I had been communicating with them on Twitter that I was coming to visit on my wild road trip, and when I finally narrowed down the day to Tuesday, I let them know.

When I walked into the tasting room, of course no one recognized me, and how could they really being a nondescript internet wine buyer. So they asked me if I was familiar with their wines (of course) and we started through the basic tasting when I tweeted to them "I'm here!" and within 30 seconds Jaime came into the tasting room and introduced herself! We tasted a bunch and then she gave me a wonderful tour of the cellar and told me about some recent wonderful wines she'd opened, including a bottle of '99 Walla Walla Merlot.

So in line with my desire to get wines I could not get at home or online, I raided the library! I ended up with a bottle of the '99 Merlot, a couple bottles of the Ferguson blend from the 2004 vintage, a magnum of '01 Walla Walla Cabernet Sauvignon, and double magnum of the '09 Walla Walla Cabernet, which I think will turn out at least as good as the '08 which received such high ratings and quickly sold out. I also considered buying a 6-liter bottle, but where could I display such a work of vintner art? At any rate it was a lovely visit with some wonderful people and great wines!

My next stop was a walk across the parking lot to Woodward Canyon. They have a lovely tasting room in a farmhouse, and have produced wonderful wines under their Woodward Canyon and Nelm's Road labels. I tasted some wonderful Cabernets and ended up buying a couple bottles of their house red, a Nelm's Road Cabernet and a bottle of the latest "Artist Series" Cabernet.

The next stop was just up route 12 to Cougar Crest. I hadn't stopped so much based on a recommendation, but more for the name! Knowing some of the ladies I work with, and who are part of our office wine club, I could not resist stopping! The tasting room was quite nice, and they have a number of wonderful reds I tasted under their two labels, Cougar Crest and Walla Walla River Estate. I ended up with a couple bottles of their "Dedication Five" red wine, which is produced in honor of the doctors and nurses at the Doernbecher Children's Hospital in Portland, who saved the winemaker's daughter back in 2005. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the wine are donated to the hospital, which I view as a wonderful gesture.

The last stop on my wine tour was to Reininger, which was a little further along on route 12. I walked in and there was a full house! Apparently a group of about 10 friends were doing a tasting tour and we crossed paths in the tasting room at Reininger. Like many other wineries, they have two labels as well, the Reininger label and the Helix Label. I tried about all of their reds, it seemed like at least a dozen! I ended up buying a few bottles, including "Mr. Owl's Red" (named fir their winemaker Raul, who apparently the owners' children had trouble pronouncing when they were small, so they called him Mr. Owl) and a Helix Sangiovese which was delightful!

Alas, the wine tasting done, I raced back across the border to Pendleton to buy a few blankets before they closed (my old blanket bought there in 1991 is really starting to wear out!). Then it was off to Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks before heading back east across Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana and home to Michigan. It was a super fun trip that I would do again in a heartbeat, so for those of you who live in the Northwest, you should appreciate the Walla Walla Valley even more!