Wine Peeps

It all began on April 8th of this year; a road trip through 23 states covering 12,360 miles. Since then, I’ve posted 16 times from the road as we visited almost too many wineries to count in search of that next great bottle. Obviously, I hope that you have read all of my posts from the road and that they have helped you find some new wines to try. But in case you haven’t read all of them yet, you will find links at the end of this post.

Along the way, we made some discoveries I’d like to recap.

Best new type of wine for us:
Port. We found good Ports in California, New Mexico, Texas, Missouri, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, but our favorite was the NV Mount Pleasant Tawny Library Port from Missouri of all places.

Most promising of the newer wine states:
Texas, Kentucky, Missouri, Colorado, and Idaho.

Best of the wine regions we were visiting for the first time:
Central Coast of California and Lake Chelan County in Washington State.

Top Winery Discoveries (wineries we didn’t know before this trip):
Lincourt Vineyards—Solvang, CA
Mount Pleasant Winery—Augusta, MO
Watermill Winery—Milton-Freewater, OR
Stephenson Cellars—Walla Walla, WA

Honorable Mention Winery Discoveries (wineries we didn’t know before this trip):
Siduri/Novy Wines—Santa Rosa, CA
Andrew Murray Vineyards—Los Olivos, CA
Williamson Vineyard—Caldwell, ID
Nefarious Cellars—Chelan, WA

I hope you have enjoyed traveling with us by reading our posts during our road trip. If you are curious about any of the sights we saw in addition to our wine stops, leave a comment and I would be happy to share those highlights with you as well.

Previous Road Trip posts:
Sonoma and Napa (April 14)
Central Coast, California (April 18)
Arizona (April 25)
New Mexico (May 2)
Texas (May 9)
Tennessee and Kentucky (May 16)
Mid-America (May 23)
Ballpark Wine (May 30)
South Dakota (June 6)
Colorado (June 13)
Idaho (June 20)
Eastern Oregon (June 27)
Walla Walla, Day 1 (July 4)
Walla Walla, Day 2 (July 11)
Spokane (July 18)
Chelan (July 25)

As we continued our cross-country road trip, we visited three Idaho wineries, one in Glenns Ferry and two in Caldwell, Idaho. They all produce their wines exclusively with Idaho grapes, and we found some pretty good wines at each stop. Our first stop was at Carmela Vineyards, in business since 1988. They produce about 10,000 cases a year, almost all sold in Idaho although they will ship out-of-state. Our favorite wine at Carmela was their 2004 Carmela Reserve Merlot.

Our next stop was at Ste. Chapelle Winery, Idaho’s oldest and largest winery, a part of the mammoth Constellation Group when we visited but was purchased last week by Ascentia Wine Estates. Out of the five wines we tasted at Ste. Chapelle, our favorites were the 2004 Ste. Chapelle Winemaker Syrah and the 2004 Ste. Chapelle Ice Wine Sauvignon Blanc.

Our third stop was at Williamson Vineyards, where a fourth generation Williamson, Beverly, was our knowledgeable tasting room hostess. The Williamsons have been in the fruit growing business for generations and remain a large producer today but have only been growing grapes, mainly as a diversification measure, since the 1990’s. They are contract growers for some of Idaho’s best known wineries as well as produce an increasing amount of grapes for their own winery operation. We also had the opportunity to meet and visit with Beverly’s father, Roger, who is the winemaker for Williamson Vineyards. While we would not hesitate to recommend any of the five wines we tasted at Williamson, our favorites were the 2005 Williamson Syrah and the NV Williamson Doce Dessert Wine (Ruby style Port). I believe that Williamson is an up-and-coming winery that merits watching. I’d like to come back in five years and see the progress that they have made.

Note: A few days after these visits, we also visited another Idaho winery, Camas Prairie Winery in Moscow, Idaho, but we did not taste any wines. When we entered the tasting room, the owner was serving some other folks so we didn’t expect instantaneous service. But when he finished their tasting, he said he was going to pass them off to the checkout clerks, implying that he would then serve us. However, instead he went over to the checkout with them and continued to visit, totally ignoring us. But the straw that broke the camel’s back for us was when another employee came in, and instead of spelling him at the checkout desk or serving us, she waited on another customer who had come in after us. When that happened, we left. There are too many other wineries with good wine and good service to put up with that. I could not recommend Camas Prairie Winery to anyone.

Here’s a breakdown of the Idaho wines that we tasted. Under each Quality heading, the wine name will be listed along with price and QPR rating. Wines in bold type received a QPR rating of 5 bangs for your buck (out of 5).

Quality: 4 stars (out of 5)
2004 Carmela Reserve Merlot, $25, QPR: 5
2004 Ste. Chapelle Winemaker Syrah, $11, QPR: 5
2004 Ste. Chapelle Ice Wine Sauvignon Blanc, $20, QPR: 5
2005 Williamson Syrah, $18, QPR: 5
NV Williamson Doce Dessert Wine (Ruby style Port), $25, QPR: 5

Quality: 3.5 stars (out of 5)
2004 Williamson Cabernet Sauvignon, $25, QPR: 5
2006 Williamson Late Harvest Viognier, $22, QPR: 5
2004 Carmela Red Meritage, $17, QPR: 4
2006 Williamson Viognier, $15, QPR: 3

Quality: 3 stars (out of 5)
NV Carmela Cabernet Merlot, $10, QPR: 5
2005 Ste. Chapelle Winemaker Cabernet Sauvignon, $11, QPR: 5
2001-02 Carmela Merlot, $17, QPR: 4
2000 Carmela Cabernet Franc, $17, QPR: 4

Quality: 2.5 stars (out of 5)
2003 Carmela Cabernet Sauvignon, $17, QPR: NR
2006 Ste. Chapelle Winemaker Merlot, $11, QPR: NR

Quality: 2 stars (out of 5)
2003 Carmela Pinot Noir, $17, QPR: NR
2006 Carmela Semillon, $13, QPR: NR
2006 Ste. Chapelle Sauvignon Blanc, $9, QPR: NR

Have you ever had Idaho wine? If so, how did you like it? What was your favorite?

This event, held last weekend at the Dempsey Indoor on the University of Washington campus, brought together two of my favorite things, Huskies and wine. As a graduate of the University of Washington, I am a tried and true Husky fan. In fact one of my favorite pastimes is attending UW sporting events with my family. So an event that features wine and supports the Huskies is right up my alley. In its third year, Toast to the Northwest featured about 40 wineries or wine companies (distributors, importers, etc), food vendors, and even a few breweries that are all located in the Pacific Northwest. The proceeds from this event benefit the University of Washington’s Husky Marching Band. As you might expect, there was also fabulous live music.

As with any event like this, it is impossible to taste all of the wines offered. So Colby and I chose to visit the booths for wineries whose wines we had not previously tasted or had not tasted in a long time. We made a few discoveries and look forward to picking up some bottles and adding them to our blind-tasting lineup to see how they stack up against some of our proven favorites.

Our most exciting discovery of the day was Chandler Reach Vineyards. I had not previously tasted (nor even heard of) their wines. We tasted the two red wines they were offering, the 2005 Corella (72% Sangiovese, 23% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Syrah) and the 2005 Monte Regalo (63% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc, 5% Syrah), and loved them both. Chandler Reach is located in Benton City, Washington, along the Yakima River. Inspired to start his own winery during a trip to Italy, owner Len Parris set his sights on “bringing Tuscany to Washington.” Founded in 1997, Chandler Reach’s winemaking focus is on Italian-style wines and their tasting room resembles a Tuscan villa.

In order to keep these notes from being unwieldy as we tasted 20 different wines, I have broken down the list into Quality rating categories. Under each Quality heading, the wine name will be listed along with appellation/region, price and QPR rating. Wines in bold type received a QPR rating of 5 bangs for your buck (out of 5).

Quality: 4 stars (out of 5)
2005 Chandler Reach Corella, Yakima Valley, $16.35, QPR: 5
2005 Chandler Reach Monte Regalo, Yakima Valley, $20, QPR: 5

Quality: 3.5 stars (out of 5)
2005 Patit Creek Cabernet Sauvignon, Walla Walla Valley, $29, QPR: 5
2005 Saint Laurent Estate Syrah, Wahluke Slope, $22, QPR: 4
2006 Alamos Seleccione Malbec, Mendoza, Argentina, $14, QPR: 4

Quality: 3 stars (out of 5)
2007 Tilia Malbec-Syrah, Mendoza, Argentina, $9.50, QPR: 5
2003 Kiona Cabernet-Merlot, Washington State, $11.99, QPR: 5
2005 Sawtooth Viognier, Idaho, $8.49, QPR: 4
2005 Waterbrook Melange, Columbia Valley, $15, QPR: 4
2005 Zerba Walla Walla Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, Walla Walla Valley, $30, QPR: 4
2006 Maryhill Viognier, Columbia Valley, $14.99, QPR: 3
2005 Glen Fiona Walla Walla Syrah, Walla Walla Valley, $19.99, QPR: 3
2002 Kiona Red Mountain Estate Cabernet, Red Mountain, $35, QPR: 3

Quality: 2.5 stars (out of 5)
2004 Sawtooth Syrah, Idaho, $12.99, QPR: NR
2006 Waterbrook Reserve Syrah, Columbia Valley, $22, QPR: NR
2005 Zerba Columbia Valley Syrah, Columbia Valley, $28, QPR: NR
2002 Glen Fiona Cabernet, Columbia Valley, $29.99, QPR: NR
2002 Terra Blanca Block 8 Syrah, Red Mountain, $40, QPR: NR

Quality: 2 stars (out of 5)
NV Kestrel Lady in Red, Columbia Valley, $15, QPR: NR
2002 Terra Blanca Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Red Mountain, $35, QPR: NR