Rhone Rangers in Seattle
The Rhone Rangers—Advancing the knowledge & enjoyment of Rhone grapes grown in America and of the wines produced from those grapes.
Last Tuesday, Dad (John) and I attended the Rhone Rangers Trade/Media Tasting in Seattle. The Rhone Rangers are a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting American Rhone varietal wines. To be members, wineries must produce wines from one or more of the 22 varietals that are native to the Rhone Valley in France. Rhone Ranger member wineries from Washington, Oregon, and California participated in this tasting.
Since it would have been impossible to taste all the wines that were being poured, we chose to focus on one varietal, Syrah. We
tasted a total of 45 wines, 44 Syrahs and one Syrah blend. We gave a 4 star rating to seven wines. We especially liked the 2006 Cline Los Carneros Estate Syrah and the 2006 Cass “Rockin’ One” Red Blend. We look forward to picking up some of these and adding them to our blind-tasting lineup to see how they stack up against some of our proven favorites. Look for posts on these tastings in the coming weeks and months.
In order to keep these notes from being unwieldy as we tasted 45 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)
2006 Cline Los Carneros Estate Syrah, Carneros, $20, QPR: 5
2005 Snoqualmie Reserve Syrah, Columbia Valley, $23, QPR: 5
2004 Sarah’s Vineyard Syrah, Santa Clara Valley, $30, QPR: 4
2005 Tablas Creek Syrah, Paso Robles, $35, QPR: 4
2006 Cass “Rockin’ One” Red Blend, Paso Robles, $42, QPR: 3
2005 Domaine Serene Rockblock “Seven Hills Vineyard” Syrah, Rogue Valley, $45, QPR: 3
2005 McCrea Cellars Boushey Grande Cote Vineyard Syrah, Yakima Valley, $45, QPR: 3
Quality: 3.5 stars (out of 5)
2006 Snoqualmie Columbia Valley Syrah, Columbia Valley, $10, QPR: 5
2006 J. Lohr Estates South Ridge Syrah, Paso Robles, $15, QPR: 5
2005 Kinton Syrah, Santa Barbara County, $20, QPR: 4
2005 Coyote Canyon Estate Syrah, Horse Heaven Hills, $22, QPR: 4
2005 Adelaida Cellars Estate Syrah, Paso Robles, $25, QPR: 4
2006 Justin Syrah, Paso Robles, $27, QPR: 4
2005 Novy Santa Lucia Highlands Syrah, Santa Lucia Highlands, $27, QPR: 4
2005 Sarah’s Vineyard Syrah, Santa Clara Valley, $30, QPR: 3
2005 Ecluse Lock Vineyard Syrah, Paso Robles, $32, QPR: 3
2004 Alexander Valley Vineyards Alexander School TOC Syrah, Alexander Valley, $35, QPR: 3
2003 Bridlewood Estate Syrah, Santa Ynez, $40, QPR: 2
2006 Walter Dacon C’est Syrah Magnifique, Yakima Valley, $42, QPR: 2
2004 McCrea Cellars Ciel du Cheval Vineyard Syrah, Red Mountain, $45, QPR: 2
2005 IO Ryan Road Vineyard Syrah, Paso Robles, $48, QPR: 1
2004 McCrea Cellars Cuvee Orleans Syrah, Yakima Valley, $50, QPR: 1
2005 Adelaida Cellars Viking Vineyard Reserve Estate Syrah, Paso Robles, $65, QPR: 1
Quality: 3 stars (out of 5)
2006 Columbia Crest Grand Estates Shiraz, Columbia Valley, $11, QPR: 5
2005 Sawtooth Syrah, Idaho, $13, QPR: 5
2006 Cline Cool Climate Syrah, Sonoma Coast, $16, QPR: 4
2005 Bonterra Syrah, Mendocino County, $18, QPR: 4
2005 Columbia Crest Reserve Syrah, Columbia Valley, $20, QPR: 3
2005 Alexander Valley Vineyards Estate Syrah, Alexander Valley, $20, QPR: 3
2005 Novy Sonoma County Syrah, Sonoma County, $20, QPR: 3
2004 Bridlewood Central Coast Reserve Syrah, Central Coast, $24, QPR: 3
2003 Valley View Anna Maria Syrah, Rogue Valley, $24, QPR: 3
2003 Columbia Winery Red Willow Vineyard Syrah, Yakima Valley $30, QPR: 2
2006 Walter Dacon C’est Syrah Belle, Columbia Valley, $30, QPR: 2
2006 Walter Dacon C’est Syrah Beaux, Columbia Valley, $38, QPR: 1
2005 McCrea Cellars Amerique Syrah, Yakima Valley, $40, QPR: 1
2002 Arrowood Saralee’s Vineyard Syrah, Russian River Valley, $40, QPR: 1
2003 Terra Blanca Reserve Block 8 Syrah, Red Mountain, $42, QPR: 1
2004 Domain Serene Rockblock “Del Rio Vineyard” Syrah, Rogue Valley, $45, QPR: 1
2005 IO Upper Bench Vineyard Syrah, Santa Maria Valley, $48, QPR: 1
Quality: 2.5 stars (out of 5)
2004 Krupp Brothers “Black Bart” Syrah, Napa Valley, $45, QPR: NR
2006 Olsen Estates Syrah, Columbia Valley, $42, QPR: NR
2002 Terra Blanca Estate Vineyard Syrah, Red Mountain, $20, QPR: NR
2006 Volcano Vineyards Lakeside & Serenade Vineyards Syrah, Rogue Valley, $32, QPR: NR
2003 Zaca Mesa Estate Bottled Syrah, Santa Ynez Valley, $20, QPR: NR
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, 
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 
During the Taste Washington weekend, Colby and I had the pleasure to meet Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV. For those of you who have never heard of him, he is from New Jersey and is the host of a very popular video wine blog. He is quite knowledgeable about wine and extremely entertaining.
This past weekend was the Washington Wine Commission’s 11th annual 
It is the rare occasion that you get so many great wines in the same place at the same time. And many of the wineries have their winemakers on hand to pour samples themselves and talk about their wines.
In order to keep these notes from being unwieldy as we tasted 35 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).
Like 
Steve Roberts was on hand signing his new book, 
We tasted a total of 31 different Zinfandels (26 from California, 3 from Washington, and 2 from Oregon). Last Wednesday was the Championship Round which included the winners from each of the first five rounds plus two wild card entries. Considering that there were only five non-California wines in the entire event, I think that it is quite remarkable that one Washington and one Oregon wine made the Championships as winners of a previous round. While they did not medal in the Championships, they certainly made a good showing. So while California continues to make excellent Zinfandels, I encourage you to branch out and try some Zins from Washington and Oregon as well.
After traveling over much of the world of wine, I truly believe that Washington State produces great wine and is one of the most exciting wine regions out there. For those of you who are not familiar with Washington State, it is important to note that Washington DC (the nation’s capital) and Washington State are on opposite sides of the country. Washington State is on the west coast of the United States in what is known affectionately as the great Pacific Northwest. From north to south on the west coast are the states of Washington, Oregon, and California.
It was a combination of 
The Wine Peeps have been fans of Australian Shiraz for many years. Therefore, we were especially excited to have the opportunity to meet John Duval, one of the most famous winemakers in Australia and around the world. He spent 16 years as the chief winemaker for 
During the dinner, both Allen Shoup and John Duval spoke. Allen spoke first about his background in the wine industry as well as his dream and the founding of Long Shadows. Later John spoke about his winemaking background and then specifically about his work on Sequel. One point that he made about his winemaking style especially stood out to me. I’m paraphrasing as I was not quick enough to jot down his quote word for word. He said that in each wine he makes he strives for elegance, refinement, and structure but doesn’t want to drown the fruit with alcohol or oak. I think that this says a lot and explains why I personally enjoy his wines so much. Also in attendance was 
This blog is for busy people who enjoy wine and want to be savvy wine consumers, but who do not have the time or inclination to do the research themselves. We want to be your Wine Peeps. As a regular reader of this blog, we hope that you will learn everything you need to know about selecting, tasting, and enjoying good wine. You’ll be able to impress your friends with your knowledge of wine. 