While Columbia Crest, Washington State’s largest winery, has recently received national attention for its 2005 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon which was rated as the #1 wine of 2009 by Wine Spectator, they are best known for their everyday value lines, Two Vines and Grand Estates, which are widely available nationwide. Rounding out their portfolio is the H3 line featuring fruit from the Horse Heaven Hills AVA which debuted in 2008.

Columbia Crest, located in Paterson, Washington, has been one of our favorite sources of value wines for many years and was previously featured in our Making your wine buying simple, enjoyable, and easy on the pocketbook post. Time after time in the blind tastings at our monthly wine tasting dinners, a Columbia Crest wine has finished at or near the top in the consensus rankings while invariably being one of the lowest priced wines in the tasting. For those of us who live in Washington State, it is nice to have such a consistent, affordable producer in our own backyard.

Head winemaker, Ray Einberger, took the reins in 2002 from Doug Gore who had been the winemaker since Columbia Crest was founded in 1983. Under Gore and Einberger’s leadership, the Columbia Crest winemaking team has produced more 90+ scoring bottles of wine than any other winery in the world.

We recently had the opportunity to taste seven current releases from Columbia Crest in a samples tasting, four from the Two Vines line and three from the Grand Estates line. Once again, Columbia Crest delivers consistently good wines and excellent value. We would recommend six of the seven wines, and five out of seven received a QPR rating of 5 bangs for your buck. There are many good options here to enjoy with your mid-week dinners.

2008 Columbia Crest Two Vines Vineyard 10 White Wine (Washington State): Pale yellow with green tinges. Citrus aromas, especially grapefruit, come through on the nose; lots of lime, grapefruit, and white peach on the palate. Medium-bodied with lively acidity and a long finish. A smooth, refreshing sipper.
Quality: 3.5 stars (out of 5)
QPR: 5 bangs for your buck (out of 5)
Where to Buy: Received as sample, suggested retail $8; Widely available

2008 Columbia Crest Two Vines Riesling (Washington State): Pale yellow with green tinges. Beautiful peach and dried apricot aromas lead to apricot, peak, and floral flavors. Off-dry, light-bodied, and lively with a long finish. Would be good with food as well.
Quality: 3.5 stars (out of 5)
QPR: 5 bangs for your buck (out of 5)
Where to Buy: Received as sample, suggested retail $8; Widely available

2008 Columbia Crest Two Vines Gewurztraminer (Washington State): Pale, greenish yellow. Dried apricots and pear on the nose; pear and white peach on the palate. Off-dry and crisp with a long finish.
Quality: 3.5 stars (out of 5)
QPR: 5 bangs for your buck (out of 5)
Where to Buy: Received as sample, suggested retail $8; Widely available

2007 Columbia Crest Grand Estates Cabernet Sauvignon (Columbia Valley, Washington): Deep, dark purple. Black fruits and oak on the nose, slightly medicinal. More black fruits and spice come through on the palate. Medium to full-bodied with medium tannins and a long finish. Smooth but plain.
Quality: 3 stars (out of 5)
QPR: 5 bangs for your buck (out of 5)
Where to Buy: Received as sample, suggested retail $11; Widely available

2007 Columbia Crest Two Vines Vineyard 10 Red Wine (Washington State): Deep purplish red. Very aromatic with blackberry and oak notes. Jammy with lots of blackberry on the palate. Medium-bodied and smooth with medium tannins and a long finish.
Quality: 3 stars (out of 5)
QPR: 5 bangs for your buck (out of 5)
Where to Buy: Received as sample, suggested retail $8; Widely available

2008 Columbia Crest Grand Estates Pinot Grigio (Columbia Valley, Washington): Straw-yellow. Nose is a bit tight at first, but with time, floral aromas come through. Floral and citrus flavors. Light-bodied and lively with a long finish.
Quality: 3 stars (out of 5)
QPR: 4 bangs for your buck (out of 5)
Where to Buy: Received as sample, suggested retail $11; Widely available

2008 Columbia Crest Grand Estates Chardonnay (Columbia Valley, Washington): Straw-yellow and watery. Buttered popcorn aromas. Plain and boring with a bitter, unpleasant finish. Disappointing.
Quality: 2 stars (out of 5)
QPR: NR (not recommended)
Where to Buy: Received as sample, suggested retail $11; Widely available

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is chai.

Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine:
Chai is a French, and particularly Bordelais, term for a place where wine and occasionally brandy is stored, typically in barrel. Thus a smart Bordeaux chateau will have (perhaps) the chateau building itself with no direct wine-making function, a cuverie in which fermentation takes place, a first-year chai in which the most recent vintage’s crop undergoes elevage, and a second-year chai to which it is moved at some point before the year end in order to make way for the next year’s crop.

Layman’s terms from Kori:
Chai is the place where wine is stored in barrels, frequently referred to as the barrel room in the United States.

Tomorrow marks two years since we started sharing our wine adventures with you here on Wine Peeps. What an exciting two years it has been! We have written 456 posts and tasted over 2,500 wines. We have had the pleasure to meet so many wonderful people in the wine industry as well as fellow wine enthusiasts. This past year, we traveled to numerous wineries, vineyards, and tasting rooms in Washington, Idaho, Texas, California, Canada, and South Africa. We also attended our second North American Wine Bloggers Conference.

Thank you so much to all of our readers! I know it sounds cliché, but we could not do this without you. We love wine and love sharing that passion with you through this blog. We are humbled that you care to read what we write. We are thrilled to report that our readership has grown to the point where we are ranked #6 in the Top 100 Wine Blogs, #25 in Food Blogs (out of 7,437), and #86 in Living Blogs (out of 15,671). Again, thank you, thank you, thank you!

The past year also brought a new website design, a new logo, and a social networking presence on Twitter, Facebook, OpenWine Consortium, and LinkedIn. It truly has been a pleasure to get to know many of you through comments, email, and these social networking sites. We certainly hope our relationship continues to grow in the year ahead.

In the coming year, we will strive to provide you with even more compelling wine-related content. In order to evaluate what we are doing well, what needs improvement, and to learn a little more about you as readers of this blog, we hope that as a birthday present to us, you will take a few minutes of your time and answer our short reader survey:

Click here to take the 2010 Wine Peeps Survey

As an added incentive, if you answer the survey and provide us with your name and email address in the last question, we will enter you into a drawing for a chance to win a copy of the book, What to Drink with What You Eat by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page.

We hope that you will continue to support us by reading Wine Peeps and telling your friends about it. We welcome the opportunity to connect on any or all of the social networking sites as well.

Cheers from your Wine Peeps,
Kori, John, Colby, and LaGayle

Would you like a quick suggestion for a good wine to drink tonight (or this weekend) that won’t break your budget and is widely available? Many of our readers have said this is something they would like, so here is this week’s selection, the 2006 Penfolds Koonunga Hill Shiraz Cabernet from South Australia.

Our selection criteria include:

• A very good Quality rating of >=3.5 stars (out of 5)
• A price tag of <=$15
• Must be widely available

Penfolds is one of the oldest and most well-respected wineries in Australia. Located in South Australia, Penfolds was established by a transplanted English doctor in 1844. Dr. Christopher Rawson Penfold and his wife Mary built their home at Magill, near Adelaide, and surrounded it with vine cuttings they brought from the south of France. Today, Penfolds boasts two cellar doors (aka tasting rooms), one at the original Magill Estate and the other in Nuriootpa in the heart of the Barossa Valley. Penfolds is most famous for its top of the line Grange wines. This Koonunga Hill wine is from one of their value lines. Nevertheless, according to some “experts,” it is a wine that can age for 20 years which is remarkable for a wine at this price point.

“Koonunga Hill Shiraz Cabernet, a multi-district blend based on Barossa, McLaren Vale and Coonawarra fruit, has become a Penfolds classic with a reputation for over-delivery of quality at its pricepoint.” –Penfolds

2006 Penfolds Koonunga Hill Shiraz Cabernet (South Australia): 78% Shiraz, 22% Cabernet Sauvignon. Dark, inky purple. Very aromatic with black fruit and earth notes. Blackberry pie, earth, and spice come through on the palate. Full-bodied with high, drying tannins and a long finish. Extremely smooth and well-balanced.
Quality: 4 stars (out of 5)
QPR: 5 bangs for your buck (out of 5)
Where to buy: Wine Exchange (California), $8; Available elsewhere, $8 to $14

As a prolific reader, I’m regularly prowling the aisles at local bookstores, and especially the wine books section. The title of this book, Educating Peter: How Anybody Can Become an (Almost) Instant Wine Expert, is what first caught my attention. Then, when I scanned the Introduction, I knew this was a book that I wanted to read.

“…to see if I could sufficiently equip someone for the wider world of wine—or, in Peter’s case, inspire him to drink something other than what he called ‘fatty Chardonnay’.” –Author Lettie Teague on the purpose of this book

As regular Wine Peeps readers know, we have a number of friends just like Peter, and one of our missions on this blog has been to broaden their wine horizons. Peter is Peter Travers, Rolling Stones magazine’s movie critic and the author’s friend and neighbor for nine years. The author, Lettie Teague, is the former Executive Wine Editor of Food & Wine magazine, as well as the writer of a monthly column, “Wine Matters,” for which she won the 2003 James Beard Distinguished Writing Award.

Lettie Teague is a gifted writer, and this book was an easy read. I thought that Peter was a good foil for Lettie as she walked him through the world of wine. She even gives him a Final Exam at the end, which he passes with a grade of B.

I’ll have to admit that some of the celebrity name-dropping and super-expensive wine illustrations got old, but the education was excellent. I wouldn’t recommend this book as a guide to finding specific wines, but as a good introductory overview to the world of wine; it is both humorous and informative.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that there is a short chapter on Oregon and Washington State wines in this book. While I don’t believe that all of her comments about Washington wines are entirely accurate, I was glad that Washington and several Washington wineries and winemakers did get a deservedly good mention in the book.

You can pick up a copy of Educating Peter at Amazon.com or at your book retailer of choice. Have you already read Educating Peter? If so, please leave a comment and let us know what you thought of it.

Cheers!

Recently, we had what turned out to be a California Pinot Noir showdown in one of our private tasting dinners pitting the 2007 Lionheart Wines Pinot Noir against the 2006 Cambria Julia’s Vineyard Pinot Noir. We liked both of these wines, but all four of us preferred the Lionheart. In fact, we thought it was excellent, one of the best Pinots we’ve ever had! Both wines paired well with Mom’s dinner of spicy chicken casserole and braised kale. For a more complete description of how we set up these private tastings, please refer to How We Taste.

Mom (LaGayle) and Dad (John) discovered Cambria Estate Winery on their road trip through the Central Coast of California in 2008. They thought that Cambria was one of the most scenic stops on their trip and enjoyed a number of their wines. Cambria produces about 250,000 cases per year. Owner Barbara Banke founded Cambria Estate Winery in 1986. Julia’s Vineyard, named after Barbara’s youngest daughter, is located on the cooler, western end of the Cambria Estate.

Later in 2008, Dad and I discovered Lionheart Wines when we attended the first-ever North American Wine Bloggers Conference in Sonoma, California. Lionheart Wines, located in Half Moon Bay, California, was founded in 2005 by owner/winemaker Leon C. Glover III. Leon taught himself about winemaking through reading books on the subject, taking the WSET Diploma course, and being a cellar rat for two harvests at Crushpad, a custom crush facility in San Francisco. Leon is making some excellent wines, including this Pinot. A small boutique winery, Lionheart produces about 300 cases each year.

2007 Lionheart Wines Pinot Noir (Sonoma Coast, California): Very aromatic with cherry, raspberry, and cotton candy coming through on the nose; cranberry, raspberry, and spice on the palate. Medium-bodied and medium tannins with lively acidity. Well-balanced and smooth with a long finish. One of the best Pinots I’ve ever had.
Quality: 4 stars (out of 5)
QPR: 4 bangs for your buck (out of 5)
Where to Buy: Received as sample, suggested retail $40; K&L Wine Merchants (California), $34.99

2006 Cambria Julia’s Vineyard Pinot Noir (Santa Maria Valley, California): Aromatic with lots of strawberries on both the nose and palate, a bit of earth on the back end as well. Medium-bodied with soft tannins, lively acidity, and a long finish. Simple, yet pleasant.
Quality: 3 stars (out of 5)
QPR: 4 bangs for your buck (out of 5)
Where to buy: Winery, $20; Available elsewhere, $15 to $26

For years, I’ve had friends tell me that they can’t find the great Washington State wines that I tell them about where they live. So with the help of Wine-Searcher.com and a lot of legwork, I’ve set out on a mission to prove them wrong.

This is the fifth in a series of posts to help you find great Washington State wines in the major cities and areas all around the country. So far, the series has featured New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, and Houston. Today, I’m searching for Washington State wine in the Los Angeles area. Since I’ll be in L.A. for my cousin’s wedding in February, I’m anxious to find out where I might be able to find some good Washington State wines.

Here’s the format: To be selected, a store first has to have a Wine-Searcher.com rating of 4 or higher on a scale of 1 to 5 for customer service, reliability, etc. Next, it has to stock Washington State wines that we really like. Finally, they need to be an online retailer as well, so that if you don’t live close enough to the store to drop in, you can still purchase their wines.

Based on the Wine-Searcher rating alone, I would only have two Los Angeles area retailers to recommend, K&L Wine Merchants and The Wine House.  However, because I have personally done business with and been pleased with the service at three other retailers in the area, Wine Exchange, Napa Cabs, and Beverages and More, I have included them in this list as well. I’m hoping that some of our readers will weigh in with their comments if they know of other Los Angeles area wine retailers with a good selection of Washington wines.

Of the five retailers that I’ve selected, K&L Wine Merchants has the largest overall selection of Washington State wines which includes a good mix of mainstream and high end wines. Wine Exchange comes in as a close second.

Listed below are the five retailers with their street addresses and links to their websites. Please let me know how you find their service and selection when you visit in person, and don’t hesitate to ask us any questions you might have about any of the Washington wines they are offering.

K&L Wine Merchants, 1400 Vine St, Hollywood, CA

Wine Exchange, 1500 E. Village Way, Orange, CA

Napa Cabs, 14702 Central Ave, Chino, CA

Beverages and More, 7100 Santa Monica Blvd, West Hollywood, CA

The Wine House, 2311 Cotner Ave, Los Angeles, CA

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is shiner.

Interestingly, this week’s Wine Word of the Week does not appear in any of the “official” guides I generally use, including Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine, Ron Herbst and Sharon Tyler Herbst’s The New Wine Lover’s Companion, and Charles Hodgson’s History of Wine Words. However, it is a term that I recently learned during a Thursday pick-up event at Full Pull Wines.

Layman’s terms from Kori:
While shiner is slang for a black eye and also an excellent beer from Texas, when it comes to wine, a shiner is a bottle without a label.

For more information, check out Shiners: a Primer on Unlabeled Wine that was published in Wine Business Monthly.

After visiting more wineries than I can count, tasting almost 900 Washington wines from 235 Washington wineries, meeting winemakers, and walking the rows in many of the best known vineyards in the state, these are the Wine Peeps team’s picks as the best of 2009.

BEST WINE: 2006 O*S Winery Dineen Vineyard Syrah (featured Dec 9)

Honorable Mention: 2006 AlmaTerra Coéo Syrah, 2006 Barnard Griffin Reserve Malbec, 2005 Columbia Crest Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, 2007 Fielding Hills Cabernet Sauvignon, 2007 Gilbert Cellars Cabernet Franc, 2005 Grand Rêve Collaboration Series I Red Wine, 2007 Nefarious Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon

BEST WINERY: Saviah Cellars (featured June 15, July 13, Oct 19, Dec 1)

Honorable Mention: Fielding Hills, Columbia Crest, Quilceda Creek

BEST VARIETAL: Syrah (featured in a number of posts, including Jan 23 and June 26)

Honorable Mention: Cabernet Sauvignon

BEST WINEMAKER: Mike Wade, Winemaker/Co-Owner Fielding Hills (featured April 13, April 20, May 18, Nov 9, Dec 2, Dec 9)

Honorable Mention: Bill Owen of O*S Winery and Dean Neff of Nefarious Cellars

BEST VINEYARD: Riverbend Vineyard, estate vineyard for Fielding Hills

Honorable Mention: Klipsun Vineyard

BEST AVA: Walla Walla Valley

Honorable Mention: Yakima Valley

BEST NEWCOMER: Rotie Cellars/Sean Boyd (featured July 20)

Honorable Mention: AlmaTerra/Dr. Alan Busacca and Robert Smasne

BEST WINE RETAILER: Full Pull Wines, Seattle (featured Sept 11)

Honorable Mention: Esquin Wine Merchants, Seattle; Pete’s Wine Shop – Eastside, Bellevue; Compass Wines, Anacortes.

BEST WINE BAR: The Local Vine, Seattle (featured Aug 7)

Honorable Mention: Smash Wine Bar and Bistro, Seattle; Cellar 46, Mercer Island

BEST WINE EVENT: Taste Washington (featured April 7, April 8)

Congratulations to all of the winners! Keep up the good work.

Best wishes for a happy, healthy, prosperous, and wine-filled 2010!

Would you like a quick suggestion for a good wine to drink tonight (or this weekend) that won’t break your budget and is widely available? Many of our readers have said this is something they would like, so here is this week’s selection, the NV Domaine Ste. Michelle Blanc de Noirs Sparkling Wine from the Columbia Valley of Washington State.

Our selection criteria include:

• A very good Quality rating of >=3.5 stars (out of 5)
• A price tag of <=$15
• Must be widely available

What’s a better way to ring in the New Year tonight than with a good sparkling wine with a great QPR? And the Blanc de Noirs is the best of an excellent array of value sparkling wines from Domaine Ste. Michelle. Producing sparkling wines for over thirty years, Domaine Ste. Michelle is one of the largest sparkling wine houses in the United States, producing more than 300,000 cases each year. Rick Casqueiro has been head winemaker since 1994. Given the current state of our economy, I believe that celebrating the New Year with such an economical yet very good bubbly is especially appropriate.

“Rosé sparkling wines are original not only because of their color, but also their vinous character. Blanc de Noirs is a beautiful salmon pink wine, with a persistent column of small bubbles. A delicate sparkler, with strawberry impressions coming through in the nose, and on the palate. The initial impression is dry, with a soft and fruity aftertaste.” –Winemaker Rick Casqueiro

NV Domaine Ste. Michelle Blanc de Noirs Sparkling Wine (Columbia Valley, Washington): Pale salmon in color. Quite aromatic with strawberry, apricot, and yeast aromas and flavors. Medium-bodied with crisp acidity and a long finish. A nice, refreshing bubbly.
Quality: 3.5 stars (out of 5)
QPR: 5 bangs for your buck (out of 5)
Where to buy: Fred Meyer (Seattle), $13.19 (on sale $7.99); Available elsewhere, $8 to $15