Seven Hills Ciel du Cheval Vintage Red - 2004

A couple of weeks ago I had an opportunity to visit with Kirsten of Seven Hills Winery and to sample the 2004 Ciel du Cheval Vintage Red Wine from Red Mountain. Okay, I am stretching this a bit - it was more than a sample. It was at least two glasses -- and I wanted more.

Estatlished in 1988, Seven Hills Winery was one of the first five original wineries in the Walla Walla Valley. Using only top-tier vineyards, they produce less than 10,000 cases a year. The Red Mountain appellation is one of the most distinctive viticultural areas in the state of Washington and home to one of the most prestigious and renowned vineyards in the state, Ciel du Cheval (French for "Horse Heaven").

To sum this wine up in one word - "elegant." I really do not need to say much more than this. No need to give any descriptions of nose, taste, awards or points. "Elegant" says it all. A unique blend of 32% Cabernet Sauvignon, 29% Merlot, 26% Cabernet Franc, and 13% Petit Verdot and cellared in the finest French oak.

Elegant.

~March Cooking With Washington Wines~

Okay, so you didn't have a Jewish bubbe growing up - but you can still enjoy some savory and celebratory meals as if you had a bubbe without the kvetching and getting all ferklempt, furblungit and appearing like a real goyishke kup.

Chicken liver pate does not touch my lips, but this recipe is reminiscent of chopped liver in the very best vegetarian way and you will look like a mavin in your kitchen. Serve along side a very kreftig soup (see my matzo ball soup recipe) or perhaps for just a little nosh and I guarantee that you will kvell. My mishpacha loved it! Pair with a variety of wines such as a Walla Walla Merlot, Washington Riesling or Chardonnay. That's a real good chochmeh and will bring glick to you and your chevra.

Veggie Walnut Pate

1/2 cup walnuts
8 - 10 button mushrooms
2 shallots, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups of a combination of carrots and/or red and/or green peppers
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried marjoram
Kosher salt and black pepper to taste
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp lemon juice

Mix all of the ingredients (except the olive oil and lemon juice) in a food processor to the consistency of coarse bread crumbs. Heat the olive oil in a small skillet and sauté the mixture for 6-8 minutes. Add the lemon juice. Serve warm or cold with matzoh or water crackers. Makes 2-3 cups.

l'chaim!

Merlot: Go For the Good Ones - Follow Up

The last couple of days, while drafting the blog on Merlot: Go for the Good Ones, I decided to follow my own advice and opened up a couple bottles of Washington State Merlot. Both wines contained Walla Walla grapes, but different vintages and the biggest difference - price. I wanted to see if the price fit the bottle while still keeping the quality.

The first bottle opened was a Lecole No 41 Walla Walla Merlot - 1999. Note that this is a library wine, but I believe if it is still available in limited quanities (Contact Jaimie at Lecole and tell her I sent you). The Lecole was priced at $33. It contained 95% Merlot with 5% Cabernet Franc. I was wise to let it stay open for a second day because it just - got - better. I was surprised that with 8 years behind it, this Merlot still had a lot of structure - the tannins were very visible as well as the acidity. This wine really deserved a good beef steak, but at least I was able to pair it with a good piece of chocolate. Lots of cherry, plum and deep rich cocoa on the taste buds with some cigar box on the nose. Surprisingly I could still pick up some oak. If Parker Points interest you, 91-WS and 92 -WE.

The second wine was Sagelands Vineyard Merlot Four Corners - 2003. This label is owned by the Chalone group and bottled in Walla Walla. The "Four Corners" has to do with the four appellations that went into the bottle - Wahluke, Horse Heaven Hills, Rattlesnake and Walla Walla. What a great value this wine is at $13.00! Softer than the Lecole, but still a perfect everyday sipping wine. The nose was very strong of graham cracker and marshmallows. Lots of ripe cherry in flavor and ending with a spicy finish. Do I think it will have the aging power that the Lecole Merlot had? No, but that’s okay. Some of us cannot afford to open a bottle of Lecole library wine for every day sipping (you know - that daily heart medicine that our doctors have prescribed for us). For the quality and the dollar - it’s a great wine for evening patio sipping and I would pair it with a piece of salmon and even smoked salmon for brunch or snacking. Parker Points on that 87-WS and 91-WE and WE gave it a "Best Buy."

So the point of this exercise is indeed, when it comes to Merlot, go for the good ones and they will be from Washington State. And no matter the price - you cannot go wrong.

Merlot: Go For The Good Ones

Newton's Third Law of Motion: For every action there's an opposite and equal reaction. Catie's Addendum: In wine too!

A new article in the Wine Enthusiast, Merlot: The Best Red You're Not Drinking, not only lists some of Walla Walla's finest Merlots, it tells the interesting recent history of Merlot sales in the United States. In the 1990s it was fashionable to ask for a glass of Merlot; in 2004, a Hollywood movie brought Merlot sales down. The general Merlot rule, advises the article, is "Go for the good ones."

The piece reminded me of my own personal experiences with Merlot. Growing up, I don't remember seeing a bottle of Bordeaux in the house. We may have had one, but I remember mostly the Italian and Spanish varietals as well as some home-fermented wine. Oh and let's not forget the unopened bottle of Thunderbird in the back of the fridge that Dad kept for a joke. Yes, call it corny, but Dad got a kick out of asking guests if they would like a glass of fine wine and then bringing out that same bottle every time. But in the '80s Merlot took off in the State of Washington. Almost every spring we would wander across the state, often making stops at wineries during the Spring Release weekends. Sometimes we would revisit the memorable wineries in December in search of our Christmas wine. Merlot was everywhere, and I developed the taste for a good Merlot. Sometimes I sampled the California Merlots I found in the supermarket, but they just didn't compare to a good Washington Merlot.

In the '90s I joined an online community of authors, journalists, programmers and activists. Many were wine aficionados. The majority were California-based, and oh how they scoffed and ridiculed me whenever I mentioned I had tasted a good Washington Merlot! As far as some of them were concerned, Merlot was no more than a weak blending grape. (I guess they'd never heard of, say, Petrus.) Like Miles, the Merlot-loathing character in "Sideways," many of my online colleagues had not tasted the fruit of Washington. Well, no longer do they scoff, and I wonder if it has to do with the positive publicity that Washington has received for its Merlot. The land in Washington state is vast and abundant; the air's fresh and the water's clean, and we're at the same latitude as France's premier viticultural areas: Burgundy, Bordeaux and the Rhone. In fact, young French winemakers are making their mark in our Northwest state. Perhaps my critics from the online comunity are now enjoying a glass of hearty and rich Washington Merlot with their plate of crow?

Here are recommendations by members of the Wine Enthusiast Tasting Panel for some of the best Walla Walla Merlots available at various price points. They were organized into four categories and based on retail price.

Everyday Merlots ($15 and under at retail):

Couvillion Winery 2004 Merlot (Columbia Valley); $15. (note: Jill's Merlot is sold out. We were fortunate enough to get in on a few bottles when we did. In my opinion, this was priced way too low for the quality. )

Weekend Merlots ($15 to $40):

James Leigh 2003 ‘Spofford Station’ Merlot (Walla Walla Valley); $32

Abeja 2004 Merlot (Columbia Valley); $35

Beresan 2004 Merlot (Columbia Valley); $29

Splurge Merlots ($40 to $100):

Dunham Cellars 2004 Lewis Vineyard Merlot (Columbia Valley); $75

Expense Account ($100 and up):

(No listing)

If a "Sideways" sequel is ever made, maybe Miles and his dinner companions could order a glass of %$*&#! Merlot, but this time I advise them: Go Washington! I bet he would stay and enjoy a glass.

Guest Blog: Eight Reasons To Kill the 100-Point System

Imagine there are no wine scores.

To borrow from John Lennon: It’s easy if you try. Imagine no 95-point Bordeaux. Imagine no 92-point Cabernet, no 94-point Syrah. Imagine a wine market that encourages people to educate and develop their own palates rather than depend on a 100-point shortcut. You may say that I’m a dreamer, but imagine people thinking…even tasting… for themselves.

The 100-point scoring system, which is usually credited to famous (or infamous, your choice) wine critic Robert Parker, is used by Parker at his Wine Advocate newsletter as well as by the Wine Spectator, among other publications, to rank wines by quality irregardless of cost. In a market as complex and confusing as wine -- and confusing, frankly, even to experienced wine consumers -- any tool that helps sort out the choices is welcome indeed. As a result, the scoring system has become enormously influential. But lately, industry observers including Paul Gregutt and Tom Wark have begun to doubt the system’s value. Me too.

Here are eight reasons why I’d like to kill it:

1) It’s Not Really a 100-Point System. Parker and the Spectator automatically give any wine, including the stuff Grandpa stews in the basement, 50 points just for being made. But as Gregutt points out, that’s not even the half of it: it’s really a 10-point system. Very, very few wines rate at or better than 95 points, the Spectator’s threshold for “classic” wines. At the same time, few wines rate 85 or below, which may be still what the magazine calls a “good” wine but for all intents and purposes is the point of no return for wine shoppers. Yet within this narrow 10-point span, fortunes and reputations are made and lost quicker than in the stock market.

2) The Arbitrary Benchmark. Can anyone truly distinguish an 89-point wine from a 90-point wine? Yet in the market, 90 has become the crucial benchmark, the equivalent of .300 in a baseball batting average. Above it you’re golden, below it you’re merely plain.

3) The Entrance of Evil. Such is the power of 90 that a wine consultancy in California for wineries, Enologix, will guarantee, for a price (a winemaker friend told me it can be as high as $100,000), that your wine will earn 90 points or better if you follow Enologix’s advice. In effect, Enologix tells you how to make a wine that panders to the taste buds of Mr. Parker and those who let him do their thinking for them. That disrespects the intelligence of wine consumers. It pegs the definition of “quality” to an arbitrary number that has no relation to a full wine experience. It’s evil.

4) The Value Equation. Shoppers calculate value with every purchase. So which is the better value: the $15 88-pointer from South Africa or the $30 90-point wine from the Napa Valley? How about the $20 89-point wine from Walla Walla? A value calculation for wine should be based on cost measured beside quality and context, which is to say beside winemaking, vineyards, regions, style, taste, and the occasion. Dividing cost by score is like calculating the value of a ballgame just by hits, runs and outs.

5) Rating Versus Marketing. The wine industry itself has shamelessly used wine scores for a purpose -- marketing -- for which they weren’t originally intended. Wine ads in the connoisseur magazines trumpet 90 scores and better; no one brags about an 86. That’s why few wine shoppers bother with wines scoring 85 or below no matter how inexpensive they may be. The industry tells us they’re no good.

6) Food’s Left Out. The 100-point system can’t measure how a particular wine will pair with a particular food. And that, of course, is the whole point to drinking wine -- or, at least, ought to be the whole point in a wine-world gone wine-right. Fact: An 87-point wine matched with the right food in the right social situation will give you a much more transcendent and memorable experience than a 92-point wine paired badly with food or shared with the wrong company.

7) Male Versus Female. Any system that rates or measures power -- and in the wine industry, high scores equal power -- is a male system, created by men to measure and compare, well, whatever it is men must compare. Yet survey after survey shows that more than half of wine shoppers are women. I once asked a female sommelier at a fine restaurant if she looked at wine scores. No, she said, never. How, then, does she choose wines for her list? By tasting them and learning about the winery and vineyards, she told me. By learning about the region the wine was made in and by building a relationship with the winemaker, by gaining an understanding of what they were trying to accomplish with their wine. Oh, and by testing the wines with the foods her chef prepared. She’s not the only woman to tell me the same thing. Fact: Women choose wine according to context; men rate wine according to a set of power scores.

8) The Real Issue. Wine scores are a short-hand cover-up for the fact that many, if not most, wine consumers find wine descriptions baffling and useless. “A strong undercurrent of rich loganberry layered with dark chocolate and hints of blue-stone minerals” -- this means what, exactly? For all practical purposes it’s nonsense, and it tells you absolutely nothing about what food to pair this “strong undercurrent of rich loganberry” with. With very, very few exceptions, wine writing has not achieved the graceful combination of art and meaning that the best food writing has, or the best music writing, or the best art criticism. Fact: Wine scores have gained outsized importance by default. Wine shoppers have nothing, really, to help them make a wine decision except a number. That’s not their fault, and it’s not really the industry’s fault. It’s our fault -- the writers.

What we need to provide wine consumers and ourselves is more better wine experiences. We can do that with words rather than numbers -- it may not be easy, but it’s worth trying. And that is how the world will better live as one, as Mr. Lennon might’ve said if he and Yoko had bedded down for peace inside the Wine Spectator’s offices.

____________________________________________________

Steve Bjerklie reports for The Economist and many other publications about wine, food, politics and cultural and historical subjects. Last year he wrote about Walla Walla's now-famous French winemakers for The Economist as well as for Mid-Columbian Magazine.

The Marcus Whitman Hotel

When I was a youngster growing up in Walla Walla, three words meant magic: Marcus Whitman Hotel. When our parents said them, my siblings and I knew they were talking about something special, a place of monumental grandeur.

In 1927 the city fathers of Walla Walla decided to construct a luxury hotel to attract visitors and conventions. Not only did this hotel become the tallest building in the city, but it hosted many dignitaries and celebrities, including Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, trumpeter Louis Armstrong, actress and diplomat Shirley Temple, and my maternal grandmother’s cousin "Ike", or as he's sometimes called, President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The proud citizens of Walla Walla named their hotel after local and historical missionary Marcus Whitman.

The hotel was the big-night place to go for everyone in southeastern Washington and northeastern Oregon. During the Swing Era all the touring big bands stopped by to play dances. It was a business destination too: dozens of important agreements that would determine Walla Walla's future -- including its wine future -- were made over lunch or dinner at the Marcus Whitman. In the mid-1970s the hotel housed a chain restaurant/bar, the Black Angus. The bar back then was a kind of disco paradise: smoky glass windows, a stainless steel dance floor, a big mirrored disco ball -- the preferred dress for men was a leisure suit in pastel. Many of the hotel rooms became luxury condos. But after the restaurant closed, slowly the grand Marcus Whitman hotel slid into a neglect and disrepair. By the early 1990's, the beautiful antique furnishings that once decorated the lobby were stripped clean, and the wallpaper was torn and stained. There were rumblings about bringing in the wrecking ball for a mercy demolition.

Then, in 1999, Kyle Mussman bought the historic structure. Sharing a community vision with the City and Port of Walla Walla, he restored the beautiful hotel and expanded it, and after the $35 million renovation the elegance was back -- indeed, the hotel is better now than even in its heyday, with cutting-edge technology for today's needs. Now known as "The Marc," it has become a splendid home away from home for many wine tourists while locals once again enjoy fine dining at the hotel. Back in the day, steak was king of the grill in The Marc's dining room, but now the menu highlights fresh regional foods and our terrific local wines. And every time I visit The Marc I see Kyle Mussman greeting guests or even serving in the restaurant. It impresses me that he is a visible and a hands-on host/owner.

Last week, the local wine industry were Kyle's guests for an industry mixer held in one of the conference rooms. Kyle, Executive Chef "Bear" Ullman and staff were available for questions, and the Whitman staff spoke to us about the exciting new changes to their menus. There will be more emphasis on "fresh," with meats from locally raised livestock and wild-caught rather than farm-raised fish. At the mixer, samples from the new menu were served along with a very large assortment of local wines (I have pages and pages of wine notes to be blogged for you on another day soon). It was a wonderful evening, a chance to catch up with old wine friends, make new wine friends and most of all to visit with Kyle, who has become a true Walla Walla hero to me. Living here means a lot to me; it's my birthplace and home. I have hundreds of wonderful memories, including many of the Marcus Whitman Hotel. Kyle has my gratitude for saving a landmark that the people of Walla Walla can be proud of once again.

(PS - After the mixer, a few evenings in a row were spent at the Marc's Vineyard Lounge enjoying some very smooth and tasty vodka martinis and choices from the new bar menu, including fresh handmade potato chips, pulled pork sandwiches, and a seriously delicious watercress and watermelon salad. The service was attentive and charming. The cocktails were smooth, generous and served in stylish glasses. The food was full of flavor and, well, just damn delicious!)

Washington Women and Wine

Lately, there seems to be too many articles claiming wine-buying-women do not have a clue on what they are buying. While we are the in the largest percentage of wine buyers, according to these articles it appears that we buy wines based on cute puppy-dog labels instead of the content in the bottle. Hmmm... that sounds like another ranting blog to me, but in the mean time let's focus on last night because in New York City there was a celebration for women who know their wine!

Chef Amanda Zimlich of The Madison Park Café, a French style neighborhood bistro in Seattle, and winemaker Marie-Eve Gilla of Forgeron Cellars in Walla Walla were invited to the James Beard House in New York City to create a “Washington Women and Wine” dinner. Chef Amanda Zimlich's menu highlighted local Northwest ingredients to create French bistro cuisine, both “old school” and “new school", designed to compliment the wines of winemaker, Marie-Eve Gilla of Forgeron Cellars in Walla Walla. The menu for the evening:

Hors d’oeuvres-
• Wild King Salmon Gravlax with Meyer Lemon Gremolata
• Caramelized Walla Walla Onion & Gruyere Tartlets
• Torchon of Hudson Valley Foie Gras with Pickled Currants & Preserved Walnuts
• Chilled Cream of White Asparagus with Parmesan & Thyme

Dinner-
• Penn Cove Mussel Bisque with American Sturgeon Caviar & Celery Leaves
• Forgeron Chardonnay, Columbia Valley,2005
• Full Circle Farms Organic Red Beets with Blood Orange Vinaigrette, Crushed Oregon Hazelnuts & Mount Townsend Seastack Goat Cheese
• Forgeron Vinfinity,Columbia Valley, 2002
• Eaton Farms Braised Oxtail with Celery Root Purée & Washington Black Truffles
• Forgeron Cabernet Sauvignon, Pepper Bridge Vineyard, Walla Walla Valley, 2003
• Sonoma Artisan Roasted Moulard Duck Breast with Bluebird Farms Farro, Confit of Spring Onions & Spiced Wild Huckleberry Jus
• Forgeron Syrah, Columbia Valley, 2002
• Crème Fraîche Panna Cotta with Compote of Yakima Rhubarb & Vanilla Crème Chantilly
• Forgeron Late Harvest Gewürztraminer, Yakima Valley, 2005

French born and educated with a Masters in Viticulture and Enology at the University of Dijon, winemaker, Marie-Eve Gilla has extensive experience as a winemaker, in the Burgundy region of France, Oregon, and Washington. Under Marie-Eve's direction, Forgeron Cellars focuses on producing true varietal wines. Marie-Eve says, "My wines have a sense of place, they reflect their terroir, which is composite of the vine location and the grower dedication. I practice minimal intervention winemaking, enabling each grape to fully express itself. Using this winemaking philosophy allows me to craft food-friendly wines of great character."

Chef Amanda Zimlich is a Seattle native who began her culinary career at an early age by picking herbs for her neighborhood catering company and graduated summa cum laude from the four-year Bachelor of Professional Studies Program at CIA in New York. In Missouri, she helped create a much needed and highly successful Culinary Arts Program within the public school system. In Seattle, she was the Executive Sous Chef at Barking Frog in Woodinville for three years before becoming chef of The Madison Park Café a year ago.

Wine Matchmaker, Make Me A Match!

Are you tired of spending Saturday nights alone watching 'Sideways' with your six cats? Do you wish you had someone to share your Pouilly Fuisse, Cayuga, Walla Walla Bionic Frog, Cap Classique and your Trockenbeerenauslese with? Wanting to find that perfect person who will appreciate your 1787 Chateau d'Yquem? Or do you just need a listening ear and broad shoulders who will understand the anguish you felt when you discovered you had tri-chloroanisole? If the answer is 'yes' to one or more of these questions -- have we got the perfect dating site for you!

WineLoversMeet is a new concept in online dating for winelovers - from the serious wine-geeks to the wine novice. Meeting new people and dating isn't that easy, so they've narrowed down the wine-bar-playing-field for you. Wine Lovers Meet even offers wine education to refine your wine knowledge so you can look like Robert Parker's and Jancis Robinson's love child and dazzle your prospectives with your enology brillance. Cheers!

A Wine Toast To My Readers

It is time to give many thanks to my readers. Whether you are a first time visitor or check in every day, I appreciate your time and your kind words that I receive in email.

I started Through the Grape Vine in June of 2005 as sort of a personal diary. "Write what you know," they say, which I might modify to "Write about what you love," because I surely love Walla Walla and I love wine. But who knew wineblogging would grow as much as it has? When I first started wine blogging, I was just one of the maybe 100 winebloggers out there. Now the rate of wine blogging is growing leaps and bounds --300+ and counting. If you are a wine drinker, then you are a wine critic. People have a lot to say about wine, and we are now seeing the professional wine writers, such as Harvey Steiman (Wine Spectator), Paul Gregutt (Seattle Times), and Eric Asimov ( New York Times) blogging about wine apart from what they write for their publications. More over, quite a few wineries are taking time from their busy days and blogging for their customers. This is all good: more wine blogging means more wine education = more wine consumers.

What makes me unique, I think, from other wine bloggers is that I chose to be limited - limited, that is, to a focus on wines from the Walla Walla Valley. Once in awhile I will blog wine information that can affect or enhance the Walla Walla wine-drinking experience. But there are days when it is all I can do to find the time to write about Walla Walla wines and to keep up with them. I can't imagine trying to cover the whole wine universe.

You need to know there are no exact times when I publish or an exact number of blogs I write each. My time available varies -- and sometimes there's just not a lot to say, and I don't want to bore you with a post that was written just because I thought I had to meet a deadline. Seems to me that readers deserve quality rather than frequency, at least here. On the occasions when you don't see a fresh blog from me, you might want to check the archives. Maybe there's something there you've not read before. Of course, other times there's much to say and the new posts come fast.

Besides knowing that I have you, the readers, it also makes my blogging day when I receive links, syndication, emails and comments. At this time I am ranked no. 49 in the 100 Top Wine Blogs through AlaWine. Also, if you enjoy what you are reading, you can let Local Wine Events.com know at Local Wine Events or at Local Wine Events Blogs. I am listed twice.

Again, many, many thanks to all of you. If you were all here, I would treat you to a glass (or two) of Walla Walla wine. Cheers to my friends and in the mean time, I will keep on blogging.

Tertulia Cellars Viognier - 2005

Ryan Raber, Tertulia Cellars' winemaker, and I were classmates a few years ago at the Viticulture and Enology Center at Walla Walla Community College. I caught up with Ryan again just as he had finished his first crush and was putting the finishing touches on a new winery. Tertulia Cellars emphasizes Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Viognier.

At first I couldn't help but notice Ryan's attractive logo on his business card - a circle of people holding hands. The logo on the label gives us an idea about the winery's name. Tertulia is a Spanish word meaning a social gathering of friends. That's what happens when there are great bottles of wine around - friends gather.

A few weeks ago, I had an opportunity to sip on a large glass of Tertulia Cellars Viognier. I sat back and pondered this glass of wine -- if you've been a frequent visitor here, you know Viognier is one of my favorite whites. The nose was pleasant on this particular wine, but I wasn't picking up the usual heady pear aroma that I find in other Viogniers. Instead, the Tertulia had more of a honeysuckle and orange blossom nose. And with the first two sips I couldn't pick up Viognier's typically dominant pear qualities. Instead my tastebuds discovered stone fruit --peaches and apricots -- and even a mineral quality, a little gray rock. The finish was full of citrus.

So what the heck was going on with this Viognier? I knew something else had to have been in the mix -- and I was right! The wine is 23% Roussanne.

During aging, the Viognier and Roussanne each took a rest on the lees, with Ryan stirring the lees weekly for 3 months before blending the juices. This was done in order to increase the mouth feel. I thought there was enough lively acidity going on, which makes for a great food wine. If you read my posts, you will also discover that I am very much into pairing wine with food. The Tertulia Cellars Viognier kept screaming at me to hurry up and roast a chicken, stuffing it with rosemary and garlic. But I didn't even have a chicken salad sandwich on me to keep it quiet! Which reminds me: I would definitely recommend to pack this wine in your next picnic basket. Cheers!

Trout Fishing - Hook up with Deep River Red Wine

What are Flying Trout Wines all about? I noticed some action going on last month while they were moving into their new tasting room. I had been curious, but all my questions were answered once I tasted the wine.

One of my biggest questions was about the "blending" of two complete different wine areas. Now it all makes sense. A student at Whitman College, Ashley Trout started her career in winemaking at the very bottom -- a cellar rat -- but her natural talent proved formidable and soon she found herself as assistant winemaker at Reininger Cellars. Then a serious rock climbing accident kept her from working crush, but not wanting to wait another year for crush in Walla Walla, she headed to Argentina for their crush. There she met the woman destined to become Ashley's assistant winemaker, Claudia Maldonado Cuevas. Now it makes perfect sense how Mendoza, Argentina, became meshed with, of all places, Walla Walla, Washington!

Flying Trout Wines will be involved in annual winemaking ventures in Mendoza from February until May and in Walla Walla during the remainder of the year. Ashley and Claudia will work with grapes that have proven themselves in local soils, including Syrah in Walla Walla and Malbec in Mendoza. In the future, they look to broaden their repertoire by making wines that are still relatively new to our area such as Counoise, Malbec, Sangiovese and Torrontes. Torrontes is a white grape of Argentina that we have not yet seen in our valley. (We have seen a little Counoise, though, from Morrison Lane Vineyards.) Malbec and Sangiovese are more familiar. Flying Trout Wines will remain small, with a goal of producing at least 2,000 cases a year in Mendoza and 2,000 cases a year in Walla Walla.

But the crucial question: How did the wine taste? I didn't know what to expect from Ashley's new blend, to be honest, but I was blown away! At this time, only the 2004 "Deep River Red" available. It is an interesting blend that I had to ponder a while, but, sure enough, it works! It contains 41% Cabernet Sauvignon, 41% Syrah, 11% Merlot and 7% Cabernet Franc. With a combination like that, it's no surprise there's a lot going on with this wine. I enjoyed just sipping it, but I can also definitely see how it would pair nicely with a variety of foods.

First of all, I couldn't get over the nose: Very aromatic - like cherry pie baking, yet very smoky, too, like a cigar humidor. A sip from the glass and I picked up lots of cocoa, coffee, cherries and black brambleberries. This isn't a light wine, but very beefy and rustic. Yet velvety, too, with strong tannins and a lingering finish.

Flying Trout’s tasting room is open by appointment, or you buy wine from their website. You can also find the Deep River Red at Vintage Cellars wine bar in Walla Walla.

Boo-Hoo! Hand a Hankie to Wine X Magazine

Monday, February 19, Decanter magazine released the news that Wine X magazine has kicked the spit bucket.

If you have ever picked up a copy of the magazine or caught it online, you will remember it for "cutting edge" features like Wine Bitch and X-Rated, a creative XXX system of rating wines. I will remember the magazine as creators of the Jelly Belly Wine Bar. An educational tool using Jelly Bellies to create wine flavors like Chardonnay, Merlot and Cabernet (Cherry + Plum + BlackBerry + Dr. Pepper + Licorice + Bertie Botts Dirt + 1/2 Buttered Toast = Merlot). In fact, I blogged about this clever use of jelly beans in December, 2005.

Former founder and editor, Darryl Roberts had a great idea. The magazine was designed with young adults in mind. It was way to rid of stuffy wine-speak and make wine less intimidating and more interesting to the future Gen-X wine drinkers. At its best, the Santa Rosa, California based magazine sold over 330,000 issues a month. According to Decanter, Roberts leaves us with the impression that if you are involved in the wine industry, you do not care about future wine drinkers and are to blame for his magazine's unhappy-ending. He says the following:

"There's a lot of talk within the wine industry about marketing to young adults...new wines have been created, new wine divisions have been formed by large wine companies, all with the idea of targeting young adults... yet they give us absolutely no support... no interest in young adults...each issue is a struggle...I forgot I was dealing with the wine industry, an industry still stuck in the 80s. They don't want to market wine to young adults. Young adults don't drink wine."

At this time the majority of wine drinkers are probably from the Boomer generation, but a new generation of wine drinkers are not far behind. The Boomers have risen above in spite of memories from their youth of grocery store shelves filled with bottles of Blue Nun, Lancer and the Jug o' Gallo. We were left on our own to develop a taste for sophisticated and well-made wines. Today I can walk down those same grocery store aisles, but now I find bottles of wine with colorful labels of animals, charactures of "empowered" women, celebrities, and "hip" abstract designs with various prices and all designed to encourage purchases by the new wine drinker. Older generations of wine lovers did not have access to wine education via internet, community classes, and an abundance of books and magazines like we have now.

Alas, I have no answer for the demise of this magazine. Maybe the advertising department wasn't agressive enough? Maybe the magazine project was undercapitalized or maybe it lacked proper management? As the youngsters say, "What-evahhhh." In the mean time, while Editor Roberts points the finger at the wine industry, I am reminded of lyrics from an old Beatles song:

Cry baby cry

Cry baby cry

Make your mother sigh

She's old enough to know better

So cry baby cry.

Gifford Hirlinger Stateline Red - 2003

Last year I was given a gift of Gifford Hirlinger 2003 Stateline Red from the Walla Walla appellation. An interesting name for a wine. Where did it come from? Winemaker, Mike Berghan chose names, "Gifford Hirlinger" after two Walla Walla pioneers related to him.

Super Bowl Sunday gave me an opportunity to open the bottle and relax with a glass -- umm -- a few glasses. It is Gifford Hirlinger's first release of estate grown wine and only 320 cases were produced. Stateline Red is a table red blend of 58% Cabernet Sauvignon and 42% Merlot. The color was a brilliant ruby-red with lots of juicy berry notes going on. I picked up a smack of chocolate dipped strawberries and a touch of spice. The lively acid content makes this wine very food-friendly.

GH Stateline Red is a food wine that can be paired with something simple as a bowl of chili (like I did) or decadent like chocolate truffles. If you are looking for an everyday wine, you know - since the doctor has told us a glass of wine a day is good for our hearts, this makes an excellent and tasty heart medication!

Wine and Romance - Happy Valentine's Day!

"Something happens to people who love wine. You really discover a camaraderie. It’s not like coin collecting or something cynical. It’s like sharing love in a glass." --- Paul Smith.

Eric Asimov writes about Smith and his 65,000-bottle wine cellar in today's New York Times.

~February Cooking with Washington Wines~

Ahh - Valentine's Day! When I think of February 14, it makes me think of chocolate. So, I thought it appropriate that my recipe for February should be something chocolatey and gooey.

A couple of weeks ago, I had an impromptu dinner party. A simple party of homemade minestrone soup (made with leftover primerib and stock from the bones) and freshly baked, from scratch, cheese and garlic biscuits. About a half hour before my guests arrived, I realized I needed some sort of dessert. My cupboards were looking a bit lean of dessert ideas and then I remembered a dessert my mother use to make a lot -- Hot Fudge Chocolate Cake! It is an old Betty Crocker stand-by from the 1950-60's era with very simple ingredients. If you have simple baking ingredients, plus cocoa powder, then you can make this dessert in no time. It's a chocolate cake that makes it's own fudge sauce -- like chocolate magic! Best served warm with whipped or ice cream on top. My guests and I enjoyed this rich dessert with Washington Merlots from Woodward Canyon and Forgeron Cellars. Any rich and robust Merlot or even Cabernet Sauvignon or Cabernet Franc is going to make a perfect pairing with this dessert. Enjoy!

Hot Fudge Chocolate Cake

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup finely chopped nuts, optional
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup cocoa
1 3/4 cups hot water

Preheat oven to 350-degrees F. Mix the flour, sugar, 2 tablespoons cocoa, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Pour in the milk and oil and blend. Stir in the nuts, if desired. Pour into an ungreased 9x9x2-inch square pan. Stir the brown sugar and cocoa together and sprinkle over the cake batter. Pour the hot water over the batter.

Place dessert into oven carefully. Bake at 350-degrees F. for 45 minutes. While hot, cut into squares; invert each square onto a dessert plate and spoon sauce over the cake. Enjoy!

What Would Narcissa Think?

When I was a little girl growing up in Walla Walla, almost every spring our grade school would visit the Whitman Mission or "Waiilatpu" as it was sometimes called from the Native Cayuse name for "the place of the rye grass." Our teachers hoped our little craniums would absorb some knowledge of local history, but in truth the chance to breathe fresh country air was enough to get us all running out of our stale classrooms. But back then, we were taught that the Indians were the "bad guys" who killed our beloved Marcus and Narcissa Whitman. I suppose in the 1950 and '60s this was fairly typical: I mean, look at all those John Wayne movies where cowboys were the heroes and the Natives were savages. But times change and knowledge -- and the knowledge of history -- improves. Eventually, I came to understand the clash of cultures. Each side does what they think is the right thing.

In 1836 Marcus Whitman, a Presbyterian elder trained as a physician who also operated a lumber mill, and his wife, Narcissa Prentiss, lived at Waiilatpu on the Walla Walla River near Fort Walla Walla. The missionaries converted a few Indians to Christianity, but the mission served mostly as an important rest stop for pioneers on the Oregon Trail, though Whitman’s refusal to supply alcohol initially made relations with trappers and traders difficult.

Narcissa was one of the first two white women to cross the continent. She also birthed the first child born of white American parents in the Oregon Country. As women, we can admire Narcissa very much, because it was her journey that proved that it was possible for women to cross the country on foot, opening the way for more pioneer women. Converted at a religious revival at the age of 11, Narcissa decided she wanted to become a missionary. History tells us she was a loving woman with a sense of humor, but she was also a firm disciplinarian. She loved nature, and during picnics she would look at various plants and flowers. The Native Americans were kind to her.

But the clash of cultures proved to be too strong, in the end. In the beginning the local Natives thought the missionaries were okay, because they distributed valuable goods. However, the distribution was usually made in the name of Jesus, and eventually, the goods quit coming. A Cayuse tribe member complained "God is stingy." And baptism, as far as the Native Americans were concerned, had not improved their hunting. The missionaries' descriptions of heaven and hell also puzzled the locals -- the visions of hell especially depressed them. A Walla Walla Chief questioned: "Where are these laws from? Are they from God or from the earth?... I think they are from the earth, because, from what I know of white men, they do not honor these laws."

Over the summer and fall of 1847 the Natives began to view Marcus Whitman as an evil shaman using measles to kill them. And Dr. Whitman's measles treatment proved useless, because the Cayuse people lacked any immunity to the disease. On November 29, Dr. Whitman, his wife Narcissa, and 12 others at the mission were massacred by members of the the Cayuse and Umatilla tribes.

Our Walla Walla Valley is rich in history, and we have honored many of those who came here before us. I wonder, sometimes, what would Narcissa and her husband think about the new wine community that's sprung up on the land on which they once tried to convert Natives to a life of Christian temperance. Our largest landmark in Walla Walla, a hotel, is the home to visitors from all over the United States who visit Walla Walla to taste and buy our world-famous wines. A local winery carries the doctor's surname, another wine label bears the first name of his wife, and one of our best-known wineries is named for the original owners of this now-prolific wine land - Cayuse. Oh, and the name of the hotel? The Marcus Whitman.

Our intentions are honorable. We intend these names as a tribute. But I still wonder sometimes: what would Narcissa really think?

(Dates and facts from: http://www.nps.gov/archive/whmi)

Wine Library TV Finds Walla Walla

Gary from Wine Library TV found us!

Gary Vaynerchuk from Wine Library TV started his passion for wine at the age of 17, when he started reading Robert Parker and the Wine Spectator. From that point he was hooked. Thirteen years later, Gary brings us Wine Library. February, 2006 was the first launch of this popular wine vidcast. When he first arrived, I think he may not have been taken very seriously, but a year later he is still video-casting and now he boasts a huge following. I appreciate Gary's experience, knowledge, and thinking outside the traditional box. He is animated, exuberant and honest, and he speaks to his audience as if they were sitting across the table drinking a glass of wine with him. We watch him smack his lips, spit, and tip a full glass of wine to the viewer, and he uses words that aren't in the Parker/Spectator dictionary. This week he introduces his viewers to a look at Washington Wines #177. When describing two different vineyard-designated Syrahs from Cayuse Vineyards, he uses words and phrases like "...Skittles rainbow...shocked with a purple paintball in my mouth...Slim Jims..." -- and these are positive descriptions -- he loved the Syrahs! So he may not speak in traditional wine-geek terms, but his use of colorful yet common household terms captures the interest of a wine-newbie.

It is obvious to me that he is not some inexperienced fly-by-nighter wanting to make his mark in the wine Internet business. Gary backs up what he says. Most important, he backs up what he sells (who wants to buy wine on the Internet from someone who cannot taste the difference between a Sauvignon Blanc and a Roussanne?). Gary has visited every major wine region in the world. He is breaking the wine stereotypes and providing his viewers of all ages with a new outlook on wine - minus the intimidation.

I believe this is his second vidcast about Washington (note: the handwritten poster behind him -- "Wash St. is REAL"). Just yesterday I spoke with a couple of fellow wine bloggers about hosting a Wine Blogging Wednesday with the emphasis on Walla Walla wines. The concern was that perhaps not enough wine bloggers having access to Walla Walla wines, let alone knowing they exist. I disagree. Apparently Gary knows about the existence of Walla Walla wines, as five out of the nine Washington wines he discusses in episode #177 are from Walla Walla. It appears someone is drinking Walla Walla wines!

Wine Blogging Wednesday #30 - Strong Syrah Rootstocks in Walla Walla

WBW's assignment no. 30 is New World Syrah. Since the majority of wines I write are from the Walla Walla Valley in Washington State, I decided to go back to Syrah's beginning in the Walla Walla Valley.

Syrah didn’t arrive in Washington until the mid-1980s, and the first bottled Syrah in the state, made by Columbia Winery from the Red Willow vineyard planted by winemaker David Lake, wasn’t released until 1988. Syrah's story in Walla Walla begins more recently than that -- in 1995, in fact, when Berle "Rusty" Figgins opened Glen Fiona Winery. Does the Figgins name sound familar? It might. Rusty's brother, Gary, is owner and winemaker of one of Washington State's famous cult wines, Leonetti Cellar. Leonetti is known for their world famous Merlots and Cabernets, but Rusty chose another route to make his mark in Washington wine history. From Walla Walla to Wagga Wagga, Australia, he studied winemaking and viticulture, and along the way he learned to work with the grape called Shiraz in Australia and Syrah in its ancestral home, France's Rhone Valley. Rusty was just the third winemaker in Washington to work with this classic red. Indeed, soon Rusty was called the "Shah of Syrah."

Like a rolling stone, Rusty has moved on from Glen Fiona, but the winery still makes fine Rhone-style wines. The 2000 Glen Fiona Walla Walla Valley Syrah was co-fermented with Viognier, a white-wine grape, in the traditional style of Côte-Rôtie. It's a very aromatic wine, with a blueish-blackish color, smoky undertones, and a hint of licorice and black pepper. A couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to do a little lab work on some Glen Fiona Syrahs that were still in the barrel: they were inky, almost black, and provided a big mouthful of berries and licorice. From the barrel to bottle, they are still as complex.

What is it that makes eastern Washington, especially the Walla Walla Valley, ideal for Syrah? The Rhône Valley has a similar climate, especially in the hot summer, and a similar amount of sunlight. Christophe Paubert, the Bordeaux-born winemaker at Canoe Ridge Vineyard in Walla Walla, has remarked that quality in red wine begins in the skin, which is profoundly affected by sunlight. “Syrah in France can be floral and spicy, here it is concentrated with nice tannins. I think the best Syrah from here can compete with the best French Syrah,” he told my significant-wine-other Steve, who wrote about Syrah for the Mid-Columbian, an Eastern Washington magazine.

But when grapes ripen too fast from too much sun, the sugar rises without an accompanying increase in the critical flavor components called phenolics, so control of sunlight and heat is critical in a Walla Walla Valley Syrah vineyard. Syrah ripens in cooler temperatures than Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, but the cold, like sunlight, needs to be watched and controlled as well. Christophe Baron at Cayuse Vineyards, who I've written about previously, likes the rocky terrain south of Walla Walla; the rocks there retain heat in the chilly autumn nights, helping to finish the ripening of his Syrah in the crucial days just prior to harvest and crush. The result is a signature style for Cayuse vineyard-designated Syrahs: huge, rich and powerful.

Another winemaker from abroad attracted to the possibilities of Syrah in Washington is John Duval, who is known for putting Penfold’s "The Grange" Shiraz on the wine map -- this Australian wine is one of the finest red wines in the world. Now Duval has joined with Walla Walla-based Long Shadows Vintners, a team of high-profile winemakers from all over the world who make high-end speciality wines under the leadership of Allen Shoup, former CEO of St. Michelle, and with local winemaking advice from Gilles Nicault. John says he's attracted to the elegance and spicy character of the Washington Syrah grapes, as these qualities remind him of the best Syrah in France. The elegant Syrah he makes for Long Shadows is named "Sequel."

But Long Shadows, Cayuse and Glen Fiona aren't the only Walla Walla wineries making great Syrah these days. I think quite a few of our local winemakers make delicious wine from Syrah -- and it's in a distinctive Washington style, too, which is lush and complex, yet refined at the same time. You won't go wrong with Syrah from any of these Walla Walla wineries: Buty, Forgeron Cellars, Isenhower, L’Ecole, Morrison Lane, Reininger, Rulo or Spring Valley, among others.

The Nose Knows

A couple of weeks ago, when I described the exhilarating pear and floral notes I tasted in a Viognier, some friends scoffed. How could I smell pears and flowers in a wine -- unless it had been made with petunias and pear juice? Did I really know what I was talking about?

What about that chocolate I taste in a Merlot? Did the winemaker dump left-over chocolate Easter bunnies into the wine barrels? Oh, and the cat-pee smell in Sauvignon Blanc? Did they wrangle cats into the winery during the Sauvignon Blanc crush? Asparagus and green olives in a Cabernet Franc? You should be making dirty martinis with olive juice, not dirty wine. Wet dog smell? Did you wash your dog in the wine? Band-aid smell? Barn yard smell? Gout de merde! You are crazy, lady!

No, I'm not crazy. I am just a wine geek. A wine geek is a harmless person who swirls her orange juice in the morning, keeps a statue of Thomas Jefferson (the first American Wine Geek) by the wine rack, and runs to the nearest fainting couch with smelling salts when someone claims there is no such thing as terroir.

The facts are this: wine grapes have a tendency to pick up the flavors of the soil and elements in the surrounding environment as they grow in their vineyard. And some wine grapes naturally have chemical compounds similar to those found in the other things they might smell like -- that is, the pear notes in a Viognier come from a similar chemistry in parts of the Viognier grape and pears. Moreover, certain winemaking techniques, such as aging wines in oak barrels, add other traits that can be smelled and tasted in the finished wine. Raw fresh oak wood often has an aroma of vanilla; you'll smell vanilla, too, in certain wines aged in new oak barrels.

In 1995, Ann C. Noble, Emeritus Professor of Enology at the University of California-Davis, created the Wine Aroma Wheel, a pie-chart-looking wheel of aromas used to describe wine. Dr. Noble's years of research focused on the investigation of sensory and chemical factors which can affect perception of flavor. I was fortunate enough to take a course on Wine Sensory Evaluation from Dr. Noble a few years back. Besides the chemical factors, she explained that memories can be triggered by certain smells. That explained to me the nose-memories of my grandmother's kitchen during pie baking when smelling an older Merlot or Sangiovese.

Now, about that cat-pee. While New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc may have notes of grapefruit and kiwi, there may also be hints of boxwood bush -- a pungent mix of asparagus, green bean and bell pepper, which, all together, can smell like cat-pee. In fact, it's a specific chemical called pyrazine that's responsible for the feline toilette notes. This compound dissipates in the sun as the fruit ripens, so if the grapes are picked when they aren't fully ripe (which is desirable for certain wines and in certain conditions), the more pungent the resulting Sauvignon Blanc will be. Pyrazines are also found in green peppers, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. It is that compound that is responsible for the herbacious, green notes found in some red wines.

The older Rieslings from Germany often carry a kerosene nose that makes some wine aficionados swoon and others head for the spit bucket. These white wines with diesel or petrol-like fumes all have chemical compounds called terpenes, which are concentrated in the skins of the Riesling and Gewurztraminer grapes, especially, and can give off powerful smells of oil, gas, turpentine, citronella, and geranium. Winemakers usually try to mute these odors, but in some wines -- and wine markets -- the odors are actually desirable.

The chocolate and cocoa aromas and flavors that are often noted in red wines come from elements in Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot grapes. Cigar or cedar box characteristics in Cabernet Sauvignon comes from natural compounds formed when Cabernet Sauvignon meets yeast and the wood in oak barrels. Even a non-smoking wine lover finds this a complex yet desirable quality in high-end red wines. Vanilla tones in red or white wines can come from the oak barrels where the natural sugars from the wood are brought forth from being charred inside.

How about that creamy mouth feel that you get from a Chardonnay? Sometimes aromas of buttered popcorn or the taste of butterscotch or custard will awake on your tongue after a sip of Chardonnay. This is caused from malolactic fermentation. MLF is a natural process by which a young wine’s malic acid (for any non-wine-geeks among you: think green apples, which are full of malic acid ) is converted into softer lactic acid (think plain yogurt). Winemakers have learned how to control this process. Some may avoid the MLF process in order to emphasize a crisp tartness in their wine, while others want the creamy, buttery layers. The byproduct that MLF produces is called diacetyl. In fact, this compound can be found in the buttery yellow substance that is squirted on your movietime popcorn.

A fine Bordeaux might have notes of lavender if there are lavender fields surrounding the vineyard. A California wine might hint at the menthol smell of eucalyptus if the vineyard is surround by or near a grove of eucalyptus trees. In some Washington wines I smell or taste a bit of sage, which is not surprising considering how many Washington vineyards are bordered by sagebrush desert country.

This lesson in wine flavor chemistry is just the beginning. I haven't even begun to get on my soap box, speaking through my megaphone about the faulty chemical aromas found in wines. But that my non-wine-geek friends ...is another blog article.

(By the way, it is linalool that is found in Viognier. The same compound can be found in petunias and in your morning bowl of Tutti-Fruitti Loopies.)

WB: Primarius - Grenache

It’s not often that you see a Grenache with a Walla Walla winery label and when you do it needs discovering. Grenache is the leading grape grown in the southern Rhone region of France and eventually found its way into Washington State.

Waterbrook Winery introduced a new label called Primarius - lingua Latina for "the most distinguished." The WB Primarius label will only be available through Waterbrook’s downtown tasting room and will be a limited production of 350 cases or less.

The 2005 Grenache fruit for this most distinguished label came from one of the newest Washington State appellations, Wahluke Slope located in the Yakima area. The Stone Tree Vineyard is home to 450 acres Grenache clones planted in sandy loam. Historically, this land has been a desert.

Released last month, only 48 cases were made of this lovely cranberry colored liquid. Aged in 100% one-year-old oak barrels, the deep earthy undertones did not overpower the heady qualities of raspberries and vanilla. A very aromatic wine that almost over powered the taste, but when the wine settled on my tongue it was full in raspberry flavor and finished with bites of black pepper. I really enjoyed this wine and didn’t want to share (thank you Rachel for your generosity of sharing this wine), but remembered my manners.