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From the land of Austrailia comes this Viognier which proves to be rather light on the pocketbook at just under the $8 price and with it brings some interesting twists on the American Viogniers we’re more acustomed to.

There is absolutely no question that Austrailia really built its wine reputation with the wonderful Shiraz grape, however, there are other types of wine grapes which also do well in that part of the world. In this review we take a look at one of the more affordable Viognier offers from producer Oxford Landing.

Oxford Landing was established in 1958 near the Murray River in South Austrailia – this river breaths life into the clay-rich soils and helps make for a good growing environment since the annual rainfall is so low in the region.

Technical Data:
Winemaker Teresa Heuzenroeder
Region South Australia
Vintage 2006
13.5%
Harvested 21 February to 17 March 2006
Alc/Vol 13.5%
Total Acid 6 g/L
pH 3.39
Residual Sugar 2.8 g/L
Cellaring Now – 3 years

Nose: grass with pasture (like an old hay barn) smell backed up with crushed grapeseed, wet clay, passionfruit and magno notes and lavender buds.

Taste: Fresh cantelope and honeydew for days – some creamy butter components which are sharply followed by hints of straw and a flint-like finish which ends on a sour, bitter note for me – not a fan.

Overall Summary:
For $8, this isn’t a horrible effort yet it lacks the overall consistancy and structure across the palate which I like better. There’s no doubt that it does have some qualities which will cater to some folks, however, I’d rather shell out a few more dollars and get something from the likes of Maryhill or other Viognier producers which make better wines for only a bit more money.

If you’re at all curious about white wines from Austrailia, then you could easily use this wine as a cheap experiement and see what’s going on here.

W.E.P. Scale Rating: 80%

Winery Link

One of the state of Washington’s first premium wineries was Snoqualmie Vineyards. Now based in the small town of Prosser, Snoqualmie is part of the Ste. Michelle Wine Group (formerly known as Stimson Lane) and its winemaker, Joy Anderson is one of our state’s most under-recognized.

Her approach to wine and philosophy of making it helps her produce consistantly top-quality wines which win wide acclaim, however, I don’t really hear her name brought up as much as I think it should be in most wine circles.

A few years ago, Snoqualmie launched a “Naked” series of white wines which are all made from 100% organic fruit and have a very simplistic – let the fruit come out – profile to them.

Gewürztraminer is always a popular pick for Thanksgiving because its food-friendly and for its hint of spice, however, around here, it’s also a popular pick during the warm months of summer.

Technical Data:
Vineyards: 100% Organic Vineyards, Columbia Valley
First harvest: October 12, 2007
Brix: 23.6
Fermentation Data: Length 24 days
Yeast type: Prise de Mousse
Total acidity: 0.67g/100ml
pH: 3.14
Alcohol: 12.5%
Residual sugar: 2.51g/100ml
Blend: 100% Organically Grown Gewürztraminer

Color: Very light – similar color to pear juice

Smell: Heavy pear component, a hint of peach, grapefruit, cinnamon, allspice, lever-brand bar soap.

Taste: Very light fruit on the front palate, a bit nutty – a bit of cashew- on the mid and has the finish of a spicey pear. I’m also picking up a nice bit of minerality in the wine which I really appreciate. The finish for me, lingers around okay, but it’s like the shy kid in school who tries to come out of the shadows, but when recognized goes right back into being shy.

Overall Summary:
Not a bad effort at all on Joy’s part, this is a wine which will cater to those folks looking to get away from the over-sugared Gewurzt all too many have been plagued by. Its on the drier side which means its far more food-friendly and would easily carry over a nice turkey meal or thai food.

For around $11, this is a wine which is a very solid bottle and can be a great gateway wine between the folks caught up into the sweet crap out there – helping them to step on over to the drier side.

-duane pemberton

W.E.P. Scale Rating: 100%

Winery Link

Columbia Crest is – by many accounts – a tour de’ force of winemaking when it comes to tier-1 wineries who produce huge volumes and still keep snagging winning scores with wreckless abandon as if there’s no tomorrow.

It’s “yoda-like” winemaker, Ray Einberger, is a genius when it comes to proven know-how of producing award-winning wines at everyday prices most folks can easily afford. His entire line-up from the 2-vine up thru reserve have garnered wide acclaim for him and Columbia Crest as well as opening new doors for the Washington wine industry at large.

We decided to pair up their Grand Estates Chardonnay vs. their newly released H3 line – a wine which uses 100% Horse Heaven hills fruit to see how they stacked up.

2006 Grand Estates Chardonnay:

Technical Notes:

Vineyards • Columbia Valley

Harvest Date • September 8, 2006

Fermentation • 14 days, Premier Cuvée

Burgo Blanc, and Chanson yeasts

Alcohol • 13.5%

Total Acidity • 0.53 g/100ml

ph • 3.57

$8-$10

Vinification

• Whole berry Chardonnay was pressed, and the juice was held at 50 degrees in stainless steel tanks for two days.
• The settled juice was placed into a combination of new and one- to three-year-old American and French oak barrels.
• After initial fermentation, the wine was re-inoculated to begin malolactic fermentation.
• All barrels were hand stirred every week for nine months.
• Blending occurred after a total of nine months in the barrel.

Nose: Toasty pineapple with a hint of grapefruit, orange zest, bosch pear and lemon.

Taste: Good fruit on the front end which lingers good across the mid palate, however, sharply tapers off a the end. Ripe green apple skins mixed with hints of creamy butter, creme brule

2006 H3 Chardonnay:

Technical Notes:

Vineyards: Horse Heaven Hills

Total acidity: 0.52 g/100ml

pH: 3.58

Alcohol: 13.6%

$12-$15

Vinification

Whole berry Chardonnay from select vineyards was pressed, the juice was held at 50 degrees in stainless steel tanks for two days.

40% of the grapes were barrel fermented in new American and French oak, and 30% in older oak barrels to create complexity and maintain the fruit integrity.

30% of the juice was fermented in stainless steel to retain the minerality and fruit-forward elegance of the fruit, characteristics unique to the Horse Heaven Hills region.

Various yeasts were used at fermentation; the wines were then inoculated for malolactic fermentation.

All barrels were hand-stirred weekly for six to nine months.

Blending occured pre-bottling.

Nose: Gooseberry laden apples and pears which have been lightly toasted over a camp-fire. Big time toasted creme on the nose here with hints of some tropical action in the form of coconut, passion fruit and vanilla.

Taste: Nice fruit on the front- creamy mouth-feel on the mid palate with a nice cleansing sensation of the tropical fruits and coconut coming through. Solid effort.. good fruit without being over-oaked… I’m feelin’ this wine… would go stellar with any cream-sauce-based pasta or pizza.

Overall summary:
Once again, I did this blind – having my son pour me each wine in two different glasses without telling me which one was which. All in all, both are a solid effort and represent their respective prices very well – however, if pressed, I’d have to go for the H3 over the Grand Estates all day long.

Kudos to the winemaking team at Columbia Crest for doing a fine job of respresenting our state and making truely tasteful wines very affordable.

-Duane Pemberton

W.E.P. Scale Rating for the Grand Estates: 90%

W.E.P. Scale Rating:for the H3: 100%

Winery Link

Riesling has been said to be the “most food-friendly” grape available – its diversity is nothing short of incredible and it’s one of the “gateway” grapes to help folks come into the wine-world fold of things.

Over the past few years, however, this kick-ass grape started getting a bad reputation on this side of the Atlantic due to the fact we had so many wineries making “sugar-bombs” out of them. Those over-sweet efforts did nothing to truly showcase how wonderful this grape is and can be.

Thankfully, we’ve had quite a number of winemakers in this state who’ve started making rieslings in more dry fashion which has really whipped up the hype around it because it’s so much more food-ready now.

Technical Notes:

• Residual Sugar: 1.28g/100ml
• Alcohol: 12.9%
• pH: 3.06
• TA: 0.73 grams/100ml
• Release date: Summer 2008
• Production: 1,904 cases
• Vineyards: 32% Yakima Valley Vineyards, 32% “Old Vine” from Dionysus Vineyard, 19% Sonnet (Horse Heaven Hills) and 17% Weinbau Vineyard (Wahluke Slope)
• Price: $20

Nose: Orange cream-sicle combined with nice gorgeous floral components and some Fresh-Step cat litter – I also get a hint of chalk dust, peach skin and honeydew. There’s some good amount of flintiness going on which I really dig as well.

Taste: Outrageous silkily mouth feel – creamy and chalky at the same time. There’s an excellent balance of minerals, spice and fruit here. Apricot-laced marshmallows with nectarines. Excellent finish which wraps around your tongue and bosses it around for hours. Great complexity here with tons of depth.

Overall Summary:
There’s no doubt that this is one of the more exceptional rieslings I’ve had and the folks at Poet’s Leap should be glad to know they’ve done very well on this wine. Its winemaker, Armin Diel, had his German heritage really shine through on this wine – he did a brilliant job of combining that good German-quality while bringing out the best in what Washington State has to offer in its riesling. Kudos to him and his team – I’d easily hit this wine again in a heartbeat.

Foods I’d Hit it with:
Shellfish
Curry-based Pasta’s
Thai Food
Blackened Trout
Pan-seared Seabass
Bratwurst

-duane pemberton

W.E.P. Scale Rating: 120%

Not to be at all confused with the infamous basketball player, Jordan winery was started by Tom Jordan in the Sonoma region of northern California back in 1972. Its owner has always held the ambition of making world-class wines from that region which would easily go toe-to-toe with the best in the world.

It’s that same spirit of drive that he and his winemaker, Rob Davis, share and try their best to have the wine they produce reflect that character. This was my first time with Jordan wines so I was – of course – delighted to check them out.

Statistics:
APPELLATION: 94.1% Russian River Valley / 5.9% Alexander Valley�
BLEND: 100% Chardonnay
PH: 3.38
ALCOHOL LEVEL: 13.5%
BOTTLING DATES: June 12 – June 28, 2007
OAK: 100% French for 5 months
TIME AGED Sur Lie: 2 months

Nose: Mineral-covered lemon drops backed up with hints of pear and some melon rine.. Some toasted nuts do lace the background, however, don’t dominate the fruit coming through.

Taste: Layers of starfruit and lemon drop with slight hints of toastiness.. This is a lightly-oaked chardonnay which really lets the full fruit still be the rock-star. Hints of key-lime pie..edlerberry.

Summary:
It’s a solid effort by Jordan, however, it’s nothing you can’t find in other Chardonnay’s below it’s pricetag. For $30, I’d rather have two bottles of Terra Blanca Chardonnay. If you can find this for around $20, I’d give it a go, however, at its price of $29, it just doesn’t have enough to win me over.

W.E.P. Scale Rating: 70%

With its first, estate vineyard planted in 1998, Nefarious Cellars Winery – based in Chelan WA – is run by husband/wife team of Dean and Heather Neff. He makes the reds and she makes the whites – seems like a cool combination. We ran by their booth at the Taste WA event a couple of months ago and I’ve been intrigued by their wines since.

2007 Viognier: W.E.P. Scale Rating: %100

Technical information:
Ph: 3.25
TA: .62g/100mL
Alcohol: 13.0%
Residual Sugar .6 g/100mL
Stainless steel fermentation.
Vineyard: Defiance
This is the first wine to be released from our estate fruit located on the winery property in Lake Chelan.
Production: 198 cases
Official Release Date: April 18, 2008
Winemaker: Heather Neff
Price: $19

Nose: Pears, very floral, some apple components and orange peel going on which I appreciate.

Taste; Good spiciness coupled with bosch pears, apples and hints of green apple skin. Solid fruit across the entire palate with a nice, lingering finish. Excellent balance of acidity and fruit which I know will appeal to a lot of people.

2007 Viogner Summary:
I really liked this wine – a lot – as a huge fan of Viognier, I felt Heather really nailed this one. It screams summertime foods, spicy thai food or it’s just great to drink on its own. At $19 it’s a bit higher than competing bottles from the likes of Maryhill and other makers of fine Washington Viognier, however, does a great job of competing. If you’re new to Viogner and want to taste a great one, then give this a go.

2006 Cabernet Franc: W.E.P. Scale Rating: 90%

Technical information:
PH: 3.68
TA: .60 g/100mL
Alcohol: 14.0%
This wine spent 18 months in all French oak barrels. 33% is new and the remainder once-filled.
Vineyard: Weinbau Vineyard, Wahluke Slope AVA
Production: 70 cases
Official Release Date: June 1, 2007
Winemaker: Dean Neff
Price: $28

Nose: Creamed cherries and raspberries on the nose. Some big-league chew bubble gum as well. White pepper.

Taste: huge dark cherry component mixed with chocolate, vanilla and pepper. The finish lingers on quite nicely – this would be a great wine with prime rib or peppered steaks.

2006 Cabernet Franc Summary:
Most of you know I’m a huge fan of quality-to-price-ratio – having said that, there are definitely some things to appreciate about this wine – it has good complexity, finishes well and is very food-friendly. My only dilemma is its price – at $28, there are other wines in that price category which I favor a bit more. If you can find this wine at retail for well under $25, I’d easily recommend it is a good bottle and should be tried by folks. If Nefarious can get the price down a bit, we’d have an easy contender.

When I first tried wines from Forgeron a few years ago at a public tasting at Esquin Wine Merchants in Seattle, I knew at the time this was a winery which was on to something good. I can recall how much I especially enjoyed their “Red Table Wine” (now called Walldeaux Smithie Red) and found it to be an exceptional value for around $16 at the time.

Its winemaker, Marie-Eve Gilla, got her eduction at Dijon University in France and brings many of the old-world qualities in her wines. What you’ll find with most of her reds are not wines that’ll have instant appeal to those who are used to new-world fruit bombs. What you typically find are wines which are balanced, focused and tend to be good contenders amongst their peers at each price level.

2006 Chardonnay: W.E.P. Scale Rating: 100%

Composition: 98% Chardonnay, 2% Lonesome Springs Orange Muscat

Vineyards: Evergreen, Stillwater, Weinbau, Gamache, Den Hoed, Crawford, Underwood, Beckleton

Analysis: pH: 3.49

Total Acidity: 0.76

Alcohol: 14.1%

Residual Sugar: <0.2%

Bottling Date: May 30, 2007

Barrels 100% Burgundian Oak, 1/3 new and 2/3 used

Price: $25.00 (750ml)

Smells like: Lemon drop blended with river rock and laced with some toasted vanilla, green apple, wheatgrass and butterfinger bar.

Tastes like: lemon drop honeysuckle, elderberry and grapefruit lightly coated with toasted marshmellows. Very dry on the finish – this is definitely not the new world oak bomb so many folks are (unfortunately) used to. It’s a very refreshing take on Chardonnay and one I’d highly encourage you to seek out and give a whirl. Long butterfinger smashed in with river-rock finish..

2006 Chardonnay Summary: I dig this wine and think it’ll really surprise some folks as to how good Chardonnay can be when it’s not over-oaked. Anyone who’s out there drinking down the Kendall Jackson’s and other California wood-products, needs to try this wine.

Walldeaux Smithie: W.E.P. Scale Rating: 50%

Composition: 55% Merlot, 24% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10.5% Syrah, 7% Zinfandel, 3.5% Cabernet Franc

Vineyards: 28% Red Mountain (Klipsun), 33% Walla Walla (Ash Hollow & Pepperbridge), 22% Horse Heaven Hills (Alder Ridge), 17% Yakima Valley (Boushey)

Price: $16.00

Smells Like: stong cherry cola component coming through with obvious hints of cherries and blackberries with some shoe-leather to chew on..A new nike shoe smell – that sorta rubbery tennis shoe smell..
I pick up a little bit of cremecicle… forest floor and chocolate…

Tastes Like: This is a wine that would do well to decant for at least an hour – it has super tight tannins if you don’t. Blueberries, chocolate and some Red Man tobacco and black pepper. The finish for me is too short – there are other wines in this price range I’d gravitate towards.

Walldeaux Smithie Summary:
As I mentioned in the tasting notes, there are too many other wines in the $16 price range that simply outclass this wine – a few that come to mind are the Fidelitas m100, Townshend Cellars T3 and the 2005 Chateau Lagaroose. I’ll have to pass on this one for now.

2003 Cabernet Sauvignon: W.E.P. Scale Rating: 100%

Composition: 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc

Vineyards: Pepperbridge, Klipsun and Alder Ridge Vineyards.

Harvest Dates: September 13th – October 10th, 2003

Barrels: 80% French, 20% American and Eastern European, 50% New, 50% Used

Bottling Date: May 14, 2006

Price: $30.00

Smells like: dirty sock, leather and cherries and a hint of darker fruits like black raspberry..

Tastes like: cherries for days mixed with some huckleberry, old glove, vanilla and pomagranite. lots of chocolate and tobacco on the end – nice lingering finish with hints of white pepper.

2003 Cabernet Sauvignon Summary:
Once again, like the Chardonnay, this Cab comes from the old-world school and is not going to cater to everyone – but screw them – this wine is good stuff and needs to be tried by folks who think that the typical fruit-bombs they pound with wreckless abandon are all there is. Give me the old-world dark fruit all day long combined with the killer tannins and layers of multiple flavors.

2003 Merlot: W.E.P. Scale Rating: 60%

Composition: 100% Merlot

Vineyards: Klipsun, Boushey, Clifton and Alder Ridge Vineyards.

Harvest Dates: September 10th – September 27th, 2003

Barrels: 35% New French Oak, 41% Used French Oak, 24% New Eastern European & American Oak,

Bottling Date: June 1, 2005

Price: $27.00

Smells Like: Blackberries, blueberry with plums- hints of tar, tobacco and wilted asparagus. I also picked up some clove nutmeg and some stinky mud.

Taste: Good mouth-feel, a bit spicey – good plum and dark fruit component, but the finish is a bit hot for me.

2003 Merlot Summary:
Here’s a wine that had a great opportunity to make friends with my palate – it served up many of the great components it longs for in a well-made red wine, however, it just simply finished too hot on the back-end which destroyed the pleasure I had from the front to the mid palate. For $27, there are other wines which capture my eye.

2003 Syrah: W.E.P. Scale Rating: 100%

Composition: 100% Syrah

Vineyards: Les Collines, Boushey, Milbrandt, Stonetree, Den Hoed

Harvest Dates: September 19th – October 3th, 2003

Barrels: 49% new oak, 51% one and two years old

Bottling Date: May 31, 2005

Price: $30.00

Smells like: Mud-riddled Cherry cola, tobacco, chocolate, blackberry and pie crust.

Tastes like: This is a rather non-jammyesque syrah which is rather typical of the variety. It has a healthy amount of fruit forward components like blackberries and black cherries etc, but really picks up the cola aspect across the mid-palate for me. The finish lingers very nicely – perhaps longer than other syrah’s I’ve had of late. The finish lingers with a nice, long plum and blueberry component.

2003 Syrah Summary:
This is one of my favorite reds out of the bunch in this round – it really does an exceptional job of capturing the essence of Syrah and brings with it some great mout-feel, good old-world flavors balanced with the fruit so many folks love as well.

2005 Zinfandel: W.E.P. Scale Rating: 50%

Composition: 100% Zinfandel

Vineyards: Alder Ridge, Clifton and Les Collines Vineyards.

Harvest Dates: September 15th – October 6th, 2005

Barrels:90% American oak, 10% French

Bottling Date: May 30, 2007

Price: $30.00

Smells like: Tobasco, celery stock, asparagus, vanilla, sour cherries with some blackberry and Fennel bulb.

Taste: Explosive tobasco-laden black-cherry jam – excellent on the mid-palalate with a finish that lingers just okay but tapers off way to quickly for a wine of this price.

2005 Zinfandel Summary:
Here’s a wine which is priced in an area where is poised to compete against the likes of the Maryhill Reserve Zin, Montevina Terra Doro and other great Zinfandels (primarily from California) but doesn’t hold up. There are far too many Zins in this price-range which have a better finish and more jammy mouth-feel (which I appreciate in my Zins).

Conclusion:
Okay, so we did a 50/50 split here but that’s about what I expected – can’t win em’ all but the wines here that won me over are ones you all should seek out and try.

All in all this overall round-up of Forgeron wines helped cement the idea to me that it’s a winery which folks really need to pay more attention to. It’s obvious that Marie-Eve’s passion for the old-world carries a major influence in the varrying styles of wines she produces. I really appreciate how they hold their wines and don’t quickly release them before their ready. To be drinking 2003 reds in 2008 is great and I only wish more wineries would envoke this practice of holding wines.

There was a time not too many years ago when I (like many of you) had a slogan of “A.B.C.” – anything but chard – and we can largely thank the state of California and its parade of over-oaked fanboys for that. chardonnay is a gorgeous grape which has been a staple around the world for centuries. There are many reasons for this, however, I think it’s because chardonnay one of the more approachable white grape varieties available by an overwhelming majority of both wine drinks and folks new to wine.

Thankfully, there are wineries out there who’ve heard the cries of us who’ve been stung by the over-oaked, over-saturated chardonnay’s and have aimed to put their grapes on less oak. This 2004 Estate-grown chardonnay from Terra Blanca is an excellent wine for well under $12 which means it’s very price-competitive to the over-oaked, “grocery brands” so many folks are buying.

TECHNICAL DATA
Harvest: Sugar – 22.3º Brix
Titratable Acidity – 0.75g/100ml
pH – 3.34
Bottle: Titratable Acidity – 0.72g/100ml
pH – 3.39
alcohol – 13.5% by volume
2004 Chardonnay
Red Mountain Estate Vineyard
100% CHARDONNAY

I emailed Terra Blanca’s Owner/Winemaker, Keith Pilgrim, about this chardonnay because I wasn’t picking up much oak at all and here was his reply:

Chardonnay is probably the varietal that the styles produced on the west coast from Washington to California have changed or evolved more than any other wine.  When we made our first estate Chardonnay in 1997 from grapes planted on the only slightly cooler spot on our Red Mountain site (it slopes slightly to the east and north rather than south and west as the rest of the property does) the wine was 100% barrel fermented in all French oak with about 40% of the barrels being new and the remainder 1 to 3 years old and the wine was 100% ML. 

At the time the market was hung up on 200% new oak Chardonnays that you needed a chainsaw rather than a glass to get through.  Ever since that first vintage we have been slowly reducing the oak profile of the wines, first through selection of French coopers that imparted less vanilla and butter flavors and selection of ML bugs that produced very little of the butter flavor.  By 2000 we were starting to ferment part of our Chardonnay in stainless then blending the stainless and barrel fermented fractions to complete the wine.  We have continued to lessen the oak impact on our estate Chardonnay and the 2004 vintage represents 50% stainless fermentation with no ML blended with 50% barrel fermented in all French oak barrels from 5 different coopers (down from about a dozen) with 100% ML, of which 1/3 of the barrels were new. 

But that’s not the whole story, we have also sorted the coopers for the barrels to those that produce more mineral, flint and toasty flavors, eliminating those that were more dominate vanilla and butter flavors, the result is wine that shows more of the red apple and tropical flavors supported by mineral and and slight toasty notes.  Our estate Chardonnay has continued down the same trend and is now 65% tank fermented with no ML and 35% barrel fermented with 100% ML and about 30% new French Oak from 2 coopers (the majority of the barrels are Latour).  We also have continued to make a small lot of Chardonnay from the same fruit that is called Block 5 Chardonnay and uses 100% new oak (all Latour barrels) that produces an almost Chablis like mineral flavor with some toasty notes on the finish.  Prior to the 2004 Chardonnay releases, most guests would assume that the estate Chardonnay with at the time almost half stainless and the remainder less than 50% new oak to show more oak than the Block 5 Chardonnay which has always been 100% new oak, but all the more minerally Latour French Oak barrels (aka Chateau Latour, they make there own barrels and sell a small number on allocation).

If you’re one of those Kendall Jackson-type folk – I do beleive there is professional help available now to help get that oak-plank off your tongue.

Nose: Grapefruit skin, apple, pear, toasted marshmellow, elderberry, fresh pea gravel.

Taste: A slight toasted nuts component, hint if kiwi, pistachio, lemons, slight butter with obvious tropical fruits and light spice on the finish.

Summary:
Keith nailed this wine – it’s an excellent bridge-wine for those who need to stop with the Kendall Jackson B.S. and get with the program. It’ll still have some of the toastiness those folks think they like yet introduce them to much more of the gorgeous fruit flavors of the chardonnay grape.

If you love chardonnay, buy more of the budgeted wines and want to taste some excellent fruit from Red Mountain, then go out today and snag a bottle or two of this wine.

This is my opinion, however, you really need to try this wine and form your own – remember, it’s all about embracing your own palate, not mine.

I’d easily pair this with the following foods:- Shrimp scampi
- Classic Ceasar salad
- Dried fruits with stinky cheeses and nuts
- Chicken parmesan
- Fetucinni Alfredo

I’m not sure if it’s quite yet achieved cult-like status, but there’s little doubting riesling’s recent come-back as a serious white-grape contender for your dollars. I’m personally glad to see wineries making good, dry stuff and forgoing the ultra-cheap-tasting, over-the-top-sugar crap we see all to often in your local grocery store.

Mildbrandt Vineyards 2006 Traditions Riesling
Mildbrandt Vineyards, based in Mattawa Washington, is owned and operated by Butch Milbrandt and he’s done a great deal for the industry at large up here by selling his fine grapes to many other wineries in the region and being an overall good guy for us to have in our backyard.

He hired former Chateau Ste. Michelle winemaker, Gordon Hill to come make wines under the Milbrandt label and they’ve enjoyed a pretty good success rate so far. Milbrandt prides itself on offering excellent quality juice for fair prices.

Smell: A bit awkward, very one-dimensional for me – there are very slight hints of grapefruit, melon rine and spice – but you really have to get yer nose into it bigtime to pick anything out of it.

Taste: orange peel, granny smith apple, pineapple, very high acidity which leaves your tongue in shambles after it’s done. I appreciate the bite in my whites, but this one is beyond the pale.

Milbrant Riesling impressions: At the $11 price I paid, i’d give this wine a pass as there are far to many other wines in its same pricerange which I think are more appealing.

Pacific Rim 2006 Dry Riesling:
This is a winery which has been spread all over the west coast – in fact this wine was originally bottled in Santa Cruz CA (Hippie-town-USA). Since that time, the business side of Pacific Rim has undergone some changes but its unadulterated love and passion for riesling still remains faithful.

I sampled this wine at the Taste (the 2007 version) and really appreciated the approach Nicolas (their winemaker) takes. He uses 80% fruit from Washington State and 20% from Mosel in Germany. The final product is one that does an admirable job of blending old and new-world elements.

Nose: Fresh apricots, pineapple, green apple, hint of orange peel, sour lemon drop candy
- whip cream.

Taste: Good fruit, great acidity which cuts thru like a razor blade… good, lingering finish.. Granny smith apple peel..

Pacific Rim impressions: This is a wine which has stayed pure to the essence of the fruit – no oak here folks – and in doing so represents a tremendous wine value which will shove all sorts of bright fruits up into your palate. I enjoy it and for $11, I’d hit it all day long. If you gave me this wine on a sunny day with a plate of either raw oysters or oysters rockefeller – it’d be pure bliss.

Conclusion:
At the two identical price-points, there’s absolutely no reason for me to look at the Milbrandt – it’s very disjointed and simply lacks the backbone and complexity of the Pacific Rim effort. Great job Nicolas, you and your team have put together an excellent bottle of vino for under the $12 price barrier.

Foods to go with these wines:
- Raw oysters
- Clam linguini with a lemon-caper cream-sauce
- Fresh trout roasted with fresh dill and lemon
- Shrimp cocktail

There was a time when I was telling people “life’s too short to drink white wine – when there’s so much red wine around”. To many wine drinkers, the thought of going back to whites sounds awfully newbish in the sense that most of us started out on whites before “graduating” to reds.

I’m well aware of the fact that all to many white wines don’t have the tannin structure we really enjoy with red wine, however, a properly made white can offer its own – somewhat unique – experience.

One recent white one which I acquired was from Saintpaulina Vintners, based out of Woodinville WA. They are a very small winery whose ambition and passion – like so many other wineries its size – lies in producing the best wines of each varietal they can.

Only 80 cases of this wine were made, so I highly doubt you’ll be able to find it at any store – Paul Shinoda – the winery’s owner and winemaker, did tell me they’re selling it for $8 bux a bottle. The wine isn’t listed on their website, however, be sure to ask Paul about getting some.

Alcohol: 13.2%
Oak: Neutral Oak

Color: Golden – light apple juice color

Smell:
Hint of toasted Ivory soap, lemongrass, hay, green apple, lemon zest, nutmeg, honeycomb

Taste:
Take some crisp green apples, roll them in a bit of straw hay, put a slightly toasted marshmallow on top and that’s what you have for a starting taste. Follow that up with a hint of flint stone, roasted cantaloupe, lemongrass, bosch pear and candied lemon drops – then you have the flavor of this wine.

Mouth-feel:
Feels very “wet” in the truest sense of the word with a good viscosity on the front and mid palate. A decent finish in a very thirst-quenching sort of way.

Foods:
This wine would easily tear-up some clam with lemongrass linguini in a mild yellow curry sauce. I’d have no problems pairing it with any sort of shellfish, sea bass, catfish or even pan-seared trout with a saffron sauce.

Overall:
For only $8-bux, this is an incredible QPR wine that should highly be saught-out by those who think they don’t like white wines and those who want a good white wine experience. I’d hit this wine all day long.

Don’t take my word for it, however, as you really need to seek this wine out, coddle it, love it and ultimately embrace your own palate.

W.E.P. Scale Rating: 150%