Posts tagged with 'Syrah'

Knipprath Cellars Is Doing It Right

  • Posted on March 3, 2010 at 10:45 pm

I recently had the pleasure of visiting one of Spokane, Washington’s most unique wineries, Knipprath Cellars.  The winery is located in an old schoolhouse.  It’s very quaint, though a bit chilly the day I visited.  I was greeted at the top of the stairs by Sinay, who was manning (or in this case, womanning) the tasting room this particular day. 

I knew very little about Knipprath Cellars except that there WAS one, so I asked many questions and Sinay answered them one by one.  I found out that Knipprath Cellars is a family owned winery that just celebrated ten years of being a full time winery.  All in all I tasted 13 different wines including Roussanne, Syrah, Tempranillo, Merlot and a whole slew of dessert wines, which seems to be their niche.

Of the typical wines I really liked the 2007 Tempranillo and the 2006 Merlot. 

The Tempranillo was very good with some prune on the back of the tongue.  They combined fruit from both the Lodi (California) and Columbia Valley (Washington) Appelations, which I find very interesting.

The Merlot was also very good, with peppery notes.  I have found pepper to be a mainstay of wines I really like.  This would REALLY pair well with smoked cheeses!  Yum!

Although I DID enjoy their Pink, which is a Rose of Merlot (it was very swishy, not that I even know what that means!), the 2003 Matrix Port, which had black licorice flavors with a hint of nuttiness, and the NV Positron Port, which was very rich, I liked the LaV (pronounced, “La Vee”) Dessert Wine and Au Chocolat! the most.

The LaV Dessert Wine is fabulous!  My notes say, “Wow!”  I could have written, “Pow” as well.  Full on vanilla in this dessert wine that is absolutely wonderful.  I bought a half bottle of this to surprise Shelley and had it waiting for her with a bath I ran for her one night.

The other is a perfect fit with the LaV Dessert Wine, Au Chocolat!  Obviously, THIS one is heavy on the chocolate.  As I tasted this it got better and better as it opened up in my glass.  I would recommend either of these two if you like after dinner dessert wines at all.  I’ve only recently began to enjoy these wines and the more I try ‘em the more I like ‘em.

It would be worthy to note that I tried their Coffee Port even though I really am NOT a coffee drinker (I have never even had a cup of coffee in my life!).  It had a wonderful nose but not such a good taste.  Then Sinay did something interesting:  She added a small amount of the LaV Dessert Wine to the Coffee port and that REALLY softened it up to where I liked it better.  It is probably still something I wouldn’t drink if I had the choice, not because it’s not good, but because I just don’t like the taste of coffee.  I know, what’s wrong with me?  If you asked my daughters they would tell you the list is long! 

Knipprath Cellars will be one of the featured wines at the 6th Annual Poverty Bay Wine Festival in Des Moines, Washington this weekend, March 5, 6 and 7.  I certainly wish I could attend this gala event but since I will be heading into that area the following weekend for my Dad’s 70th birthday celebration I don’t think it’s going to happen. 

But that doesn’t mean YOU shouldn’t go and taste some Knipprath wine.  Or, when you’re next in Spokane, cozy up to the tasting room bar in the old schoolhouse and try some very warm, soothing dessert wines from Knipprath Cellars as well as their other wines.  You’ll be glad you did.

Thank you again for reading and bottoms up!

Walla Walla Wine Wine Time Time

  • Posted on January 20, 2010 at 4:07 pm

Yes, I know, it’s a silly heading.  Walla Walla actually uses that tag line of repeating words to market their wine region.  So I borrowed it.  We were fortunate enough to be able to experience the Walla Walla wine region not too long ago and, although we expected good things I don’t think we were quite prepared for what we got. 

The wine being produced in Walla Walla is sensational.  Even the juice that wasn’t great was still good.  Walla Walla is located due South of Spokane, Washington in the Southeast corner of the state.  It’s about a 262 mile drive from Seattle and 158 miles from Spokane.  This was our first time in Walla Walla and it was beautiful.  We had great weather as the sun was out.

We were able to visit eleven wineries:  Woodward Canyon Winery, L’Ecole No 41, Gifford Hirlinger, Beresan Winery, Balboa Winery, Basel Cellars, Trio Vintners, Kontos Cellars, Dunham Cellars, Cavu Cellars and Waterbrook.

Our first stop was at Woodward Canyon where we were met by Kellie Berg, the tasting room manager, who was extremely friendly and nice to us.  I tasted six of their wines with my favorites being their 2008 Burgundy styled Chardonnay, NV Columbia Red Wine (52% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot and 14% Syrah), Artist Series #15 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon (which actually had a bit of Syrah and Merlot in it) and 2006 Estate Red.   The best value of the bunch was the NV Columbia Red Wine, which at $20 is a true bargain.

The following day, while having breakfast at the Hotel, we met a couple who live in Coeur d’Alene named Jen and Mark.  They were also visiting Walla Walla to taste wine.  We found out they go to the same church as we go to, Lake City Community Church.  Small world–but I wouldn’t want to paint it. 

As we made our way out for another day of wine tasting we were joined by my friend, Aaron Pang, who ran the valet company I was a part of for many years in Seattle, as he now lives with his wife in Walla Walla.  We were impressed with two wineries, Basel Cellars and Gifford Hirlinger.

Basel Cellars Estate Winery is located on a bluff overlooking their vineyard and the surrounding area.  It is absolutely beautiful.  They have a huge tasting room and we were lucky enough to meet Becky Basel, one of the owners of the winery.  We tasted nine different wines there including, but not limited to, Claret, Merlot, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, and Carmenere. 

The two that knocked our socks off were the 2005 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, which is 100% of that varietal, and the 2007 Carmenere.  I love Cabernet Sauvignon and this one was delicious.  But the one that caught our attention was the Carmenere.  As you know, I don’t fancy myself as an expert in wine, but it has certainly become a passion of mine.  I had not heard of Carmenere before and when I found out it was one of the SIX Bordeaux varietals I was shocked.  I thought there was only FIVE Bordeaux varietals. 

The Carmenere grape, I found out, was wiped out many, many years ago (like around 200 years ago) and the French decided not to replant it.  It did make it’s way to Chile and Argentina and those vines somehow made their way to Walla Walla.  This 2007 Carmenere was sensational, with bell pepper on the nose and a lot of richness and depth.

Gifford Hilsinger Winery

Gifford Hilsinger Winery and Tasting Room.

Our last stop of the day was Gifford Hirlinger, which is run by one man who wears many hats, Mike Berghan.  He was SO down to earth.  We were the only ones in the tasting room at the time, the sun was setting and it was a picturesque view outside the very contemporary building. 

The winery is right on Washington/Oregon state line, which is why he named one of his reds Stateline Red.  We tasted the 2007 version of this which was 50/50 Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.  Most all of the juice he makes is from his vineyard with the exception of his LV.  The 2007 uses 90% Napa, California Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Walla Walla Merlot.  That one had a lot of tannins.  He also makes a wonderful Petit Verdot, which was blended with 11% Merlot, and is VERY good.

The barrel top lazy susan we brought back from Dunham Cellars.

This is the barrel top lazy susan we brought back from Dunham Cellars.

The last day’s highlights were Dunham Cellars where I actually tried ten of their wines.  Dunham has won many awards for their wine over the years as their quality is exceptional.  We purchased a barrel top with a lazy susan that we use in our kitchen.

We also enjoyed our stop at Trio Vintners, a small, new winery, located in the airport district of Walla Walla.  There we ran into our new old friend, Carmenere once again.  This time, we had to bring a bottle back home with us, which we have yet to open.  I will write about that for sure when that happens.

On our way out of town we made a “quick” stop at Waterbrook where Shaun “forced” us to stay for God only knows how long.  In all seriousness, the ONLY thing that I didn’t like was the fact they had the Seattle Seahawks on the big screen losing aNOTHer game.  The upside of that was it only made me want to try yet another one of their wines.

This was the only stop in our weekend that had a complementary tasting, and they didn’t skimp on how many wines they opened, either, as 15 were offered to try.  I didn’t try them all but I did taste nine of them.  My favorite was their 2005 Meritage which had a very nice nose and was delicious.  They also make a Sangiovese Rose which was nice as we’ve been sampling Rose’s as of late.  Waterbrook Winery is producing more wine than all but two wineries in the state of Washington.  What impresses me is they can produce that much wine and still put out a quality product. 

Even though I only elaborated on a handful of wineries we visited we did not have a bad experience in any of them.  To a winery, the people were friendly and knowledgeable.  The great thing about tasting wines in a tasting room is that if they are busy you make conversation with the people you are with while enjoying new experiences in wine.  If they’re NOT busy, you can tap the person behind the counter for information about the winery, winemaker, the history of the winery and so forth. 

So, as this new decade has started so has my resolution to produce more blog posts than the end of last year.  I know I’ve already written about that before but this time I mean it because, after all, it’s a resolution.  I HAVE to do it!

Also, I am very excited and pleased to announce that I am putting together a telesummit for early fall that will teach people about wine from square one.  When I started learning about wine I noticed it can be very intimidating and if I hadn’t been a person that doesn’t really care what people think of me, I might not have gone forward with learning about wine like I have. 

The world of wine is huge.  Wine has never been more popular than it is today and people in all walks of life are wanting to learn more about wine.  With that being said, I am compiling a group of experts that I will interview about wine.  Each will cover a topic and they will likely include the following:  Chardonnay, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc (the three big whites), Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir (the three big reds, at least to me), labels (and how to read them), off the beaten path whites, off the beaten path reds and wine etiquette, among other topics.  If you are somebody or know of somebody who would like to start learning about wine keep visiting General Wine Thoughts for more information!

Also, if you have something that you want to know about, write a comment on this blog or e-mail me at aphilip369@aol.com or direct message me on Twitter. 

Also, for those of you that have stuck with me through last year, I want to thank you.  The first “real” blog I wrote was on January 19th of last year.  This one marks the start of 2010 and it promises to be even better.  As you might recall I made predictions for both of the NFL Conference Championship games and I was 50%.  This year I will make yet another prediction for this weekends games.  In the AFC, I have to say, it’s hard to go against the Jets since they are the Arizona Cardinals of this year and Gary Vanerchuck lives and dies with the Jets.  I do, however, have to go with the Colts winning in a very close game.  The Jets defense will keep it close.

On the other side of the league the Saints will beat the Vikings 48-13.  I know that sounds extreme but Favre just makes me want to….well, never mind.  Saints win.  The Colts versus the Saints in “The Big Game” (I don’t want to get fined by the NFL for using the other term when I haven’t paid to use it!).

Until next time, bottoms up and thank you SO MUCH for reading!

A Lovely Taste of Townshend

  • Posted on May 6, 2009 at 6:28 pm

Right off the bat I want to thank all those new General Wine Thoughts subscribers.  If you’re one of them, and you know who you are, I hope you will enjoy the casual talk of wine.  My goal is to teach people from the ground up, from square one, from the beginning about wine.  People often are intimidated when discussing wine and, although there is certainly a lot to learn about wine, you can still have a broad understanding of the different varietals and what to look for.  I will be covering this as well as other opinions and, well, thoughts, during the coming months but I WILL go slow.  Hey, I have my whole life to explain this stuff!

Now, about White Table Wine, Syrah and Viognier!

One of the many incredibly fun things about enjoying wine is meeting so many great people that share the same passion for wine.  As I found myself around the Green Bluff area just North of Spokane, Washington, I felt compelled to stop by the tasting room of an old friend, Townshend Cellar.  It seems like where ever I see Townshend Cellar set up (Taste Washington, Food Services of America events, etc…) I see Jill Rider.  Her Business card says she is the Director of Sales and Marketing for the winery but she is also the General Manager and manages the tasting room and winery events and she does a stellar job, from what I can see.  Really, what DOESN’T she do?  The last time we were there it was myself, Shelley, her dad, Lloyd, and our newest pup, Izzie (see the last post for pictures of all!).

In fact, while visiting with Jill during this “out of the blue” stop, the winemaker, Don Townshend, called her to let her know he had just returned from his trip to Italy.  Undoubtedly, a wine driven trip to be sure.  The story of Townshend is refreshing.  Don debated for years on whether or not he should make wine.  Having never made wine he took the leap of faith after attempting a Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in 1995, bottling them in 1998 and realizing they tasted as good or better than some of the best California and Washington wines.

Now, Townshend Cellar makes about 10,ooo cases of wine a year and offers around 20 different wines for their customers to choose from.  Their most popular wine is probably their T3 which is a non-vintage Bordeaux blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc.  I see this wine on many restaurants’ wine lists and we have a bottle of that in our cellar, as well as their Vortex, 2002 Late Harvest Merlot and 2005 Syrah (which I just purchased when I was there). 

The other night we opened their White Table Wine which consists of Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier and Chardonnay.  For a price of under $11 you can’t really go wrong.  It was very crisp from the first sip.  Shelley tasted the Viognier right away and thought there may be too much of it.  She thought it was syrupy and slightly metallic.  I noticed there was a tartness to it right at the back of the tongue.  We also noticed hints of apples and apricots on the nose and I also tasted the apricots.  I was captured by the legs on this wine–the wine just seemed to cling onto my glass!  (Check out my next post when I will explain all about the “legs” of wine.)

All in all, we enjoyed this White Table Wine.  They also make a Red Table Wine.  In the never ending quest of coming up with labels that will catch the eye of the consumer the labels on these wines simply have a white table and red table, respectively.  Simple, to the point and catchy.

As for their Syrah–I bought the recently released 2005 while I was there but we already owned a bottle of the 2004 from our last trip to Townshend and we chose to open that.  We drank this with barbequed ribs which was quite tasty.  Since we had a half bottle left over we had that with steak the following night and it was even better!  It is almost entirely Syrah with only 4% Merlot and it’s from Washingtons Columbia Valley.  Very rich.

Shelly exclaimed, “It’s SO PURPLE!” as I poured her a glass.  True, it is very dark.  Right away there was alcohol on the nose but as it opened up the alcohol went away and was replaced with raspberries and pepper.  I thought it was very soft with good mouthfeel.  It paired well with the ribs but was outstanding with the steak.

The following night we completed the Townshend trifecta with their 2007 Viognier.  I remember tasting this at the tasting room and thinking it was quite sweet.  When we opened the bottle it wasn’t AS sweet but SO much fruit on the nose.  This is a wine that would be wonderful on a hot summers day or with some oysters. 

Townshend has made a name for itself with its quality juice and have only ten years making wine.  Just think what another ten years will do for them.  Why don’t you pick up a bottle of something from Townshend Cellar and try it for yourself.

Tonight, we’re having a Cabernet Franc with a pot roast–yUm!  So look forward to reading about that AND don’t forget, next column we’ll be talking about legs.  I DO love talking about legs, ya know?  Doesn’t everbody????

Until then, bottoms up and ENJOY!

And Now For Some Great Juice

  • Posted on March 31, 2009 at 4:11 pm

The past couple of posts I have written about some decent wines at rather low prices.  Not today.

 

Recently I had the privilege of tasting a couple of very good and well thought of wines and one very interesting one from a highly thought of winery.  I’ll start with that one.

 

I was having a conversation with the General Manager of Elliotts Oyster House in Seattle, Washington, one of the top seafood restaurants in the nation and I told him about this wine blog I write, the one you just happen to be reading right now.  I had asked him if he would consider being interviewed for a future post and he agreed.  So look forward to an interview with Tom Arthur coming up soon as we talk in depth about Pinot Noir, his favorite varietal. 

 

He then poured me a glass of a 2005 Syrah from McCrea Cellars.  McCrea has a great reputation for producing very nice Syrah’s.  He told me that this wine was returned by one of his guests as being corked.  (Be sure to read the next post which will describe what it means when a wine is corked).  “Well”, he said, “it wasn’t corked” but it WAS something and he asked me to identify what was wrong.

 

Oh, great, I thought, now he’s going to find out just how little I really DO know about wine!

 

It smelled fine.  (Oh, now, I’ve failed.)  He said, no the nose IS fine.  Whew!  Next the taste; Immediately I tasted what seemed to be carbonation and I told him just that.  He said, “Bingo!  You nailed it.”   Apparently the wine makers at McCrea Cellars goofed a tad on this wine and didn’t remove all the yeast and that caused it to be, as Tom said, “a bit spritzy.”  People just don’t expect that sort of taste in a red wine but it isn’t harmful and, actually, it was a very interesting taste.  I asked him if this might be the next style of wine, a red wine that you can chill a bit and have it be effervescent.  He didn’t think that would happen.

 

I tasted a couple of other wines, as well.  One was a 2005 Dunham Cellars Trutina which is a blend of 41% Cabernet Sauvignon, 41% Merlot, 13% Syrah and 5% Cabernet Franc.  Absolutely delicious.  Full, rich body and not too tannic.  Dunham Cellars has a history of producing very nice wine.  This one was well balanced and had great mouthfeel.  The nose was spectacular with hints of spice and pepper. 

 

The last one I tried was from Betts & Scholl, a 2005 Grenache from Australia’s Barossa Valley.  According to the winery, Grenache is the most widely planted grape in the world.  This wine had a lot of berry on the nose and wasn’t as complex as the Trutina.  It also had a fair amount of tannins.  It isn’t often I get an opportunity to have a Grenache and it makes me wonder why I don’t choose this varietal more.

 

Suffice it to say I enjoyed ALL three wines including the “spritzy” one from McCrea.  But these wines are hardly at the price point of the wines in my last two posts.  The McCrea and Dunham wines are over $30 and the Betts & Scholl is near $25.  But the value of a wine isn’t only about the cost of it but the quality related to the cost.  That is why we were so high on the Oak Leaf Chardonnay (see my post from March 20) which was UNDER three bucks but not on the Two Buck Chuck which is priced very similarly.

 

One thing that I’ve found in the world of wine is that it is sometimes difficult to find out what wine to serve with the food you’re preparing or, the other way around, what food you should make to go with the wine you want to open.  With that in mind, I just added a new widget to help you pair wine with food and you can see it at the bottom of the left column.  I’m not sure I will keep it as it’s rather small.  The regular size widget blows right through the words of the post and I can’t figure out (yet) how to make that NOT happen.  If you have a comment on this widget or anything else, please don’t hesitate.  Just click on the word “comment” at the bottom of this post and it will be directed right to me.  After the Ultimate Blog Party 2009 posts netted me many comments I felt very liberated.  So you TOO can help me feel that way with a comment.  Ok, enough begging.

 

Remember the next post I will write about what a “corked” wine is.  Until then, bottoms up!

 

 

CMS? Complete Meaning Surfaced

  • Posted on March 25, 2009 at 9:00 pm

As we come to the end of the Ultimate Blog Party 2009 I have to say how impressed I am with the success of it.  Up until March 20th I had had NO comments on this General Wine Thoughts site.  Since then I’ve had over ten comments and they’re still coming in and they’re all SO positive!  Thank you to everyone who stopped by and for your wonderful comments and I have myself visited some great blogs from other people.

 

Today I am going to write about a couple of other wines from one winery that are reasonably priced (no, not under $3.00!) and worth a try.  You may have already tried them.  I’m talking about the CMS wines of Hedges Family Estate. 

 

With the popularity of wine on the steep climb upwards, the competition can become very fierce for the consumer dollar.  Winery’s try to come up with clever ways of marketing their wine so that it catches the eye of the consumer:  Animals on the labels, play on words—all sorts of things.  They also come up with catchy names and that is what Hedges Family Estates has done with their CMS. 

 

The white CMS is 35% Chardonnay, 3% Marsanne and 62% Sauvignon Blanc and it’s pretty good.  Smooth and creamy, this white wine is about 13 bucks in the store.  It’s an interesting combination of grape varietals that seem to work, though I remember this wine tasting better the first go around than it did this go around, which is the 2007 version.  There is some mango on the mid tongue that is nice but an awkward finish.  The down side is that there is virtually no nose on this wine, which I miss because I REALLY like a wine with a great nose.  All in all, however, it’s a wine to try, to be sure.

 

Then I opened their red CMS and, well, this is a GREAT deal!  While watching American Idol I enjoyed the 2007 CMS which is 42% Cabernet Sauvignon, 51% Merlot and 7% Syrah and it really is a great value at about ten bucks a bottle.  The nose has a hint of smoky-ness to it but you get some alcohol as well.  The taste is the result of a really nice combination of the grape varietals Hedges has chosen with some blueberry, bing and black cherry.  I actually tasted the Cabernet Sauvignon more than the other varietals.  Friends of mine, Lin and Marci Cooper, served this at their Christmas party about three years ago and I was very impressed then and it hasn’t depreciated now.

 

If you had to choose between the two I would go with the red CMS because it’s less money and, in my opinion, better tasting.  But both are worthy.

 

On the last post I promised to tell you about the toast Shelley and I do on EACH and EVERY bottle of wine we open.  You’ve read about the Tastings column found in the Wall Street Journal that I read on Friday’s from Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher and how they have come up with Open That Bottle Night which is designed to get people to open that one bottle of wine that never seems to get opened because the situation doesn’t seem to be big enough (See my post about Open That Bottle Night).  We first learned of these two from their book, “Love By The Glass:  Tasting Notes From A Marriage”.  If you asked me to recommend just one book I would say READ THIS ONE!  This book is absolutely awesome!  Romance and wine rolled into one!

 

Anyway, John and Dottie toast every bottle that they open with the same toast.  Read the book to find out what THAT is but OUR toast is our own.  I look into Shelley’s eyes and say, “To your giggles” and she looks right at me, and says, “To your kisses.  (Hey, I can’t help it that I kiss well.)  THAT is the toast we make with each and every bottle of wine we open whether we’ve had it before or not.  We even have it etched in the base of our glasses.  Hers says TYK and mine says TYG.  Dumb?  Maybe, but it works for us because we are in love and we enjoy each other and our wine.  And we know that what ever we go through in life we will always have each other and our wine.  And everyone should know that feeling. 

 

Until next time, bottoms up.

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