WTN: Three wines at SEA-TAC

[Jenise]

So there were were late Monday afternoon at SEA-TAC airport with two hours to kill before Flight 513 shuttled us home to Bellingham. How does a wine lover pass the time? By heading to the new wine bar, Vino Volo, that's what. We shared three glasses:

2005 Cristom Pinot Noir "Jefferson", Oregon
Taut and on the lean side, even for a Cristom whose pinots are usually on the austere side. Could have improved with time, but we were served this from a just-opened bottle and in a narrower glass not especially suited to showing pinot noir's charms. Better, at least in that glass, was:

2004 Appelloni pinot noir, Oregon
A very small production wine, we were told. Sweet, generous fruit though not especially complex, just a little nicer for current drinking. Best of all was:

2004 Bushnell Syrah, McPherson-Boushey Vineyard, Washington
Bushnell's Alsatian-styled pinot gris turned my head a few months ago, so I jumped at the chance to taste this guy's syrah. It's as excellent as I'd hoped, flawlessly ripe red and black fruits without being overripe or hot, and restrained without lacking body, structure or confidence. A classically styled new world syrah.

Thanks for the notes. Appelloni and Bushnell are new names to me.

2005 Cristom Pinot Noir "Jefferson", Oregon
Taut and on the lean side, even for a Cristom whose pinots are usually on the austere side. Could have improved with time, but we were served this from a just-opened bottle and in a narrower glass not especially suited to showing pinot noir's charms.

I really liked this wine http://www.wineloverspage.com/forum/vil ... highlight=

And I just handed a bottle to Dietz ... I hope he likes it. This is about 40% whole cluster which I don't think is conducive to pop and pour ... especially in a non pinot glass.

Jason

[Jenise]

This is about 40% whole cluster which I don't think is conducive to pop and pour ... especially in a non pinot glass.

Exactly what I thought based on other vintages I've had over the years, and why I was careful to couch my criticism with those facts. This wine bar is an absolute haven for travellers, but unfortunately, the glassware just doesn't do much for pinot.

Hi Jenise,

Four weeks ago I was sitting in that same wine bar, drinking the same two pinot noirs (plus an Argyle, which was overwooded and like pretty much all Argyles, entirely uninteresting to me). It's absolutely an island of sanity.

I also didn't find the Apolloni complex, but I absolutely loved it. Acid perfectly balanced with richness of fruit. Very impressive, and just as impressive to find at an airport wine bar of all places.

I'll keep an eye out for Bushnell.

Walt

[Jenise]

How fun that you had the same wines--isn't that a great place? Big comfy leather chairs, soft jazz, contemporary art, and quality wines off the beaten track...a real class act. But yeah re the Argyle, that's why I didn't order the pinot flight--no interest in Argyle--plus I really wanted to taste the Bushnell. And these are typical of the wines he chooses. He was, in fact, so elated with me for initially ordering full glasses with confidence "Somebody knows her wines!"), that he started bringing us little tastes of all kinds of things we didn't order. For two people who at the outset were dismayed at having two hours to kill, we sure had trouble tearing ourselves away.

Sounds like a nice place, Jenise. My little group went through the process to lease that designated wine bar space at Sea-Tac, but we dropped out when we found out the (frankly, insane) terms of the lease. The TI requirement was killing for our pocketbook, and our analysis was that the more business we got, the more money we would lose. Don't know how they do it, but more power to 'em!

Dave

[Jenise]

Dave, you should drop in there sometime and ask them how they're doing. If he's hurting, he'd probably be happy to have your understanding shoulder to cry on. As it is, business looks good. And in addition to the wines he pours for tasting, he seems to sell a goodly number of bottles. I know people who bring home a bottle or nearly every time they travel, and I stayed in L.A. last weekend with a couple who admitted to arriving in Seattle recently to visit his mother and going straight to Vino Volo to relax over a glasss of wine before picking up their rental car. IOW, it's convenient and well stocked enough for arrivees to stop there for something interesting instead of going to a wine store on the way home.

I posted about this place in September. And had the same Appolloni and Cristom wines. But my third was a Sineann - the Lachini 05. It was a brooding wine, but matched the fancy mac and cheese perfectly. Jenise, I took a bottle of it home with me - just as you mentioned.

As for the Cristom, Wine Spectator just gave their 05 Louise a 91. I belong to their wine club and they are about to ship me what they call "the Ladies". That's the 2005 Eileen, Louise, Jessie and Marjorie.

I have an 05 Mt. Jeff in the cellar. Maybe I'll open it up this weekend, let it breathe a little and see how it tastes in a Riedel Oregon Pinot Noir glass!