WTN: The Grand Crew sinks a boatload of WA state wine

[Jenise]

The theme was "Washington State Cabernet and Blends", and six of us showed up (Mike Peterson was sick--Mike, we missed you!) with the requisite bottle per person and at least one back up, almost all of which got opened by the end of the night. Warren--you were on call and therefore spitting, why didn't you keep us more sane?

1) Eric. Elegant and sweet red fruit, traditionally styled, drinks like an old Leoville-Barton, very aromatic. A classic from Woodward Canyon's Dedication Series (which predated their adoption of the word 'Reserve'), 1989. I loved this wine. Oh, and only 13.3% alcohol.

2) Lars. Sweet complex perfumed nose of black cherries, nutmeg and powdered sugar donuts. On the palate, plummy dark fruit and baby powder, cedary finish. Surprisingly more developed than the bottle Bob and I opened for Super Bowl 2007, but good acidity and silky tannins will hold this wine here for years. Exceptional. '92 Quilceda Creek. Also 13.3% alcohol. One of my top three of the night.

3) Lars #2: Black cherry and blackberry, caramel, low acid/velvet/smooth. Entirely pleasant, but it doesn't have the stuffing to hold longer. Insanely heavy bottle. '98 Woodhouse Family Cellars "Darighe" Proprietors Blend, from Columbia Valley fruit.

4) Mine: lighter and more feminine in style than any previous wine, but it builds in the glasss. Very complex and faceted, with berries, cinnamon bark, nutmeg, star anise and violets, and it only got better as the night wore on. 96 DeLille "Chaleur". Another top three wine for me.

5) Marc. "Raspberry shake", someone astutely said on first taste, and Marc noted chocolate on the finish. Seemed very "international" in style, neither traditional nor aggressively modern, but very young. It was the 02 Andrew Will Ciel du Cheval, a Cheval Blanc style blend of mostly merlot and cab franc.

6) Warren. Initial information: a rare wine, only 40 cases made, a blending wine sold only to friends of the winemaker. It showed red and black fruit and some leathery notes, nice heft. Another 02 Andrew Will: a 100% cab franc. Very good.

7) Eric #2: Very direct, excellent purity of fruit that throws a nice, sharp sweet note in the center of the midpalate. Older, pretty...I guessed merlot. And it is: 88% merlot from the Canoe Ridge vineyard and 12% cabernet from Seven Hills. Vintage 93, made by Eric himself with help from Gary Figgins and Marty L'Ecole. Quite a coup, because this is good wine and Gary's own 93 Leonetti Merlot is already a goner. A real treat!

8 ) Warren #2. Big red, black and blue fruit, big tannins, peppery with iron-rich minerality. Lots of extract, very modern. Turns out to be an 01 Cadence "Taptiel Vineyard" from Red Mountain fruit. I'm not crazy about the style, but this wine shows much better than I would have expected based on the way it tasted about four years ago.

9) Uh oh. Who's wine was this? Lars, I think. Big wood but well integrated, classic cabernet features, but a wine in kind of a limbo state between the child it was and the stately old man it's going to be (see wine #1). I would hold other bottles. 98 Woodward Canyon cabernet sauvignon, Walla Walla, 14% alc.

10) Eric #3. Eric flashed this around earlier, so we badgered him until he opened it. Light and elegant with soft mature cabernet flavors. Past peak but not OTH at all, a pleasure to drink. 1984 Leonetti Cabernet Sauvignon.

11) Marc #2. Surprisingly simplistic after the other wines. Seemingly, a wine that's trying so hard not to offend it fails to do anything to impress. I think it's just tight, in transition. Hold. 02 L'Ecole No. 41 "Apogee".

12) Me #2: After all this hedonism opening my 2nd bottle was nothing short of suicide, but after Marc threw his Apogee into the pot it just would not do that I withhold this seven years older bottle of the same wine. Nicely dilineated plum and herb nose, more red fruit than black, very good to excellent but not outstanding, and likely still on it's way up. The 02 should drink like this some day. Drink or hold. 95 L'Ecole No. 41 "Apogee".

13) Eric #4? #7? #12???? Blueberry juice, vanilla, cream. Everybody says, "Lemberger?" 14.5% alcohol. Turns out to be an 04 Leonetti Cabernet. Eric says it's in an awkward place and quite different than a bottle he had a few months back. There are no flaws, though, and it firms up with every sip, it was just hybernating pretty heavily when Eric woke it up. Another hour would have done wonders.

A great night. Many thanks to everyone for the great wines, to the Bistro for another great meal and to Christine for her attentive service.

[David M. Bueker]

So what was wine #10?

Hybernating=Sleeping faster than the speed of light?

[Jenise]

So what was wine #10?

Hybernating=Sleeping faster than the speed of light?

Good catch, it was an '84 Leonetti Cabernet.

Thank you very much for posting such excellent notes. I agree with all your descriptions here, and I'm impressed that you captured the essence of the wines when a lot of these started blending together for me towards the end. The first two wines were the highlight, but the evening was very educational.

A couple of observations. The 1989 Woodward Canyon was one of the best New World reds I've tried. It did crack up and lose all its fruit with just a tannin and oak shell remaining by the end of the night, but that was 3+ hours after decanting. The first glass was a marvel, a wonderful balance of red fruit and structure, fully mature and a delight. My favorite wine of the night. I think the 13% abv is very significant in the way this aged.

The 1992 Quilceda Creek was great also. It seemed much younger than the '89, and in no danger of dropping of a cliff. The sucrosity in the nose that you describe so well as powdered donuts was a tiny drawback for me, but it was so complex and layered, with great acidity and those silky tannins. Beautiful and probably my second favorite wine.

The 1996 DeLille Chaleur was really good too. I can't improve on what you said here.

I didn't really like the Darighe. Soft and over ripe, and the heavy bottle is no bonus.

I also didn't like either of the wines I brought at all. I thought I would like 02 Andrew Will Ciel de Cheval because of the heavy Cab Franc and Merlot in the blend, but found it too jammy. Raspberry marmalade with chocolate, ugh. The 02 L'Ecole Apogee was monolithic and heavy on the oak. Your bottle of the older '95 Apogee was pretty tasty. It had integrated the oak, the fruit was still there, and it seemed to be lively with good acids. I guess the '02 Apogee and the '04 Leonetti were both opened way too young. I don't have much hope for that 04 Leonetti though, it was a hot blueberry shake wine that I found just way too much, much like the Cadence Taptiel. The 1984 Leonetti was nice though. Eric mentioned he tasted ascorbic acid and thought the wine was acidulated. I liked it myself, but it was pretty astringent and is probably over the hill and fading away. Still quite a treat to try. Eric said he paid something like $14 for this and bought it in an Albertson's supermarket way back when.

Eric's home made Merlot blend from 1993 was really good, faded and earthy, and probably seen its best days past, but what a special treat. His story behind the wine was fascinating too.

Thanks for posting your notes.

Best,
Marc

[Jenise]

I thought I would like 02 Andrew Will Ciel de Cheval because of the heavy Cab Franc and Merlot in the blend, but found it too jammy.

Have you had many Andrew Wills? I have had maybe four or five, and I can't put my finger on where they're coming from. They've all seemed different. But after a 98 Klipsun merlot in magnum and one other bottle I can't remember turned out to be a jam bomb, I've kind of written them off.

I think I'm similarly confused about L'Ecole. Was the 95 (did you by any chance note the abv levels? I didn't, should have) really less oaked, or was it just more developed? I'm wondering if they ramped up the oak, that is, or if in 02 they decided to use more new oak as an 02 syrah from them I opened a few months ago was absolutely undrinkable. I wish I'd noted the alcohol levels, did you?) I would hold out more hope for the Leonetti (I own a few bottles) than the Cadence. There was, at least, an elegance to the Leonetti that the over-extracted Cadence has never had, obvious even in this infant state, and if it ages the way many of its forebears have it will be a much different and more appealing wine some day. I remember a TN by Hoke, I think it was, where at an offline there was this one wine (served blind) that had everyone swooning and it turned out to be a mature Leonetti--a wine he and most of the assemblage had long condemned for being massively overoaked. And that was his point, that if it ages long enough it will even impress the doubters. On the other hand, I remember a bottle (no idea what vintage) that Bob and I ordered at Dirty Dan's when we were visiting Bellingham on business once upon a time, and it was red and black fruit. Definitely no blue.

Anyway, I too found this very educational. In fact, it's the first opportunity I've had to taste a slew of better Washington wines with some age on them, and it made me feel more comfortable about putting away more of my new home state's products. If only the alcohol levels would come down, though....

On the L'Ecole 02 Apogee, the alcohol was 14+, I think I remember 14.4%. I didn't catch the abv on the '95 bottle. I read a tasting note on the 2003 Apogee from Craig Camp where he absolutely loved the wine, mentioned it was a stellar example of Walla Walla, and was buying more for his own cellar. High praise. I could see something there with the 1995 bottle, which makes me think the 2002 (which is supposed to be a good vintage) was in a surly phase. It improved overnight a little.
My previous experience with L'Ecole is they do need a lot of time to come around.

I trust your judgment on the '04 Leonetti, but I had difficulty swallowing the wine in my glass. It just didn't appeal to me.

I've only tried a few Andrew Will wines, not enough to have a feeling for the wines or how they age. I did meet the wine maker about 4 years ago at Compass. You may have been there that day? He seemed to be earnest and dedicated to his craft. The Ciel de Cheval vineyard is supposed to be one of the very best. Quilceda Creek, Leonetti, Delille, Kiona, McCrea, and Andrew Will all get grapes from there. It has older vines (for WA state) and a lot of basalt in the soil.

The biggest thing I learned from the tasting is I do really enjoy some WA Bordeaux blends, but they need plenty of time, like 15-20 years, and that the ones with moderate alcohol like 13% seem to age better. The 10 year old Woodward Canyon was too oaky and brash for me, but the 1989 was near perfect. Also, it is great to have friends like you guys that have aged versions of them in your cellars.

[Jenise]

Oh you can't trust my judgement on the Leonetti--I have relatively little experience, especially with young 'uns. But I am certain you and I would both be happy if the 2004 evolved into something like the '94 Bill Spohn brought to lunch not long ago or even something like Eric's '84 might have tasted five or so years ago.

Yes. Andrew Will's winemaker...yes I was there. We didn't meet but later I asked if you were you, and you were. You described him looking like a "rock star". Chris? Last name something similar to Commando or Cormorant. I think.

Good observation about the role the alcohol plays in aging. I hope we all know each other in ten years so I can open some of the Boudreauxs, Feathers and the like I've been putting away.