Friends wanted to attend the open house at Chateau Ste. Michelle this weekend, so we went along and tasted at a few other wineries afterward. Januik and Novelty Hill were next, followed by Facelli and Brian Carter. And last of all, simply because it was open a little later and closer to the freeway, we stopped at a winery I'd not heard of before but whose wines were the gem discovery of the day: Woodinville Wine Cellars.
Brief notes:
Chateau Ste. Michelle
98 Luxe sparkling wine: lackluster mild yeast nose, short mid-palate and bitter finish. This is the Cadillac of Michy's bubbly line, and it makes you wonder why they bother.
00 Syrah Reserve, $43: fully into secondary development and showing well with gamey red fruit, bacon and leather. B+
99 Cab Reserve, $50: shy raspberry-huckleberry nose, short midpalate, some leather, parchy finish. Drink up. C-
00 Cab Reserve, $50: huckleberry, rasberry, tobacco, dust, much more youthful than the 99. Still, for $50? Just a C.
01 Cold Creek Vineyard Cab Reserve, $50: foresty, best of the cabs, 8% merlot adds complexity, but expensive for what it is. B-
06 Sauv Blanc: very nice, melons and grass. B-
06 Chardonnay: very light oak, apples and smoke, light body. C
06 Dry Riesling, $9: Floral, with some of those diesel elements I love in reisling. Unexpectedly nice. C+/B-.
06 Merlot: just raspberry. Very average. There are better cheap merlots around. C-
06 Eroica: shy, seems dilute. This is not the Eroica I expect, especially for $30.
05 Malbec: balanced with good varietal character, but most Argentines are more interesting and probably less money, so only a C+.
03 Syrah: oxidative. D
05 Cold Creek Cabernet: Huckleberry, wet leaves, dusty tannins, and 100% cab this time. Okay, but not compelling. At this point I commented to my husband, "All their red wines basically taste alike." C+
Januik/Novelty Hill
Mike Januik makes both wines for two different owners, hence they're poured in the same tasting room. I went into this winery prejudiced against Januik wines as the first versions I had on moving here were lavishly oaked, big-bodied velvet blueberry-vanilla bombs, and I expected the same. But though the oak is definitely present, particularly in the Januik label, there's definitely less of it than there was a few years ago. I had no prior experience with Novelty Hill.
06 Novelty Hill Stillwater Vineyard Roussanne, $22: white peach with a ton of spice and perfect fruit-to-acid balance. Hypnotic. One of the best domestic Rhone whites I've ever tasted. I bought three bottles.
05 Januik Klipsun Vineyard Merlot: big sweet velveteen black and blue fruit with sweet buttered popcorn. This is a scaled down version of what I remember of the first Januik wines I tasted.
04 Novelty Hill Cabernet, $35: Blackberry, dusty tannins, mild oak, very nice but kind of light bodied for a cabernet.
05 Januik Columbia Valley Reserve Cab (85% Champoux Vineyard), $65: Densely packed, big bodied and generous. There's a lot of oak here but there's enough structure to absorb most of it over time.
05 Januik Ciel du Cheval Vineyard Cab, $45: Pretty, expressive, a lot less oak. Nice.
05 Januik Seven Hills VY Cab, $40: bigger and broader with a basket of black cherry and blackberry fruit, very structured. My favorite red here, and I purchased some.
05 Januik Champoux VY Cab, $50: the biggest bodied of three non-reserve cabs with blackberry, blueberry and vanilla.
05 Januik Petit Verdot: Nice! Bold and juicy with black currant and huckleberry fruit.
07 Spring Hill Rose: made from mostly mourvedre fruit, clean, light and refreshing.
2004 Novelty Hill Semillon: concentrated fruit, very very sweet without, to my tastes, sufficient acid to carry.
Facelli
Tom and Sandy Facelli were pouring in their little tasting room, chatty in what seemed like a comfortable vaudeville routine in which she plays the straight man and is the brunt of the jokes. She also was the informer, explaining how they were up to 6000 cases at one point but found that "quality suffered" so they cut down total production by 50%. After tasting five of the ten wines they make, one tends to think that they're spread too thin over the number of different grapes, not the number of barrels, because the quality's absolutely not, no way, anywhere to be found. An unoaked and therefore curiously named Fume Blanc was just an allright letter-grade C but vastly overpriced at $17. Their chardonnay tasted of acetone, a merlot was pure wood, a cabernet was dilute and simple and a late harvest riesling (in 375) was probably the least bad but had simple sugar flavors better aimed at grannies than geeks.
Brian Carter Cellars
What a friendly stop. Not perhaps a good destination for people wanting to get to as many wineries in a day as possible, but the patio furniture seating on two decks and service at your table made for a very pleasant, leisurely tasting. They make only blends, one white and four reds.
2005 Oriana (white) $24, 13.2%: 61% viognier, 25% riesling, 14% roussanne. The old lady perfume scents of the viognier dominate, with sweet peaches on the palate. .6% sugar makes the wine cloying for me, but the white-wine-only drinker in our group loved it. B+
2004 Byzance, $30, 13.3%: a GSM blend, light garnet color, spicy and balanced. Grenache character rules, traditional. B-B+. I purchased a bottle.
2005 Tuttarosso, $30: Over half sangiovese with cab and syr, dark garnet color. Raspberries, tomato and gritty tannins. Lacks the elegance of a prior vintage I've had. B
2004 L'Etalon, $30: Half cab with merlot, PV, CF and malbec, very good. Spot on Bordeaux flavors, elegant. B
2005 Abracadabra red table wine: and here is that ubiquitous but uniquely Washington thing, the everything-else red wine. Almost every winery makes one. In this case, cab, syr, sangio, malbec, CF, mer and PV. Accessible, balanced, complex but easy drinking. Not bad for $20.
Woodinville Wine Cellars
Never heard of this winery, but it's a 2,500 case production winery that made it's first commercial vintage in 2000. The winemaker/proprietor is among the new wave of anti-big oak, anti-big alcohol winemakers, and his reds were exquisitely balanced, layered and consistent. We were poured four of the six wines he makes, the two not poured were a merlot ($30) and a reserve cab ($45), which I purchased on faith based on the strength of the other wines.
06 Sauv Blanc, $18: Here's an oddity with two primary characteristics you don't normally find in the same wine: crisp and sweet. Nice, slightly herbal nose with a honeydew melon palate at .5% residual sugar. Not my thing, but very well made and one of my friends bought half a case. B-.
05 Little Bear Creek red table wine: cab, mer and CF. Very very good, excellent fruit with some tannins, elegant. Half the price of the rest of the wines but it doesn't taste less expensive. Best $20 red of the day by far, and I bought some. A.
05 Ausonius, $35: Cab, CF and a little merlot here. Red and black fruit, harmonious, and yet you can taste and smell every grape in here. A ten year wine, I'm told. Another A--I purchased it, too.
05 Syrah, $30, another elegant wine bordering on perfect. If I liked syrah better, I'd have bought some, and I'm still not sure I should have passed it up. A.
But really, I don't think I'm strict at all. If one doesn't have a solid sensibility about what's average, then how can one's assessment of above average be trusted? And price plays a factor. Both of the Cold Creek cabs were pretty good, for instance, and I'd have rated them better at $25 or $30. But at $50? No deal.