This board lavishes a great deal of hype and praise on California winemakers who are making less ripe, lower alcohol and less oaked styles of red wines – Kutch, Rhys, Copain, Anthill Farms, Ridge, Mount Eden, Mayacamas, etc.
Question: are there any notable winemakers in Washington who are trying to stake out this part of the spectrum?
I’m not asking this to bash Washington wines, or to assume that anyone pushing this style is necessarily good or better than others, but I’m just curious if there is any sort of AFWE counterculture brewing anywhere in Washington, since I haven’t read of anything thus far. Thanks.
Thanks, I guess I missed that one. After reading through it, while there is of course some range of styles among any category of wines, it didn’t really sound like anyone was catching fire there making an AFWE style.
Mike - I’ve seen Januik mentioned a couple times in this kind of conversation, but in my experience, I completely disagree. The last vintage I tasted was probably 2005 or 2006… have they changed since then? Or is it maybe just a matter of differences of opinion / taste?
My votes for this list:
Maison Bleue
Cadence
Seven Hills
Agree Januik makes good wines but not on an AFWE list.
Seven Hills belongs generally, but the Seven Hills vineyard stuff can have a softer oakier side compared to their Klipsun cabs, which are quite austere. They are one of my favs, and a great value, too.
Differences in opinion/taste…While I don’t think Januik is over the top, he does use a fair bit of new wood on his wines and certainly likes them more forward than structured. It’s a good question as to who is doing the restrained style, I guess if anyone it’s Chris with Andrew Will.
I think, in general, Washington tannin structure is much smoother than California so I think it’s where you grow the grapes that’s going to decide your style. I don’t think WallaWalla is capable of a ‘structured’ (old school BDX sense) style of wine, I think it is always too ripe to have greener tannin components as to where Yakima fruit you get a bit more of the bell pepper or green notes that you associate with old world wines, the climate is a bit more variable (I extend Yakima to Red Mts as well) and have a bit more dirt to them than the fruit forwardness of WallaWalla. I always compare the 2 areas to Rutherford bench land VS Mayacamas range when thinking about fruit profiles.
For me, my less is more winery out of Washington is Chateau Rollat, I think they are balanced with great freshness.
I’ll second Andrew Will. They need time (10+ years with a lot of the wines), but they become something really special in my book, and I don’t tend to like big, fruit-driven wines. Also, I don’t know about restrained, but some of the higher end Chateau St Michelle stuff definitely has a lot going on besides fruit. I imagine they’d calm down with some time and be very interesting, but I don’t know.
Overall, I don’t think most WA growing areas are about restraint because of their climates. The CA producers doing this have Anderson Valley, the extreme coast of Sonoma, and Santa Cruz Mountains to play with. Even Santa Rita Hills has more moderating influence than almost any (any?) commercial vineyard land in WA, I think. Am I wrong about this?
There are wineries in the Chelan area but nothing that’s taken off quality-wise. That area is closer to the mountains and might be capable of producing some interesting stuff… I’m only passingly familiar with it though.
Remember, you’re not going to find Pinot from here… so if you want AFWE it’s Cab/Bordeaux Blends/Syrah. I’d add Cadence in pile for consideration and Red Mountain fruit in general. Washington winemakers seem to have been enamored of oak and extraction until lately - the lingering high rep of Leonetti and the scores for Quilceda helped this. There’ve always been exceptions - of Chris at Andrew Will, Ben and Gaye at Cadence and some others. Newer entrants such as Gramercy are adding to the movement away from that style.
Agree with andrew will, cadence, grammercy. I like Rasa a lot but they may not perfectly fit the bill. Keep your eyes open for Avennia, a new woodinville winery starting to release this fall. winemaker is Chris peterson, who used to be at DeLille. but these aren’t DeLille wines.
Gotta throw in an up and coming small producer out of the Columbia Gorge area - Domaine Pouillon. He is making some very good Rhone style wines, and also made one of my favorite cabernets I had all of last year, the 2008 Mcduffie Vineyard Cab. He tends to use mainly 100% neutral french oak barrels, and the wines have great freshness and balance.
I’ve only had one bottle of àMaurice red blend, but it’s a candidate for this thread based on that one bottle. I’ll toss in a word for Seven Hills, as well.
disclosure: this relates to a personal endeavor, The Grande Dalles – we’re not in WA, but across the river in easter OR, still in the Columbia Valley AVA with a site that so far has delivered on structure and restraint. great to hear people are interested in these kind of wines, because we feel we’re a dying breed in this neck of the woods.
I’ve often wondered if the OR side of the Columbia Valley might produce some more restrained wines with its north-facing slopes. I’ve never seen one, though. Do you have any distribution on the East Coast?
hi doug – our hill is actually south facing! our search for the right vineyard for such wines led us to this “undiscovered” area just east of The Dalles, where all they grow is wheat. even south facing, the vines struggle there, so vigor is greatly reduced, and the soil is all ground rock, and the wind really toughens the skins…so far, the only “dare-devil” to try a new label with a more restrained style is out of NYC, Ice Bucket Selections (Todd Wernstrom). He’s got our bone-dry riesling and a tempranillo blend. we’d like to have more an East Coast presence, believe me, but the market is terribly tough.
I’d start with Maison Bleue (superb wines if you are not familiar with them), Kerloo Cellars, Rotie Cellars, Gramercy Cellars, Waters Winery, and Seven Hills. I may have missed a few others. All of these wineries are making wines with lower alcohol and lower oak than seen in many other wineries in the state. All are also making very high quality wines.