Lou came over this week to taste some more wine. Each wine was double-decanted then served blind. The Quilceda Creek and Gramercy Cellars were outstanding. The DeLille Cellars and JB Neufeld were good but suffered on the second night. The Tulip Winery, while notably different, was a fun ringer.
1.Quilceda Creek Vintners and Gramercy Cellars
2.DeLille Cellars and JB Neufeld
3.Spring Valley Vineyard
4.Tulip Winery
Here are my tasting notes in the order that the wines were tasted.
2007 Spring Valley Vineyard, Uriah, Walla Walla Valley, Columbia Valley
I bought this at Pete’s Wine Shop in Eastlake for roughly $45. This wine is a blend of 60% Merlot, 285 Cabernet Franc, 6% Petit Verdot, and 6% Malbec. It was aged for 18 months in 65% new French oak barrels. On the first night there was a nose of sweet red fruit with some heat. In the mouth the red fruits were a little bit gritty and seemed sensitive to heat. There were plenty of chewy, fine to medium textures tannins that were enjoyable. There were ripe, sweet components that reminded me of old lady’s perfume and a bit of spiciness to the finish. On the second night the perfumed coated the lips with a metallic tinge. The fine tannins felt more oak sourced and the spicy finish persisted.
2005 DeLille Cellars, D2, Columbia Valley
Lou bought this somewhere. This wine is a blend of 51% Merlot, 38% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Cabernet Franc, and 3% Petit Verdot. It was aged for 18 months in 100% new French oak. This wine started with a nose of dusty, dirty earth and notes of black cherry underneath. While Jenn found it “sketchy at first” it cleaned up with air. There were harder flavors of rip, black-red fruits and a creamy finish with mineral notes. On the second night the nose had faded but the enjoyable black fruits were still present. The fruit was mixed with minerals and the finish took on a stone-like profile with very blue fruits. There was still a creamy component and many stone/mineral flavors that coated the mouth in the aftertaste.
2008 JB Neufeld, Cabernet Sauvignon, Artz Vineyard, Red Mountain, Columbia Valley
I bought this for $32 at City Cellars in Seattle. This wine is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon that was aged for 19 months in 80% new French oak barrels. There were aromas of red fruits with a piercing component that reminded me of a greener Merlot. In the mouth the flavors were pure with red fruits mixed with powerful and definitive, very fine tannins. This seemed much different from the others with its red fruit profile. On the second day there were good, pure fruit flavors that become more blackberry. There were very fine, grapier tannins. The overall profile become more compact and closed than the first two wines. Jenn found the finish became sharper and was “hard to drink.”
2007 Quilceda Creek Vintners, Red Wine, Columbia Valley
Lou bought this from the mailing list around $32 if I recall. This wine is a blend of 72% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc, and 2% Malbec. This started off with a good nose of red fruit and herbs. The mouthfeel was creamy with black cherries and sweet spice flavors. Layers of herbs developed midpalate but the flavors dropped off a bit in the finish. This was a young, big wine, but pleasant to drink. With a bit more air an inky pervasiveness developed and a mouth-filling aftertaste left scented herbs. On the second night the fruit showed a lovely spiced component. It still showed young but again, a pleasure to drink. The complex fruit holds up to the ample fine tannins. I found a little more heat to the wine and hints of wood toast.
2005 Tulip Winery, Cabernet Sauvignon, Reserve, Judean Hills, Israel
Lou bought this at the winery for roughly $25. The blend is mostly Cabernet Sauvignon and if Lou remembers correctly, was aged in Californian oak for 18 months. On the first night there was a good nose of sweet (instead of ripe) fragrant berries. The mouth was very rich with cool blue fruits in the finish and a spicy aftertaste. It was jam-packed with fruit and incense. A nice wine but huge and overtly amped up. On the second night there was a bit of a chemically, varnish note to the nose. Notes of old, musty wood preceded the sweet fruit that had become one-dimensional and lacked supporting acidity. It did not hold up too well.
2007 Gramercy Cellars, Cabernet Sauvignon, Red Mountain, Columbia Valley
I bought this at Pete’s Wine Shop in Eastlake for no more than $45. This wine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Petit Verdot. I first found a nose of Concord grape juice and wood toast. But with time there were flavors of red and blue fruits, a nice mouthfeel developed, and the tannins felt resolved and integrated at the midpalate. The aftertaste was grapey with some tart flavors. At the end of the evening a dark core became apparent. On the second night there were great flavors of dark red fruit and this great core of sweetly spiced blue fruit that carried through to the aftertaste. There were cool lifted fruits, some puckering tannins, then notes of sour red fruits. This showed better on the second night. Lou and Jenn really enjoyed this wine from the start whereas I was a bit skeptical. But as the evening progressed it was obvious that this was an outstanding wine.
Best,
Aaron