A few random thoughts and highlights from a recent Walla Walla visit during spring release weekend, in no particular order:
-Rose. It seems like everyone is doing a rose now. While nothing blew me away as a must have, what got my attention is how high the average quality is. A genre well worth trying as the odds are you’ll find very pleasing summer sippers for the warm weather.
-My first time sampling Canvasback and I’m impressed. We got to have a great conversation with Brian Rudin about his winemaking and I learned a great deal. He was very generous with his time and shared really interesting stuff about his approaches. Regarding the juice in the glass, they were all really impressive, with an advantage to the cab/bordeaux blends but the rhone varieties, particularly syrah, were excellent as well. He seems to be really focused on Red Mountain and I think he’s getting the most out of the grapes/terroir and producing the most interesting wines I’ve had from Red Mountain both from Bordeaux varieties and syrah.
-Holocene. The wines at Force Majeure were all terrific without exception. But what got our attention, and brought everyone at our table to a reverent silence after the first swirl and sip, were two Holocene 2021 pinots, the Apocrypha and Memorialis. We bought as much as we could haul back which of course wasn’t enough.
-Gramercy. As usual I loved tasting through as the floor is pretty high and the highs are outstanding but the eye opener was a 2021 viognier ordered at a restaurant. I think the best Washington viognier I’ve had.
-Valdemar. My first visit there. I especially liked the 2020 Blue Mountain vineyard syrah and the 2017 La Gargantilla garnacha (yes, that one’s from Spain). I rarely get excited about chardonnay but I found the 2020 French Creek chard bold and full or character.
-Rotie. The 2021 Southern Blend is the best I’ve yet had of the cuvee and the 2020 rocks 470 syrah was a riot erupting from the glass.
-Reynvaan had a stunning line up and was my favorite set of wines from the trip.
-I seemed to prefer the 2019 syrahs to the 2018s. I heard 2018 was the perfect vintage weather-wise but based on my limited sampling I found the 2019s a little more interesting while the 2018s are all well made but buttoned down. I would need to do more tastings however to make any general conclusions regarding the vintages.
Things I didn’t like:
-Wineries that don’t pour the wines that are the reason you think they’re any good. It’s a release weekend, you’ve made reservations, and you’re going to pay whatever tariff they charge, but when you show up the only wines that get poured are their base line up. I mean they make more than half a dozen really good cuvees but you would never know that after tasting there. I was embarrassed recommending two places to a friend and bringing him and being disappointed by what they poured. I won’t be naming them but your know who you are.
-Tiny pours. I was really surprised how small the pours were at a number of places. When tasting I spit 80%-90% of what I taste during the day but I’d still like to have 2 oz pour as I don’t think 1 oz is enough to adequately assess the wine even if spitting.