Not familiar with Cultura but love to see a $10 tasting fee + “waived with purchase.”
A surefire way to get me to both stop in and buy wine.
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2009 SYZYGY Saros 136 - USA, Washington, Columbia Valley (7/23/2025)
P&P. Purchased when driving out of town during the Cayuse spring release - a purely nostalgia move as I have greatly enjoyed Syzygy wines in the past but haven’t had one in maybe up to a decade. With low expectations on this 16 year old Tempranillo blend, color me surprised, very surprised. Both fresh and shockingly vibrant, this had wonderful layers of red cherry fruit that carried some very respectable depth. If there was new wood, it is completely integrated though I never recall a Syzygy wine in the past carrying a strong oak profile. Purchased for memories, but I am seriously considering ordering a few more. Well zone Zach!
Posted from CellarTracker
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I remember going to Szyzgy out at the airport by Dunham and Tamarack way back when.
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How does one properly pronounce Szyzgy?
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It’s phonetic, accent on the first syllable.
-Al
I learned a lesson last week along the lines of not judging a book [winery] by its cover [name and location]. We were staying on Whidbey Island for the week and decided to check out Spoiled Dog Winery. I will admit that I never thought seriously about stopping in, assuming that they only made wine from vineyards on the Island and that it was a passion project and not a “serious” winery based on its silly name and label. I was wrong, and I now wish I hadn’t waited so long.
Spoiled Dog Winery is just a few miles up the highway off the ferry in Clinton. The grounds are absolutely gorgeous this time of year with a gorgeous estate vineyard with tables and chairs throughout. The tasting room is barn-like in appearance and there is an abundance of flower pots and a very nice grassy area with more tables. This is all flanked by towering evergreens.
Many of the wines come from a single vineyard in the Yakima Valley AVA (Crawford Vineyard), but they also source from a few others as well as some Pinot Noir from their estate vineyard right there on site. My wife did a white flight and, while I didn’t love the whites (and another person in our group did a mixed flight so I was able to only taste a couple of other reds), I had a glass of their 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Crawford Vineyard Yakima Valley and thought it was quite good. I was very pleasantly surprised. I bought some bottles to take home as well as a blind purchase of 2021 Penn Cove Red, a 70/30 Cab/Merlot blend also from Crawford Vineyard in the Yakima Valley. We opened that last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. Both wines show their bottle age in that the tannins are fully integrated, but they had lovely Yakima Valley fruit. My wife and I agreed that the wines strike us in a similar vein to the reds from Wineglass Cellars, which is no longer around.
I was wrong and regret my baseless judgment, and I urge you to visit and taste when you’re on the island. We’ll definitely be back!
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Well… the removal of inventory begins…again with new ch. st. Michelle corporate owners.
They dumped inventory when they first bought it but again it appears.
Wine club members of North Star this month can get the 2021 Columbia merlot for $19.99 only in the tasting room.
Today at QFC is the same wine for $20 along with 2017 Fredrick from spring valley and a Columbia crest Walter Clore blend.
Get it while you can.
Walter Clore is historically well worth $20 IMO
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Sizz A G
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All 3 of those are worth the $. Sad to see what’s happening to price and brand integrity with SMWE, those wines are worth 50-100% more than the sale price.
wow, no kidding. It wasn’t that long ago where those wines were seen at $40-50 and sitting on my dinner table.
Thanks for the heads up. Purchased at my local QFC as well. It was starting to run low. They have empty cases and half cases nearby so I assume people are purchasing it quickly and in large quantities.
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I’ll second CJ’s thanks for this. Got a few bottles of the Frederick at the Des Moines QFC today. That branch seemed to have ample amounts left, as well as of the Walter Clore and North Star. (Although the initial post referenced 2017 Frederick, the ones here were all 2018s.) They were below a banner that advertised them as “Washington Wine Month Specials” so they might be done after today, however.
Slightly off topic: I don’t typically buy wine at QFC, but have to say I was surprised by both the variety and price-range available. I certainly wasn’t expecting to see a bottle of 2014 Continuum, for instance.
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There are some QFCs with really good high end wine rooms…Seattle (Broadway), Issaquah (off I-90), Redmond come to mind.
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If you’re at Pine Lake, ask for John; he’s 30 years in and has been supplying wine/spirits back to the Jay Buhner days. They just expanded their liquor area (again) and it’s a step short of the U W store, with a separate store-in-store model. The wine selection is not bad, but spirits is stacked.
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With Canvasback shutting down, their red mountain cab was recently on wtso and today it was at Costco for $19.00. (Vancouver)
Get it while they have inventory.
Another Canvasback domino in case folks missed it. Quilceda Creek Buys Washington State Vineyard from Duckhorn
I suspect future QC wines from this site will be more than $19.
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