We went, we tasted, we survived!
The Rhone Seminar on Saturday morning was fantastic. 7-8 panelists led by Patrick Comiskey who gave a good history of Rhone varieties, really in America, but with a Washington (Oregon) slant. I knew most of the story but still compelling, with a nice nod to Mike Sauer/David Lake, but certainly focus on Christophe Baron influence in Rocks of MF in Walla Walla Valley. The panel included Owen Bargreen, Chris Peterson, Jeff Lindsay-Thorson, Morgan Lee, Lisa Lawrence, Beth(??) of E3 restaurant group. Good cross section, except nobody really representing growers in the main Syrah regions, which to me are W2 and Yak. I sat next to, and talked quite a bit with, Todd Newhouse of Upland. He is now chair of Washington Wine Commission, after serving as chair of WA winegrowers. Funny thing is his beard has grown to look like Tom Hanks in Cast Away, but he had on cap the said Varietal. That is brewery in Sunnyside and it ratted him out for me! I guess he didn’t want to be on his own panel. Dick Boushey and Bob Betz were also in the room, but I never saw Ryan Johnson nor Christophe.
There were 10 ten wines, 3 white, 2 Grenache, 2 Mourvèdre, 1 GSM, 2 Syrah. To my palate, the star was WeatherEye Vineyard. Granted there were no Cayuse wines, but the Rocks examples, while showing Rocks character, were outclassed by 2021 WeatherEye Grenache, and 2021 Liminal GSM/WeatherEye. Neither of the Mourvèdres’ did much for me, and the 2020 Grosgrain Les Collines outshined the Two Vintners Rocks Syrah, imo. Rotie’s 2022 Southern White was my favorite white.
Good for me that I have all of those in our cellar except the Liminal, but I’m on that mailing list, haven’t bought much since WeatherEye’s own label came out, but may grab a few.
The Grand Tasting was chaos as normal. My mobility was limited and especially on first day I felt unsafe at times. I should have taken a cane to whack at people, but I am not using it for steadiness so left it at home. Anyway, sorta by default I stayed near center stage (where there were benches) and ventured out in short loops, hitting max 3-4 wineries, and food at same time. This worked well, and I focused almost entirely on winery names I did not recognize. Out of ~200 wineries there I “knew” close to 150, so that, plus my mobility, really narrowed my focus, and let me not worry about the chaos. I took really BAD notes, if at all, but did write down the wineries that impressed me most favorably.
Day 1: Sharp elbows needed. I lost count a bit, but I visited ~15 new to me wineries. Standouts were:
Damsel. Marsanne and Syrah… really excellent wines that I need to add a few.
Pearl and Stone, Cab Franc/Merlot. Interesting niche winery in North Bend, but solid vineyard choices in Yak mostly.
Cataclysm, Merlot, Cab. My notes here are sparce.
Julian Margot. Marsanne, GSM, Merlot. First winery tasted, but good start, young couple from Wisconsin, relocated to Seattle to live the dream.
Dossier. Sauv Blanc, Cab, Syrah. My neighbor Kieth taught the winemaker in middle school, so we chatted about him. He makes really good wine in W2.
Grosgrain - Anglianico/Nebbiolo blend at the tasting, Les Collines Syrah at the seminar. Went back again on Day 2 to revisit. I really dug all of the wines but these 2 stood out. Maybe my first ever Anglianico.
Day 2: Strayed a bit off the “newbies only” theme, but still hit 12-13 new to me wineries.
Momento - Petit Verdot. A really tough varietal to bottle as a stand alone wine, but this one is great and demands a big steak.
Rush Lattin - GSM, Syrah, Cab blend, really solid line-up by a newbie micro-winery based in Woodinville.
JB Neufeld- Old Goat. Men vs. Boys in the category of Cab/Cab blends. Not even fair really, and yes this is a homer choice of our favorite winery and favorite wine people. They are real people btw. We had eaten breakfast with them on Sunday, and Justin bought the breakfast, so I guess this was an inner-Yak version of Pay to Play. 100 Points!
Overall, still many more wineries where I would NOT buy, than those that I would. My palate is fortunately fully recovered and by spitting and eating I felt it was really sharp for these 2 days. I also sorta selected wineries pouring a white wine, and if that wine was not a good wine, I moved on. The other thought I had was empathy for the newbies, many “competing” for first time, on this grand stage where many/all of movers and shakers in the commercial, restaurant, distributor, media side of the Washington wine industry assemble once a year. In talking with Justin and Brooke, that is more of why they do Taste, the networking, than the after-event sales possibility. Too many un-sophisticated guzzling happening for any bump in club or even store/restaurant sales. Even me, the ultimate geek, only came away w 2-3 new real targets and who knows if I follow up on those hunches.