Jumped on this mailer, which is my first in quite a while. Definitely happy to support a guy like Travis that has a heart for Rhône wines in WA. Release notes looked interesting, so pasting below for your enjoyment. Note: I chose to add on to this thread, rather than start a new one, as I think the above context will help quite a bit for most people, as Kobayashi is still a little under the radar.
Two whites and two reds:
2019 Kobayashi Marsanne, Boushey Vineyard. I view this wine as my experimental playground and thanks to the excellent quality of fruit from Boushey Vineyard I feel free to stretch my imagination and push this wine to unusual and beautiful places. There is so little Marsanne planted outside of its origin in Hermitage in the northern Rhone Valley, and actually very little planted there as well, that I don’t feel bound by expectations or preconceived notions of what the wine ‘should’ be. In 2019, our Marsanne was destemmed, sorted, and received a week of skin contact along with a smidge of cofermented Roussanne. It was then fermented in new French Oak and used French Acacia wood barrels. The aromatics are a ballooning kaleidoscope of stone fruits (apricot and white peach), melon rind, almond paste, and beeswax. The aqueous skin contact and inherent qualities of Marsanne push this wine towards an unfamiliar territory somewhere just beyond the border of where white wines typically breathe. It has a distinctive personality and a beauty that can’t be ignored.
2019 Kobayashi Viognier, WeatherEye Vineyard. Based on feedback I have received over the last year, the 2018 Kobayashi Vio has converted some folks who were previously not too hot on Washington State white wines. If you have any bottles left, this wine is better now than it was a year ago. As much as I love the 2018, the juice yield per ton was so low that it wound up having more new oak than I wanted. In 2019, I accounted for this, dialed in our oak program with our consultant Yves Gangloff’s favorite French barrel cooper, and I can’t wait for you to try it—it is a better wine. Being grown on high-density stake-trained vines on a north-facing slope gives this Viognier a singular expression. The shade licks the vines and fruit, allowing them to reach full maturity without becoming overtly tropical. I’m thrilled that our Viognier resides in the citrus-marmalade and spring-blossom end of the flavor spectrum, and am even more happy that the natural acidity of the northern exposure keeps this wine so fresh. If you liked the 2018, you’ll love this one.
2019 Kobayashi Syrah Sans Soufre (without sulfur), WeatherEye Vineyard. This wine exists because of my friendship with Adam Paysse of Floodland Brewing and it is my favorite Kobayashi wine to date. You may have figured out by now that my purpose for Kobayashi is to take risks, create something new, and discover the quality potential of WA wine by using the techniques of my favorite international winemakers while also innovating to carve my own path. After a few years of spending time with Adam I realized that I was still staring at the allegorical shadows inside Plato’s Cave. I spend countless hours obsessing over how different actions and inactions will impact wine aromatics, textures, flavors, and colors. Yet, I was stuck in ‘how’ and ‘what’ lines of questioning trying to figure out means-ends relationships and effects. Adam prompted me to ask the far more significant question of ‘why?’ As it is with life in general, almost everything done in the vineyard and winery has pros and cons. Completely eliminating sulfur was never even on my radar until Adam wanted to try it with a small batch of non-commercial wine we made in 2017—which, much to my surprise, was totally delicious. This 2019 Sans Soufre Syrah is living proof (even in the microbiological sense and therefore literally) that doing less can result in more. I didn’t realize it until writing this newsletter, but I think this wine is the first Sans Soufre Syrah made in Washington. No sulfites or preservatives were added at any point, not because we’re philosophically against sulphur but instead because this is challenging and thought provoking way to make delicious wine. The wine is pure WeatherEye Syrah with gentle aromatics of native sage and yarrow that surround the vines being captured in the bottle. My hope is that the vision and hard work of Cam Myhrvold and Ryan Johnson from WeatherEye are captured in their purest form. To facilitate this, the wine underwent 100% whole-cluster native fermentation and a gentle cool extraction in rotating neutral French oak puncheons, without any new oak. I wanted the wine to thrive in the fresh air and light, but the fruit from WeatherEye is inherently so concentrated that it became apparent that I would need to press the wine long before it was finished fermenting; therefore it finished up in the barrel. Care and precision were taken to create an anoxic environment at every step. Making wine that will taste good without the aid of added sulfur is labor intensive and difficult to pull off. This style of Syrah as I mentioned is new for Washington, but two of my favorite producers from Cornas make a Sans Soufre with 100% syrah—Frank Balthazar and Thierry Allemand. Of course, as an experience wine is so much more than numbers, but there is an uncanny similarity in the chemistry of what we are getting from the north-facing slope of red mountain compared to a sample of Gangloff’s Cote Rotie Rozier I sent to the lab. Gangloff’s Cote Rotie Rozier: pH 3.66; titratable acidity (TA) 5.8g/l; and volatile acidity (VA) 0.67g/l. Kobayashi Syrah: pH 3.62; TA 5.8g/L; and VA 0.65g/L. I made no adjustments to achieve this as it is simply what works to make delicious Syrah in this style. The ingredients are whole-grape clusters and a blanket of CO2 or inert argon gas the few times the wine was moved. Without sulfur, I made this with the expectation that it should be consumed early (we even put a 2-year window on the label). I was recently lucky enough to taste the 2011 Allemand Cornas Sans Soufre and it was in a perfect spot—as perfect as a wine experience could be—so perhaps I am being a little too conservative with this early drinking window? Maybe drink one soon, then make up your own mind about how long to hold your other bottle.
2018 Kobayashi Cabernet Franc – Washington State. Once again this is our lowest production wine, so I hate to talk it up too much knowing that there is not enough to go around. This 2018 Cab Franc is the diametric opposite of the Sans Soufre Syrah. Although we used the same process as in years past—native fermentation and extended maceration in neutral oak rotary fermenters with once-used French oak barrels for aging—this wine is notably different from our previous vintages from 2014-2017. While the SS Syrah embraces the ephemeral, this wine has structure that is built for the ages, and it should get lost in your cellar for at least 10 years. The aromatics are familiar with mint and brambly berries, but the tannins are more serious than previous vintages. In its youth it’s wound into a knot that will take years to unravel. In my life I have regretted opening a bottle of wine only once: a 2005 Chateau Pavie I opened in 2009, which presented an impenetrable wall of tannin that is only now starting to resolve itself (15 years on). I did not taste 70s and 80s Bordeaux on release, but it is known that they were not made in a style conducive to immediate consumption. Yet, the fresh tobacco leaf and pyrazine they flaunt now makes me wonder if this 2018 Kobayashi Cab Franc will follow a similar trajectory, and perhaps one similar to the 2005 Pavie. My hope is that not too many bottles are opened before the sleeping giant awakens. Patience will be rewarded. If you must open one please double-decant 8 hours in advance… and then enjoy vigorously.
Pricing is $55 for white wines and $75 for red wines; no magnums are available this year.
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