A few weeks ago I was with my uncle who has been one of my most formidable wine influences in my lifetime of seeing, swirling, smelling and sipping. Whenever I ask him to tell me what we are about to drink he says with a bit of a twinkle in his eye, “you tell me.” I’ll be the first to admit I am nowhere near prepared to sit for my sommelier exam but I know enough about what his tastes are and where he buys from that it helps to narrow the pool significantly. I narrowed a red recently to new world, Pacific Coast but … it wasn’t quite what I would expect from Napa or Paso Robles. He grinned. “When I want a good wine and not pay Napa prices where do I go?” Of course. He went to Washington State.
For those unaware of Washington – mostly warm climate reds and whites bottled and sold from the pop-up “Warehouse District” of Woodinville, the rich Columbia Valley, the more elegant bed and breakfast inns of Walla Walla, and the horse trails of Red Mountain – the many AVAs of the region strike a good mix of high value to moderately and higher priced wines. Bold flavors and moderate tannins with distinctive terroir denote many of the state’s offerings.
Over the next month I’ll be reviewing two of our wine co-op members with StonewoodWine. Auclair Winery and Terra Blanca Winery. Two very different operations (small batch Woodinville Warehouse vs large estate property Red Mountain) with a focus on producing high quality wines that distinctly speak on the properties of the AVA.
StonewoodWine 