Six from Syncline

Hello friends. Syncline is among Washington’s most thrilling wineries. The flagship winery for the Columbia Gorge (an amazing region I wrote about for Seattle Magazine last year), Syncline has released a number of fascinating wines in 2013. We’re a little behind with Syncline offerings, so we’re rolling them into a MEGA-Syncline offering today (we’ll at least limit it to single-varietal wines and skip the blends, but that’s still *six* wines!).

James and Poppie Mantone have been part of the Washington vanguard since they launched their winery. They were early adopters of Rhone varietals, are one of the few producers able to coax something lovely out of Washington Pinot Noir, and are now really pushing the boundaries of white varieties in the state.

For freshness, for purity, for transparency, Syncline is tough to beat:

2012 Syncline Gruner Veltliner Underwood Mtn Vineyard

The great, savory white grape of Austria has found a home in Washington, on the southern slopes of Underwood Mountain Vineyard (see location here). The vines first came online for production in 2008, and we have offered every vintage since. When David Schildknecht, the great lover of Austrian wines, first got his hands on Syncline’s Gruner (the 2011 vintage), he called it “as good as any I have witnessed from a North American Gruner Veltliner.” High praise from a man not prone to it. Gruners are outstanding food-pairing wines. Because of their savory side, they pair with tough-to-complement foods like artichokes and asparagus. They’re also beautiful oyster wines, for those of you so inclined. Picked after Halloween and still only coming in at 12.7% alc, this was fermented in concrete (cool!) and presents a balanced triangle of citrus (lemon, lime), savory (lentil, celery, snap pea), and saline. A total live-wire wine, intense and precise.

2012 Syncline Picpoul Boushey Vineyard

All from Boushey Vineyard, this is typically a blending component in Subduction White, but James got enough in 2012 to bottle it on its own. The one (memorable) time I had dinner at Dick Boushey’s house, a Picpoul (from McCrea, I believe) was the one bottle from his own vineyard that he chose to serve. If it’s good enough for Dick Boushey, it’s good enough for us! Done all in stainless and coming in at 14.4%, it offers a great mix of richness with the vibrancy Picpoul is known for (the name for the variety essentially translates to “lipsmacker” or “lip-stinger”, a reference to the grape’s copious natural acidity). This has lovely tree fruit (pear mostly), along with lemony acid and chalky/mineral cut. A curiosity, but a lovely one at that.

2011 Syncline Grenache

Frequently a club-only wine for Syncline, in 2011 it’s being released a bit wider. James sources Grenache from all over Washington: Ciel du Cheval and Force Majeure on Red Mountain, Northridge on the Wahluke Slope, McKinley Springs in Horse Heaven. It’s pan-Washington, and I love this style of Grenache: lighter-bodied, and all about being fresh, pure, and clean. Aromas and flavors mix classic Grenache notes of raspberry, green strawberry, and white pepper, and the texture is lovely, with a creaminess emerging in the mid-palate after a brisk, nervy attack. A delicious summer red.

2011 Syncline Mourvedre

From Coyote Canyon, Ciel, and Heart of the Hill, this offers a nose of brambly berry fruit, plums, leather, and grapefruit peel. A great core of plummy fruit sits at the center of the palate, shaded by complexities of meat and leather spice. This has zest and flair, a certain spiciness to its palate and personality.

2011 Syncline Pinot Noir Underwood Mtn Vineyard

This is the first time Syncline’s Pinot has come entirely from Underwood Mountain Vineyard (see the Gruner above for the link to the map). All the Celilo Vineyard fruit that formerly formed the spine of this wine has been transitioned into Syncline’s sparkling program (yum). With a listed alc of just 12.7%, this drinks like something at the intersection of Pinot and Gamay, of Oregon and Burgundy and Spatburgunder. Or maybe it drinks like Washington Pinot! It’s all crunchy black raspberry and blackberry and pomegranate fruit, interspersed with streaks of gravel and black pepper and clover. A vin de soif, with racy energy, taut texture. Should be fascinating to watch this one develop.

2009 Syncline “Scintillation” Blanc de Blancs Celilo Vineyard

Shocked that there’s any of this left, but a small amount remains. Originally offered on May 4, 2012. Original offering text: All from Celilo, this is a Blanc de Blancs, a 100% Chardonnay, and it smells like it (and a lot like BdB Champagne), all lemony and leesy. All that lees contact imparts the bready, biscuity aromatics that those of us who love Champagne hold so dear. The palate has a fine mousse, and there is wonderful length and intensity here. This is a fine opportunity to taste a collaboration between a vineyard manager and a winemaker deeply committed to making as fine a sparkling wine as Celilo’s terroir will allow.

Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate (David Schildknecht): “[REVIEW TEXT WITHHELD]. 94pts.”

First come first served up to 48 bottles total (mix and match as you like, with the possible exception of the Scintillation, which may get allocated), and the wine should arrive at the warehouse in about a week, at which point it will be ready for pickup or shipping during the next temperature-appropriate shipping window.

2009 D. Lauribert Cotes du Rhone Villages Visan Les Truffieres

Hello friends. One of the best quality-for-price wines I have tasted this year passed across my palate last week. We immediately bought out the remaining stock in both Washington and Oregon, and all those bottles should arrive in the warehouse today and be available for pickup this week:

Cotes-du-Rhone is one of those categories where there’s no substitute for broad tasting. I find the wines exhilarating, because there’s such a wide range of quality, and there is almost no correlation between that quality and the pricing. That means there are terrible deals and wonderful deals to be had, and the difference comes from a willingness to taste copious trash in order to find rare treasure.

We taste horrible CdR-Villages all the time that retail for $15-$20, and then we taste magnificent little numbers like today’s wine that can be had for less (especially if you’re willing to buy up all the remaining stock).

This comes from Domaine Des Lauribert, a great find from one of our local importers (not sure if anyone else in the states outside of the PacNW brings this in). The family has held gorgeous vineyard land in Visan for generations (look at these amazing bush-trained old vines), but for most of their history, their juice was vinified in the local cooperative. Only recently (late 1990s) did they launch the Lauribert label and begin vinifying in-house.

Please note: this is not Lauribert’s more general Cotes-du-Rhone. This is the Villages bottling from Visan (see location here). A few unusual notes about this wine:

1. It is 2009 vintage. Most CdRs on the market today are 2011, and we’re even starting to see some 2012s. There are a handful of 2010s, but to find a 2009 is rare. It’s a pleasure getting to taste a Cotes that is closer to its peak drinking window.

2. While most CdRs are Grenache-dominant, this is Syrah-dominant, at about 75% of the blend (the remainder Grenache).

I was taken with its expressive nose, which combines asphalt, red raspberry, and cherry blossom. The palate has a beautiful core of hot-rock minerality, shaded by lovely plush red cherry fruit and nuances of forest floor. The depth of character, the complexity, the intensity: all were deeply impressive at a tariff like this. It’s a great summer BBQ wine because it has enough overt deliciousness to make it a friendly bottle for your guests who prefer to glug, and enough complexity to enthrall your guests who prefer to contemplate. A killer value, where I’m glad that we bought every last bottle but wish there was even more.

Please limit order requests to 12 bottles, and we’ll do our best to fulfill all requests. The wine is in the warehouse and ready for immediate pickup or shipping during the next temperature-appropriate shipping window.

Three 2010s from Bunchgrass

Hello friends. We have three new releases today from a list-favorite winery: Bunchgrass.

This is a winery that has been around in the Walla Walla Valley forever, but their wines remain insider gems, quite difficult to source west of the mountains. In fact, one of today’s three wines has, up until today, only been available direct through the winery.

A trip to that winery (in Walla Walla; open Saturdays from April-December) is well worth the effort, as this is a producer steeped in valley lore, and one whose current owners are as friendly as their wines are good.

The history: Roger Cockerline helped to establish a grape-grower’s society in Walla Walla in the 1980s and then founded Bunchgrass as the eleventh winery in the Walla Walla Valley. Roger’s fruit is present in some of the early Leonetti bottles, helped perhaps by the fact that Chris Figgins was a student in Roger’s 8th Grade Social Studies Course (no pigeonholing in the WWV; Roger was a farmer *and* a teacher).

Roger named the winery after Bunch Grass, a book of poetry by his friend, the northwest poet Robert Sund (1929-2001). Learning about the origin of the winery name led me to Sund’s poetry, which has been one of my happiest accidents associated with Full Pull, and now, whenever we offer Bunchgrass wines, we include a Sund poem (or two).

Better yet: the great wheel continues to spin, as we now have a board member from the Robert Sund Poet’s House Trust on the Full Pull mailing list. I’d like to thank those lovely folks (holders of copyrights to Sund’s work) for permission to share his poetry with our list members. For more information on the life and work of Robert Sund, and to order books, please visit the Trust’s web site.

Today we’ll share a gift from one of the Trust’s board members: an unpublished poem from the late 1960s:

[TEXT WITHHELD]

As someone who tends to sit a long time in seemingly-fruitless contemplation of what to write, this notion that “A certain waste seems indispensable” is something of a salve, and certainly resonates.

Now, onto today’s wines:

2010 Bunchgrass Malbec (Frazier Bluff Vineyard)

A single vineyard Malbec from Frazier Bluff in the Walla Walla Valley. This site is planted mostly to Petit Verdot but has nine rows of Malbec, and Bunchgrass gets all of it, so this is their little Malbec monopole and represents the only opportunity to taste Malbec from Joe Frazier’s vineyard. I love the nose, which is extremely expressive, with fresh, pure aromas of plum, violet, and crushed rock/asphalt. The palate combines purity of fruit with a real suppleness of texture. It’s silky in the mouth but carries no excess weight. There is a precise sense of balance; it’s classy winemaking on display.

The only time I have seen this reviewed by one of the major magazines was the 2007 vintage, by Paul Gregutt in Wine Enthusiast. He scored it 93pts, which was his strongest review for a Washington Malbec for many years (aMaurice’s estate Amparo Malbec received 94pts in the April Enthusiast). I’m guessing Bunchgrass stopped submitting Malbec for review, since there’s just so little of it (72 cases for the 2010).

2010 Bunchgrass “Founder’s Blend” (BDX Blend)

This is our second opportunity to offer the Founder’s Blend (the 09 vintage was our first access), and I’m thrilled to have continued access for our list members. It has always been among my favorites in the Bunchgrass portfolio, but quantities prior to 2009 just weren’t high enough to warrant an offering. And even now, there’s just barely enough: again 72 cases.

It’s Tom’s homage to Cheval Blanc, and the proportions of Cabernet Franc (about two-thirds, from Dwelley Vineyard) and Merlot (about one-third, from Seven Hills Vineyard) are true enough. There is even a splash of Malbec in the mix, which is true for the great Saint-Emilion producer as well. All of it comes from the Walla Walla Valley. It’s a lovely pairing of Merlot’s lush red cherry aromas with Cabernet Franc’s exciting savory character (beetroot, red chile). Silky-textured (again, attention to mouthfeel seems paramount here) and insistently earthy, this adds up to well more than the sum of its parts. The mix of rich Merlot fruit and pollen-dusted, soil-driven Franc savories is a fine example of why these two grapes make such beautiful lovechildren.

2010 Bunchgrass “The Bard” (Syrah Blend)

This is an exclusive to Full Pull (outside of the winery, of course, where you should buy direct if we sell through our whole allocation). A new wine for Bunchgrass, it’s mostly a Rhone blend (50% Syrah from Nostra Terra Vineyard and Walla Walla Vintners Estate Vineyard and 25% Nostra Terra Grenache) that cheats with Bordeaux by adding a whack of Seven Hills Merlot.

The Merlot adds a layer of plushness to the texture, but doesn’t really figure in the aroma/flavor profile, which is classic Washington Syrah/Grenache: plump strawberry, loads of broken sagebrush, and topnotes of white pepper. 2010 was a cool vintage, but the folks at Bunchgrass had no trouble coaxing ripeness out of this fruit. This is a rich, lush, generous mix of red fruit and fresh herb.

Please limit order requests to 6 bottles each of the Malbec and Founder’s, and 4 bottles of the Bard, and we’ll do our best to fulfill all requests. The wines should arrive in a week or two, at which point they will be available for pickup or shipping during the next temperature-appropriate shipping window.

And for those of you who made it to the bottom, one more piece of Sund-ian magic, from Notes from Disappearing Lake: The River Journals of Robert Sund, written 35 years ago Friday:

[TEXT WITHHELD]

2010 For A Song Cabernet Sauvignon

Hello friends. I’m not so sure our warehouse has space for this offering (which comes from the most popular label we offered in 2012), but no matter; we’ll find someplace for it!

When I began to see bottles of For A Song wines from the 2010 vintage, I knew something was up. As long-time list members may remember from our first For A Song offering (the 2009 Syrah that launched a firestorm of interest), my understanding then was that the For A Song label was a destination for Olsen Estates remaining 2009 juice in barrel before the winery went out of business in mid-2010. Well, the Olsen barrels from 2009 are all gone, but For A Song remains.

What changes: the fruit sourcing, which will now encompass many more vineyards than Olsen.

And more importantly, what stays the same (at least for now):

1. The winemaker. Kyle Johnson, the former winemaker at Olsen Estates, is making all but one of the For A Song wines (the exception is a Pinot Noir made in Oregon).

2. The focus on QPR. The goal is to continue producing wines that over-deliver for their price points.

3. The tariff.

This is sourced from four different areas, with the majority coming from the Wahluke Slope (Milbrandt-farmed sites) and greater Columbia Valley (Goose Ridge Vineyard), and smaller portions coming from Horse Heaven (Discovery Vineyard) and Red Mountain (Kiona).

It is aged for 26 months, all in French oak (10% new). That is a barrel regimen (time and type) not generally associated with $10-$15 Cabernet. In a cool vintage that has yielded plenty of lean-mean-green Cabernets, Kyle managed to coax plenty of ripeness out of this 100% Cabernet Sauvignon (14.2% listed alc). The nose is a lovely mix of black cherry, cocoa powder, and Dr. Pepper spice. The palate combines black raspberry, orange peel, and cola, all heightened by earthy/mineral nuance. You know you’re drinking Cab as this moves past the mid-palate and onto the finish, rustic with its chewy black-tea tannins. For any summer grilling sessions where large hunks of red meat will be on the menu, this is a pretty easy choice.

First come first served up to 12 bottles, and the wine should arrive in about a week, at which point it will be available for pickup or shipping during the spring shipping window.

Two Sherries from Lustau

Hello friends. On October 26, 2010, my life was forever changed. It was a Tuesday afternoon, and I, along with a dozen fellow wine dorks, sat in the basement of the Harvest Vine (please go eat there if you haven’t already) and tasted through twenty sherries from the incomparable cellars of Emilio Lustau.

I was transfixed. The complexity of the region, of the production, of the wines themselves; it was all magic. An idea burrowed into my brain that day: “someday we’re going to offer these wines.”

Today is that day. (And a warning; this is a looooooooong offering. Sherry is just too complicated to simplify into a few paragraphs.)

I was reminded of the saline beauty of sherry during the studying that led up to my March WSET Level 4 Diploma Unit 6 Fortified Wines exam (an exam I passed, as I learned last week; many thanks to Pat and Matt for drilling me with blind wines, and to the importers and distributors who provided those bottles; we’ll celebrate with a nice vintage Port on Thursday, so folks picking up will get an extra treat), a step on the ladder towards a Master of Wine qualification. They were extra beautiful in the blind tasting portion of the studying, because of the three major categories covered (port, madeira, sherry), they’re the only wines with versions that drink completely dry (making them easier to identify).

And that’s where we’re going to focus today. Rather than look at sweetened sherries (whose reputations have been destroyed for a generation thanks to ad campaigns like this; “Smooth. Mature. Sociable.” There’s a slogan to lure in the kids.), we’re going to focus on dry sherry. (Another bonus reason to love dry sherry is that it’s a stellar cooking ingredient; more on that later.)

Real sherry only comes from Jerez, here in southern Spain, closer to Morocco than it is to France or Portugal. The dry versions only come from the Palomino grape, whose insipid neutrality makes exceptionally dull white wine and is precisely perfect as a blank canvas for the two types of aging influences that take place in Jerez: biological and oxidative.

Although there are myriad shades of grey in between, those are the two main camps of dry sherry: biologically-aged (which leads to fino styles) and oxidatively-aged (which leads to oloroso styles). Today we’re going to focus on the biologically-aged, flor-influenced, fino styles of dry sherry (we’ll save olorosos for another occasion; this is complicated enough already). We have two wines, and each will provide an opportunity for education. We’ll offer both wines in 375ml half-bottle formats and at low tariffs, to keep the commitment levels low and to encourage experimentation. These wines are not for everybody. I’d say of every ten people I pour dry sherry for, five hate it, two can take it or leave it, and three become life-long converts.

NV Emilio Lustau Sherry Manzanilla “Papirusa” (375ml)

We start with Palomino, and it comes almost entirely from the famous chalky “albariza” soils of the region. They’re famous because they’re blindingly white in the sunshine, a result of high proportions of limestone. Most of the finos (known for delicacy) come from this soil (the olorosos come from heavier clay and sand soils).

So we harvest our delicate Palomino, press it, and ferment it to dryness. At this point, it’s between 11% and 12% alc. I’m going to skip the marking of casks with symbols, because while it’s romantic, it’s also a little mythical and a lot complicated, and really, isn’t this confusing enough?! Now we fortify, and because we want the flor to grow, we only fortify to between 14.5% and 16% alcohol, and we only fill our barrels to 5/6 full. Why? Because flor likes that range of alc (anything above 16% kills it; anything below 14.5% and we’ll get vinegar) and that amount of oxygen.

What is flor, you ask? It is a benevolent film-forming yeast that appears only under the right conditions (usually during the spring after fermentation). Here’s a picture of what it looks like. Weird, eh? Then those flor-filled barrels go into a solera, where they happily age until the bottom row of the solera is drawn off into bottles.

Now, there’s flor and then there’s flor. Of the three major centers for sherry aging (Jerez de la Frontera, Sanlucar de Barrameda, Puerto de Santa Maria), the latter two are right on the coast, so they’re cooler and see more maritime influence. The flor likes proximity to the sea, and so finos from those two place get special names because of their bad-ass flor influence: Puerto Fino for Puerto de Santa Maria, and Manzanilla for Sanlucar de Barrameda

My favorite finos are manzanillas, because if I’m going to drink a flor-influenced sherry, I want to taste the flor, and here in the salty town of Sanlucar (location here), the flor runs wild. This Manzanilla Papirusa is a textbook introduction to the category. Saline and flinty, with loads of flor tang and mineral, it is bone-dry, meant to be lightly chilled, and is an incredible pairing with an appetizer plate of marcona almonds, hard cheeses like manchego, and cured meats (jamon iberico). There is a bit of fruit here (citrus, apple), but it’s the brine and mineral that rule the day. It drinks without question like something made near the sea.

Wine Advocate (Robert Parker): “[REVIEW TEXT WITHHELD]. 92pts.”

Wine & Spirits Magazine (Patricio Tapia): “[REVIEW TEXT WITHHELD]. 91pts.”

NV Emilio Lustau Sherry Amontillado “Los Arcos” (375ml)

If you keep replenishing the solera with young wine and nutrients, the flor will go on and on. But. Left to its own devices in the solera, the flor will eventually die off, exposing the sherry to oxygen. Now we have a hybrid: a sherry that has experienced both biological and oxidative aging.

Also known as an Amontillado.

For many of us sherry lovers, Amontillados are the pinnacle, because they combine the delicacy of fino with the complexity that oxygen imparts. Amontillado is where salty meets nutty. People who like peanut butter should like Amontillado.

And while we’re on food, I want to mention that Amontillado is an incredible pantry item for those of us who love to cook. A simple recipe: sauté a bunch of small cremini mushrooms (whole, with salt) on high heat until they give up their juice; add a couple handfuls of chopped garlic and parsley and a knob of butter; when the butter is melted and the garlic is getting aromatic (one or two minutes), add a cup of Amontillado to deglaze; let it boil down until it reaches a consistency that coats the shrooms; remove from heat, pour a small glass of Amontillado to accompany, and serve!

That’s just one example, but sherry adds a nutty complexity to all manner of dishes. Many a soup (seafood bisques especially) is improved by subbing sherry when dry white wine is called for.

Cocktails made with sherry can be transformative as well, but mixology is not my area of expertise, and this offering is like 1500 words long, so, moving along, all I’m trying to say is, sherry: it’s not just for sipping anymore! (this message sponsored by the Consejo Regulador de las DD.O. Jerez-Xeres-Sherry, Manzanilla de Sanlucar y Vinagre de Jerez. [just kidding, it’s not, but I wish it was, especially if that included a trip, or free sherry, or even free sherry vinegar, which is also very good and has multiple uses and WAIT; I said we’re moving along!)

So what does it taste like? A bowlful of salted nuts (cashew, pecan), overlain with layers of marzipan and light lemony citrus. You get to taste the influence of both the biological (saline yeasty flor notes) and the oxidative (salt caramel) aging here, and the balance is sublime.

Wine Advocate (Robert Parker): “[REVIEW TEXT WITHHELD]. 93pts.”

If you made it all the way through this offering, then wow, you must really be interested in sherry, or else you must really not want to do whatever you’re supposed to be doing right now. Regardless, I applaud the dogged persistence; allow me to reward you with a bonus Old England Sherry ad.

First come first served up to 6 bottles total (mix and match as you like), and the wines should arrive in about a week, at which point they will be available for pickup or shipping during the spring shipping window.

Two from Corliss/Tranche

Hello friends. We have two wines today: one from Corliss Estates and one from its sister winery, Tranche Cellars (note: while there is overlap in the ownership of the two wineries, they are separate entities, with separate winemaking facilities). Both are extremely limited and have been popular with list members in previous vintages.

2008 Corliss Estates Syrah

I’m really going to limit what I say here, because our allocation this year is the same as it was last year, and our list has grown considerably since then. Check out last year’s offering for more details on Corliss. That 2007 vintage went on to secure a strong review from Paul Gregutt in Wine Enthusiast (96pts) post-offering, and that has only increased the buzz around the release of the 08. A tasting of the 08 last week showed a more mineral-driven Syrah than the 07, but one that still possesses plenty of ripeness (15.1% alc) and a palate-coating mix of lush red cherry fruit, savory beef stock, and nutty oak. Intensity and length to spare with this one.

Please limit order requests to 1 bottle, and we’ll do our best to fulfill all requests. As usual, our formula for prioritizing allocations will include overall orders, frequency of orders, recency of orders, and list tenure, among other factors.

2009 Tranche Cellars Cabernet Franc Estate

Another wine that has had huge fans on the list, and one where we had to severely under-allocate last year (PaulG’s 93pt score in Enthusiast made for a feeding frenzy on the 08). No reviews yet on the 09, so we might actually be able to score a decent allocation.

As a reminder, this comes entirely from Corliss’ estate Blue Mountain Vineyard. BMV (located here) sits next to Leonetti’s Loess Vineyard, in the deep silt-loam of the eastern Walla Walla Valley. The site was originally planted for the dearly-departed Nicholas Cole Cellars, and many of the well-received bottlings from that winery came entirely from this vineyard. It is developing an exceptional track record for Cabernet Franc.

The nose begins with a twin core of earth and star anise, lifted by lavender, roasted poblano, and red cherry. Plenty of complexity; a sneak preview of the palate to follow, which combines deep, rich blackberry fruit with a terrific leafy character (aromatic tea leaves). I love the balance between ripe fruit (thank you, fleshy 2009 vintage!) and savory/earthy notes (beetroot, rhubarb). You could certainly cellar this for a few years if you like, but it’s drinking beautifully right now, ready for immediate gratification.

For the Franc, please limit order requests to 6 bottles, and we’ll do our best to fulfill all requests.

Both wines should arrive at the warehouse in a week or two, at which point they will be ready for pickup or shipping during the spring shipping window.

2008 Nota Bene Conner Lee Vineyard (BDX Blend

Hello friends. I like my job. But in the Pantheon of Ridiculously Awesome Gigs, the Chief Grape Procurement Officer for the Boeing Employee’s Wine and Beermaking Club probably tops it.

That was Tim Narby’s role at one point, and it afforded him access to incredible vineyards. When he launched Nota Bene, those vineyard contacts served him well. And they continue to serve him well today:

Wine Enthusiast (Paul Gregutt): “($30); [REVIEW TEXT WITHHELD]. 91pts.”

Review of Washington Wines (Rand Sealey): “($30); [REVIEW TEXT WITHHELD]. 18.5/20pts.”

As you can see, we’ve been able to negotiate a strong tariff today compared to the wine’s normal $30 tag, another example of the paradoxical nature of wine sales, where discounts happen right as the wine is entering peak drinking.

2008 is an oft-overlooked gem of a vintage in Washington. Flanked by the warmer 2007 and 2009 harvests, it was considered a cool year until 2010 and 2011 came along and showed everyone what a real “cool year” looks like. From the beginning, 2008 was a terrific white-wine vintage. Because it wasn’t as openly fleshy as 07 and 09, the reds were met with a collective shrug by many on release, but wow are they coming into their own now.

This bottle is a fine example. As usual with Nota Bene, it’s micro-production: a mere three French barrels (75 cases), one of them new. All three barrels come from Conner Lee Vineyard, a fascinating site that is still in the greater Columbia Valley. As you can see by its location, it is east of the Wahluke Slope and south of the Royal Slope. I suspect this slope might have its own name, but I don’t know it (paging Kevin Pogue; Dr. Pogue?). Outside of Tim’s bottling, other well-loved wines from Conner Lee include versions from Buty and from Guardian Cellars (Gun Metal).

Here Tim blends two barrels of Cabernet Sauvignon (from the 1987-planted block) and one barrel of Merlot (1992-planted). The aromas are decidedly expressive: crème de cassis, violet, black cherry, and nutty barrel top-notes of marzipan. Really luscious in the mouth, this presents layer upon layer of fruit: cassis, raspberry, cherry, plum, and even venturing into stone- and tropical-fruit territory with peach and guava. There’s plenty of power here (evidenced by the integrating, fine-grained tannins and the listed alc of 15.1%) and concentration, but it’s contained in this classy textural package, all suppleness and silk. This is not a Washington wine playing at being old-world. It’s proudly new-world, rich and delicious and a bringer of unapologetic pleasure.

It delivers way more class and intensity than we have any right to expect at a $20 tariff. There’s no secret formula: it’s a confident winemaker working with a high-comfort-level vineyard. After two years in barrel and another three in bottle, this wine is ready to rock and roll. First come first served up to 12 bottles, and the wine should arrive in about a week, at which point it will be available for pickup or shipping during the spring shipping window.