Hello friends. Chris Camarda makes four glorious single-vineyard wines each year. For the 2008 vintage, we have offered three: Ciel du Cheval, Champoux, and Sorella (which is old-block Champoux).
Here is the fourth.
I almost waited too long for this one. Production on this was cut drastically, from 1500 cases in 2007 to just 800 in 2008 (properly reading the economic tea leaves, the winery pushed a solid chunk of their production in 2008 into the black-label bottlings). Only 6% of the 800 cases produced remain unsold, so we’re jumping in just in the nick of time.
Two Blondes stands out in this lineup for a couple of reasons. First, it’s the only estate fruit in the portfolio. A 30-acre site planted in 2000, it is tended carefully by the Andrew Will team, under the direction of vineyard manager Chris Hoon. Here is the vineyard map, and much of this wine comes from the Angle Block.
Perhaps because the vine age (8 years as of this vintage) is notably younger than the old Ciel and Champoux fruit, this is also the most accessible of the Andrew Will single-vineyards. For those of us who enjoy immediate gratification, this is a tempting bottle. While Ciel and Champoux are shy, reserved (haughty?), Two Blondes is warm, generous, open. To put it in Downton Abbey terms, Ciel and Champoux are Mary and Edith Crawley; Two Blondes is more of a Sybil.
This wine has its critical champions. First, Jay Miller weighed in:
Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate (Jay Miller): “[REVIEW TEXT WITHHELD]. 93pts.”
Then, Jon Bonne, the influential wine critic for the San Francisco Chronicle (influential in part because he covers the entire west coast, such that Washignton and Oregon wines are compared to their Californian bretheren) included Two Blondes in his Top 100 of 2011. He doesn’t enumerate the list, nor does he provide scores, but you’ll notice that on the Cabernet, Merlot, and Blends page, Andrew Will is at the top of the list. (What? That list is alphabetical? No matter! Andrew Will is on top!)
San Francisco Chronicle (Jon Bonne): “[REVIEW TEXT WITHHELD].”
That’s a lovely tasting note, because it hits on the complexities that make this wine so thrilling: a drop of blood, a sprinkle of Spanish paprika, a whiff of mocha – all on top of a core of luscious cherry and berry fruit. It continues to be a real pleasure to watch this vineyard (and its neighbor, Sheridan) mature. With each additional year of vine age, the flavors seem to deepen, to resonate more powerfully.
Please limit order requests to 12 bottles, and we’ll do our best to fulfill all requests. As I mentioned, we’re getting down to the end of this, so reorder prospects are murky. The wine should arrive in about a week, at which point it will be available for pickup or shipping during the spring shipping window.
