Two 2011s from PB Wines

Hello friends. In a very short period of time, Rasa Vineyards has become one of the buzziest wineries in Washington. Each new release seems to be greeted with breathless admiration from consumers and critics alike.

For those of you curious as to what all the fuss is about, today’s offer is one for close attention, because today we have terrific tariffs (release price on these is $32) on the gateway drugs into the Rasa lineup: PB Wines.

PB (which stands for Pinto and Billo: the Naravane brothers behind Rasa) is a destination for juice that, for blending reasons, does not make it into the Rasa lineup. We’re looking not at declassified juice, but instead at fruit originally intended for the higher-end brand. The elevage is similar, too; PB wines get much of the same love and attention as Rasa wines.

What that means is that we end up with exceptionally good juice for the tariff (a terrific holiday splurge option for list members who usually focus on the $20-and-under set), and a fine introduction to the Rasa house style: liberal use of native-yeast fermentation, judicious use of new oak, and unwavering attention to tannin management and mouthfeel. Because PB wines are released a bit younger than the main brand, this is also a crystal ball that allows us to peer into the future 2011 vintage for Rasa. And the future looks bright indeed.

2011 PB Wines Mourvedre-Syrah-Grenache

Small production at just 196 cases, this is a Mourvedre-dominant blend (56%), rounded out with Syrah (29%) and Grenache (15%) and it spent two years in barrel (all French, 15% new). Vineyard sources are almost all Walla Walla Valley: Monette’s and XL (XL is a newish site from the Brown family of Watermill) for the Mourvedre, XL for the Grenache, and Funk Vineyard for the Syrah. The only non-valley fruit is 12% Syrah from Upland Vineyard on Snipes Mountain. Those of us who have loved Rasa’s Vox Populi Mourvedre over the years will recognize echoes of that wine here (in 2011, Vox Populi will be 100% Monette’s Vineyard, a site that makes up about a third of the blend for this PB wine).

Aromas are spicy, gamey, very Mourvedre with the combination of smoked meat, plum, and grapefruit. But the fun really begins in the mouth with any wine that Billo makes. The palate here is electric, a terrific representation of the pulsating-acid strength of the cool 2011 vintage. Again it’s the Mourvedre in the ascendancy with its vibrant spicy/meaty character, but the Syrah (pepper, bacon) and Grenache (with fleshy fruit to balance all that acid) each have their roles to play, and they play them beautifully. This category of Mourvedre blends is gaining in popularity in Washington, and you can see why when you taste this beauty.

2011 PB Wines Syrah-Cabernet Sauvignon

A 70/30 blend of Syrah and Cabernet, this also spent two years in barrel, although the proportion of new wood (30%) was a bit higher. Vineyard sources beggar belief. The Cab is all DuBrul and Sagemoor. The Syrah is a collection of terrific sites from across Washington: Les Collines, Seven Hills, and Funk in Walla Walla, Kiona on Red Mountain, Upland on Snipes Mountain, and Bacchus in the greater Columbia Valley.

The nose was, for me, immediately reminiscent of other Rasa Syrah projects, most notably QED. There is a great Syrah combination of beef stock and truffles, with the Cabernet providing notes of smoky cherries, gravelly minerals, and espresso. It’s a wonderful nose, one that kept me dipping back into the glass repeatedly, offering levels of aromatic complexity that belie the price point. Then in the mouth, it’s all about the texture again. There is a level of polish, of class, that is deeply impressive. Many wines from 2011 have a lot of rough edges. Here Billo has somehow sanded them all down, leaving a silky mouthful of wine that glides across the palate. A finishing lick of espressoey tannins reminds you that there’s Cabernet in the mix, but they’re so fine-grained, so well-managed, that they serve only to invite the next bite of food or the next sip.

First come first served up to 24 bottles total (mix and match as you like), and the wines should arrive in a week or two, at which point they will be ready for pickup or shipping during the next temperature-appropriate shipping window.

2009 Bunchgrass Syrah Walla Walla Valley (Morrison Lane Vnyd)

Hello friends. This autumn has been an embarrassment of riches for those of us who love Washington Syrahs. The quality level has never been higher. I’m just tasting bottle after bottle of exceptional juice. I still hear through the grapevine (heh heh) that Syrah is a soft category for some restaurant/retail accounts, but it isn’t for our list members. As long as we keep tasting remarkable bottles, we’ll keep writing about them and offering them. Here’s the latest:

Bunchgrass has been around in the Walla Walla Valley forever, but their wines remain insider gems, quite difficult to source west of the mountains. 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.

I’d like to thank the board of the Robert Sund Poet’s House Trust (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.

A Thousand Windows
[TEXT WITHHELD]
– Robert Sund

Bunchgrass’ Syrah portfolio has become extremely popular with our list members, most recently via their outstanding 2007 Lewis Vineyard Syrah, which we offered in January and June of this year. The flavor profiles of that Lewis Syrah and this Walla Walla Syrah (which comes entirely from Morrison Lane Vineyard) couldn’t be more different, but what they share is tremendous quality for the price point, a chance to grab terroir-expressive single-vineyard Syrahs at accessible tags.

Morrison Lane is the oldest commercial Syrah vineyard in the WWV, planted in 1994 by Dean and Verdie Morrison on a soil base of cobbles and deep silt/sand loam (right next door is Forgotten Hills Vineyard, another popular site with our list members). It’s a relative rarity, as there are only a few single-vineyard bottlings from Morrison Lane. Walla Walla Vintners sometimes has one, and K Vintners has consistently made a blockbuster version as well (a bit pricier than this, however). Bunchgrass only got enough fruit in 2009 to make two barrels (48 cases), so this is quite limited.

I’m wild about the nose, which is like the best bloody mary you’ve ever smelled: green olive, tomato paste, juniper, bacon fat. It’s just the right kind of funky, an evocative shape-shifter that seemed to yield different descriptors each time I stuck my nose in the glass. Sometimes floral, sometimes dark soil and asphalt, sometimes blueberry and boysenberry fruit. Always compelling. And the texture management – part of that Lewis Syrah’s deep appeal, I think – is alive and well here. This is supple, silky, palate-staining, with all the ripe deliciousness of 2009. At just about five years past vintage, it’s entering the early phases of a wonderful drinking period. A glorious expression of a special Syrah site in the Walla Walla Valley.

Please limit order requests to 6 bottles, and we’ll do our best to fulfill all requests. The wine should arrive in a week or two, at which point it will be ready for pickup or shipping during the next temperature-appropriate shipping window.

Three 2011s from Lauren Ashton Cellars

Hello friends. Sean Sullivan’s influence in Washington wine circles continues to grow. It has been a great year for the founder of Washington Wine Report, who had WWR named 2013 Best Single Subject Blog by the Wine Blog Awards and scored a plum gig reviewing parts of Washington and Oregon for Wine Enthusiast.

I was reminded of his burgeoning influence earlier this month, when I suddenly received a slew of e-mails asking when our next Lauren Ashton Cellars offer was going to be sent out. It took me about five minutes to realize that Sean’s write-up was the source of the inquiries.

Those of us who have followed him over the years know that he is reticent when it comes to effusive praise. So when he titled his post “The Extraordinary Wines of Lauren Ashton Cellars,” I think we all perked up a little. And then there was his first paragraph:

“When I sampled the inaugural releases from Lauren Ashton Cellars last year (notes here), I was considerably impressed. The new wines from the winery however, are a revelation – as impressive an across the board lineup as I’ve tasted from any winery this year along with some of the best wines I have tasted in 2013 period.”

Yikes. The whole post is worth reading, but I’m sure Sean’s praise won’t come as a surprise to our list members who have tried Kit Singh’s wines that we offered in October 2012, November 2012, and July 2013. Check out any of those offers, or Sean’s write-up, for the full background on the winery. Without question Lauren Ashton is among the buzziest entrants to emerge on the Washington scene over the past year. Today we have a thrilling threesome of Kit’s new releases:

2011 Lauren Ashton Cellars Syrah

Washington Wine Report (Sean Sullivan): “[REVIEW TEXT WITHHELD]. Rating: **** (Excellent).”

A couple fascinating things about this bottle. The first is that Ambassador Vineyard is a site on Red Mountain, but it’s managed by Syrah savant Dick Boushey, so this is a fun opportunity to see Dick’s work in a different Syrah terroir. Second, Dineen is a lovely Syrah vineyard in the Yakima Valley, well-loved by our list members when it turned up in OS Winery’s 2005 and 2006 Syrahs (many moons ago). It contains a brackish salty olive funk that is unmistakable, and it shines through here. It’s a shockingly smoky Syrah considering there’s no new wood involved. That character all comes from the vineyard/varietal combination. Peaty earth, black olives, tar, and woodsmoke, to go with a core of plummy fruit. The salty-sweet balance is outstanding.

2011 Lauren Ashton Cellars Cuvee Mirabelle

Washington Wine Report (Sean Sullivan): “[REVIEW TEXT WITHHELD]. Rating: ***** (Exceptional).”

Strong words from Mr. Sullivan on this one, a tiny-production (four barrels) Rhone blend that comes screaming out of the glass with fresh summer strawberries, cherry blossoms, garrigue, and mint. Freshness and vibrancy to spare here; this dances across the palate with its luscious Grenache fruit interplaying with mineral/spice/game notes from the Syrah and Mourvedre. Graceful winemaking indeed.

2011 Lauren Ashton Cellars Propietor’s Cuvee

Washington Wine Report (Sean Sullivan): “[REVIEW TEXT WITHHELD]. Rating: ***** (Exceptional).”

The first two wines were all neutral barrel. Here we see Kit’s deft touch with new oak. Aromas of toast and roasted coffee (breakfast anyone?) are the lovely barrel topnotes on a core of good Cabernet blackcurrant fruit. The palate continues the theme (cassis and coffee) but adds in compelling complexities of Red Mountain ferrous mineral and Klipsun Vineyard’s notoriously chewy-delicious black tea tannins. Structure, length, intensity; all there.

Kit has picked up a distributor in Seattle, so I suspect these aren’t going to last as long as prior releases. But we’re getting in nice and early, so for now it’s first come first served up to 24 bottles total (mix and match as you like), and the wines should arrive in a week or two, at which point they will be ready for pickup or shipping during the next temperature-appropriate shipping window.

2007 Beronia Rioja Reserva

Hello friends. We have a great tariff today on a category that is as popular as it gets with our list members: prime-drinking-window Rioja Reserva:

As you can see, we have what I think is about as low a price as you can find on this one. The reason why is a little inside-baseball, so if you don’t really care about the structure of the wine trade, go ahead and skip the next paragraph.

Okay, wine trade geeks. So imported wines generally come to us one of two ways. The first (and more common) is from producer to importer to distributor to us. The second is from producer directly to distributor to us. When a distributor brings a wine in directly from an out-of-country producer, they call it one of their “direct import” bottles or “DI” bottles. DI is also tossed around as a verb, as in “yeah, bro, we totally DI’d this one; that’s why the price is so low.”

Beronia had come into Seattle through the more traditional route, but recently, one of our excellent importer/distributor partners began DI-ing, and they passed most of the savings onto us. Which is great. Because now a Reserva that we would have offered for $17-$20 we can tick just under $15.

Now all that trade geekery means nothing if the wine is pedestrian, but Beronia is anything but. They were founded in the early 1970s (which makes them a total newbie by Rioja standards) by a Spanish gastronomic society in Rioja Alta dedicated to the preservation of traditional styles, and they are now owned by famed sherry house Gonzales-Byass.

What never ceases to amaze with Rioja is the quality of fruit and (especially) the length of aging that we get for such competitive tariffs. This is 90% Tempranillo, rounded out with small amounts of Graciano and Mazuelo. It spent twenty months in barrel and has now been in bottle for another four years.

It begins with a lovely nose that is right in that tweener stage between primary and maturing. There is still fresh fruit, deep and black and dusted with star anise, and there is also that classic maturing Tempranillo-in-American-oak nose of shitake-meets-bay-leaf-meets-cedar. That earthy, complex, appetizing nose is confirmed by a palate-coating mouthful of savory mushroom stock, brambly leafy blackberry/black cherry fruit, and Dr. Pepper spice. There’s such generosity, such pleasure for the tariff.

“Pleasure” is a word that shows up a few times in famed British wine critic Jancis Robinson’s note:  Purple Pages (Jancis Robinson): “[REVIEW TEXT WITHHELD].”

And of course we can’t ignore the drinking window. Jancis says 2011-2017, and I’m inclined to agree that we’re smack in the middle of prime drinking time for this lovely wine. That is the true beauty of Spain, and of Rioja in particular, one of the last remaining regions that is willing to age our wines for us. No cellars necessary to drink perfectly mature wines.

First come first served up to 24 bottles, and the wine should arrive in about a week, at which point it will be ready for pickup or shipping during the next temperature-appropriate shipping window.

2011 Saviah Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Walla Walla Valley

Hello friends. For many years, our list members have been the beneficiaries of Rich Funk’s kindness. His tradition has been to retail his Walla Walla Valley Cabernet Sauvignon for $30 for the majority of the year, and then offer a significant price drop for November and December.

For whatever reason, those price drops have tended to coincide with Wine Spectator releasing strong reviews for the wine, and the result has been a consistent holiday-season feeding frenzy. We’ve offered three previous vintages of this wine, and each one has been snapped up en masse and enjoyed throughout the holidays and then the rest of the year.

Because of the back-to-back cool, low-yield vintages, Rich adjusted the policy this year. No end-of-year discounts.

Except…

For those retailers who have been consistent supporters of Saviah over the years. I’m pleased/proud/relieved that Full Pull, and our list members, are counted among those supporters:

[Just to be clear, I consider us lucky to be getting this tariff at all, and we only get one shot at it. Reorders (if we can fulfill them at all), would need to come at a price closer to $30.]

I think the reasons this Cabernet have become so popular are threefold:

1) It is becoming ever more rare to see Walla Walla Valley Cabernet at a sub-$20 tariff.

2) Year in and year out, this is a Cabernet that most of us would be happy to pay $30 for. At a $20 tag, it way over-delivers.

3) It comes from unusual vineyards. So many times when we see Walla Walla Valley Cabernet Sauvignon it comes from either the king (Pepper Bridge Vineyard) or the queen (Seven Hills Vineyard). There’s nothing wrong with those two vineyards. In fact, they’re among the standard-bearers for the valley. But… it’s a big valley, full of micro-terroirs, and those of us who care about such things get a little extra intellectual jolt from tasting other sites.

The backbone of this wine comes from McClellan Vineyard (location here) and Anna Marie Vineyard (location here). Both sites are converted orchards farmed by the Brown family of Watermill Winery. Rich Funk (Saviah’s winemaker) was Watermill’s consulting winemaking during their early days, so he still gets access to this lovely fruit.

The alcohol (14.2%) and new French oak (40%) are both reasonable, allowing this to be a fine, honest expression of Walla Walla Cabernet. Still tightly wound, this really showed its best after several hours open (decanting would not be a bad idea if you’re drinking this in the near-term). It hits many of Cabernet’s best attributes: the savory (rhubarb, beetroot, bay leaf), the richly-fruited (cassis, redcurrant), the barrel-influenced (creamy chocolate), the earthy. And it all comes on a lithe, well-structured frame, with enough acid and tannin to suggest a continuing evolution in positive directions.

No Spectator review for this one yet, thank goodness. It allows us to open up order requests to 24 bottles, and we’ll do our best to fulfill all requests. The wine should arrive in about a week, at which point it will be ready for pickup or shipping during the next temperature-appropriate shipping window.

2012 For A Song Syrah

Hello friends. Today we have the new vintage of the wine that forced us to move warehouses.

Just kidding about that whole moving warehouses thing. (Sort of).

The 2009 vintage of For A Song Syrah was our most popular wine of 2012. We first offered it in October of that year, followed by a reoffer in December and a last-call reoffer in January. And our list members went crazy for it each and every time. Enough so that loading it in and out of our lovely little warehouse became problematic in a way that led me to seek out real estate brokers.

Because it has been ten months since we offered For A Song Syrah, I’m thinking some reminders about the project are in order.

For A Song grew like a sapling out of the ashes of the dearly-departed Olsen Estates winery. The Olsen family had been growing grapes in the Yakima Valley for 40 years when, in 2006, they decided to launch a winery to feature their fruit and build the brand of the vineyard. That winery, which crushed grapes only through the 2009 harvest, was terrific, and the wines produced never lacked for positive reviews. The problem was never with grapegrowing or winemaking; it was always with selling. Entering a competitive market, in a recession, without a distributor, proved too great a challenge to overcome.

When Olsen Estates went out of business, all their juice, in bottle and barrel, was purchased by their distributor (Vinum), who created the For A Song label as a house brand to find happy homes for all that quality juice. Since then, the project has been such a runaway success that Vinum has kept the band together. They have Kyle Johnson, the former winemaker at Olsen Estates, making the wines. Because of that connection, they still source beautiful Olsen Vineyard fruit (while the winery went out of business, the vineyard operations have continued uninterrupted, and there’s no denying that the winery project did indeed raise the profile of the vineyard, which sells fruit to Gramercy, Betz, and Maison Bleue, just to name a few).

There was no 2010 or 2011 For A Song Syrah. They skipped the two cool years and are back with the more normal 2012 vintage. This has just been released, and I don’t want to waste any time. I know the 09 vintage had gained quite a bit of popularity around town, showing up on myriad restaurant lists as a lovely glass-pour option, and I’m sure there’s pent up demand.

This is 100% Syrah, a blend of about a quarter from Olsen, the remainder from Weinbau Vineyard (a terrific Sagemoor site). It spent about a year in barrel, of which 20% were second-fill and 80% third-fill. So no new oak, but not exactly neutral oak either. Aromatically, this did remind me of the 09 vintage, and the sensory marker for me was the lovely white-flower topnotes above a core of good Yakima Valley blueberry and boysenberry fruit. In the mouth, this has a strong palate-staining character for the tariff, the intense fruit lifted by floral notes and complemented by lashings of espresso and insistent mineral streaks. Ripe, balanced, delicious, this is a juicy little baby now. It’s already quite nice, but I’d give it a few more months in bottle (or a couple hours in a decanter) to show its best right now.

Winter wedding planners, holiday party planners: this is a fine candidate. First come first served up to 60 bottles, and the wine should arrive in about a week, at which point it will be ready for pickup or shipping during the next temperature-appropriate shipping window.

Three West Coast Pinots

Hello friends. Three terrific west coast Pinot Noirs today (one from California, one from Oregon, one from Washington), combined to serve three different purposes: first, to issue a correction; second, to reoffer a very popular Pinot; and third, to offer two already-sold-out-in-western-Washington wines where we took the rare step of bringing in parcels ahead of an offer (neither parcel is very big). Let’s dive in:

2008 Owen Roe Pinot Noir Solomon Hills Vineyard

Owen Roe Correction: I didn’t get the story exactly right in our October 25 offer for the 2012 Lady Hill Ad Lucem, and I’d like to issue a correction/clarification. What was in the original offer: “My understanding (admittedly secondhand) is that O’Reilly keeps the Owen Roe name, while Owen keeps the winery and the production winemaker (Erik Brasher).” Per David O’Reilly, all winemaking assets, including equipment and three vineyards, will be kept in house at Owen Roe. Owen Roe completed the 2013 harvest in their Oregon facility and will then relocate to an enhanced facility in the Yakima Valley. Finally, Brasher’s last harvest with Owen Roe was 2009.

Long time list members know the high regard we have for Owen Roe wines. To that end, I want to reoffer an extremely popular Owen Roe wine from earlier this year. The 2008 Owen Roe Pinot Noir Solomon Hills was originally offered on September 19. Excerpts from that original offer:

This is an Oregon producer who is best known for wines from Washington fruit, with a Pinot Noir from the Santa Maria Valley. In California. Confusing enough?

Perhaps this will help cut through the clutter: our tariff is nearly half off the release price of $42.

If Full Pull were located in Portland or San Francisco, that pricing never would have happened. In the twin hearts of domestic Pinot country, blowout tariffs on five-years-past-vintage high-end Pinot Noirs just don’t tend to happen. The wines sell fine. But Pinot is a slower mover in Washington, allowing for the occasional screamer, and we are in the right place at the right time.

Solomon Hills Vineyard is a sister site to Bien Nacido, and it’s about as far west as you can get in the Santa Maria Valley, sitting on a bed of ocean floor sandy loam. Check out the location. You can see that this site gets as much maritime influence as possible, making it one of the coolest vineyards in the AVA as well (as evidenced by the 13% alc on this one, a far cry from the boozier Pinots from California’s warmer climes).

The aromatics on the 2008 are immediately reminiscent of the 2007, with a core of raspberry fruit complemented beautifully by meaty, marine, and leafy. The palate sees rich cherry fruit and earth notes, combined with that continuing savory/umami/seaweed note that ratchets up the complexity. Like the 2007, this displays tightrope balance, supple texture, fine intensity, and a lingering finish. The extra bottle age is the final layer of polish on a lovely wine.

Allen Meadows, the Burghound, is known as a particularly exacting reviewer when it comes to scores. Domestic producers are generally thrilled to see anything from 88pts on up, and a 90 from the Hound is a fine achievement indeed:

Burghound (Allen Meadows): “[REVIEW TEXT WITHHELD]. 90pts.”

Gotta love seeing “Drink 2013+” when we’re sitting here in 2013. This is a rare opportunity to taste well-aged Central Coast Pinot at a fine tariff, and this 2008 is the last vintage ever made of this wine, so we shan’t be seeing it again.

2011 Analemma Pinot Noir Oak Ridge Vineyard

This is a newish Columbia Gorge winery worthy of attention. Steven Thompson completed the Viticulture and Enology program in Walla Walla before working for a number of valley producers. His last stop in Walla Walla was – ahem – Cayuse Vineyards, after which he worked several southern hemisphere harvests in New Zealand (Craggy Range in Hawkes Bay, Seresin in Marlborough). With a desire to make cool-climate wines in Washington, it’s no surprise that he wound up in the Gorge.

Analemma has planted out one estate vineyard (Saddle Ridge) that is a few years from coming online, and they help farm two other high-elevation sites in the foothills of Mt. Adams: Atavus and Oak Ridge. This Pinot Noir comes from the 1984-planted Oak Ridge Vineyard, and it was a stunner in a recent tasting, immediately staking a claim as one of the most compelling Pinots produced from Washington fruit (not a crowded field, admittedly). The nose has bracing purity, all black cherry fruit and cherry blossom. What you notice immediately on the palate is how unapologetically earthy this is. Drinking very much like a villages-level Burg, it’s full of silty mineral to go with the high toned cherry notes. What a glorious mix of rocks and fruit. Totally singular Washington Pinot, and the only drawback is that you can count our number of cases in stock on one hand.

2010 Scott Paul Pinot Noir “Audrey”

Very little of this came up to Washington at all, and I grabbed the last little bit remaining. We have an amount that barely warrants inclusion in an offer, so I’m hiding it here at the bottom in hopes that you all will (mostly) ignore it. Named after Audrey Hepburn, it’s a selection of Scott’s finest barrels in a given vintage. In 2010, that was just six barrels from the 1970-planted block at Maresh Vineyard plus one additional barrel from Nysa Vineyard. Two of those seven barrels were new, so we’re looking at about 30% new French. It’s a thrilling wine of crystalline purity, another total killer from the painfully precise 2010 vintage. We can talk about flavors (red cherry, blood orange, leafy tea notes, mineral), but I suspect Scott and Kelley Fox are really barrel selecting based on mouthfeel. This is all elegance, grace, refinement, and I only wish we had more.

International Wine Cellar (Josh Raynolds): “[REVIEW TEXT WITHHELD]. 93pts.”

Please limit order requests to 24 bottles of Owen Roe, along with 3 each of the Analemma and Audrey, and we’ll do our best to fulfill all requests. Analemma and Audrey are already in the warehouse, and the additional Owen Roe should arrive in a week or two, at which point they will all be ready for pickup or shipping during the next temperature-appropriate shipping window.

NV Saint-Cosme “Little James’ Basket Press”

Hello friends. We have the return of a list-member favorite from last November, just in time for the Grenache-starved among us:

This might end up working out well. If Little James can get us through the winters, and Lou Ven Tou can get us through the summers, we’ll be able to get our value Rhone Grenache fix for most of the year.

Now, a reminder of what Little James is all about. Louis Barruol of Saint Cosme has (rightly) built his public reputation on wines from his home base of Gigondas. But among the wine-trade/insider/sommelier set, there may be even more affection for his least expensive wine.

Because it’s one thing to make a quality Grenache that retails for $30-$100; it’s something else to develop a Grenache that brings pleasure for ten bucks. Much more frequently spotted on restaurant glass-pour lists than on retail shelves, this is as perfect an autumn/winter house wine as there is, an easy choice for a drizzly Wednesday night.

Louis began this as a solera project in 1999. It’s a NV (non-vintage) bottling, and each bottle contains about 50% of the most recent vintage (in this case 2012), and 50% from the solera, which at this point contains juice from every vintage from 1999 to 2011. It gets the Vin de France designation, because it contains juice from the Cosme Grenache holdings in the Southern Rhone as well as the Languedoc.

As we all know, there is a surfeit of serious bottles in the wine world. This is not intended to be one of them, as you can glean from the label. What are we to do, then, when a wine intended for playfulness turns out to sneakily contain a little seriousness?

Enjoy it either way. This can be enjoyed for the sheer pleasure it brings, the lovely pure expression of briar-berry Grenache. But there is undeniable complexity here (having a small proportion of juice that is up to 14 years old doesn’t hurt), and if you want to take your time with this bottle and pay attention, you’ll be rewarded handsomely. It begins with a fresh, inviting nose of cherry pastille, peppermint, and garrigue. The palate is full of good honest Grenache notes, with brambly red fruit (raspberry, cherry) and earth notes comingling. It’s successful as ever at its dual role as a glugger with sneaky complexity.

Folks planning holiday parties or winter weddings should consider Little James as a strong option. First come first served up to 72 bottles, and the wine should arrive in about a week, at which point it will be ready for pickup or shipping during the next temperature-appropriate shipping window.

2007 Chateau Rollat Cabernet Sauvignon “Rollat”

Hello friends. It never ceases to amaze me to find lovely bottles of 2007 vintage Washington wine still available. I joked back in March of this year (when offering the 2007 RiverAerie Cab) that it was our last bottle from 2007. (Until our next last bottle from 2007). I’ve cried wolf about the end of access to bottles from 2007 enough times that I’ve lost all credibility on the topic.

So be it. The vintage was widely lauded as the best of the past decade, and when opportunities arise to source well-aged bottles from 07, we’re going to pounce, credibility be damned. Especially when it comes with a price drop:

Wine Enthusiast (Paul Gregutt): “($38); [REVIEW TEXT WITHHELD]. 93pts.”

Chateau Rollat is a Walla Walla winery perhaps best known for its consulting winemaker, Christian LeSommer, whose other stints in the wine world include time at Chateau Latour (a first growth estate in Bordeaux) and Chateau D’Yquem (the famous Sauternes producer). It’s always fascinating to see a Bordelaise vision applied to Washington fruit.

PaulG’s review was published in September 2011, so this is no longer such a baby (a toddler maybe?).The oak is continuing to integrate nicely, swaddling the fruit in espresso, dark chocolate, brown sugar, and leather spice. That fruit is dark as can be. It comes entirely from the twin queens of the Walla Walla Valley – Seven Hills and Pepper Bridge – and to me it has a very Pepper Bridge profile, with fresh blackberry and cassis mingling with dried black cherry. It also possesses Pepper Bridge’s tannic power. After a lovely, silky mid-palate, this rolls into a powerhouse finish, all earl-grey chew. Plenty of years ahead for this, but it’s already beginning to show the grace and complexity that only bottle age can bring.

First come first served up to 24 bottles, and the wine should arrive in about a week, at which point it will be ready for pickup or shipping during the next temperature-appropriate shipping window.

2004 Chateau Coutet Sauternes Chartreuse de Coutet

Hello friends. It’s that time of year. The sun sets by mid-afternoon. One strong gust sends leaves scurrying down towards earth. And those of us who love and hoard sticky wines are allowed to reveal our sick habit to friends and family.

It’s easy, when beginning to collect wine, to have some blind spots: categories where your buying is waaaaaaay out of line with your rate of consumption. That’s sticky wine for me. A shocking amount of my personal collection is devoted to sweeties, especially considering that we seem to open a number each year that is well within a two-year-old’s ability to count.

But this is the time of year to open those bottles. With stickies, a little goes a long way, which means the bigger the gathering, the more likely you’ll be to convince your guests that a sweet wine and a chunk of cheese to end the evening is a wonderful idea.

We’re lucky to live in a world with great diversity of sweet wines, but for me, there is a holy trinity within the category: Tokaji from Hungary. Trockenbeerenauslese from Germany. And Sauternes:

It’s no accident that all three of those are botrytis-affected wines. What most stickies have in common is that they come from extremely concentrated juice, and by that I mean juice with low water content. Now you can freeze that water content and press it out (ice wines/eisweins), you can lay the grapes out on straw mats and let them raisin as the water content evaporates (vinsanto), or, if you’re lucky enough to live in a place where, in only the right years, you get foggy mornings that encourage the growth of one particular type of fungus (botrytis cinerea) but sunny afternoons to discourage other forms of mold and rot, and that place happens to also have a labor force that can make multiple trips through the vineyard, picking only the berries or clusters affected by the noble fungus, well then, you get to make one of the most compelling sweet wines in the world.

The reason that botrytis-affected stickies reign supreme, from my perspective, is that they add as they take away. Freezing water, evaporating water; all that does is take away water. Now botrytis does take away water (it punctures small holes in grapeskins, through which much of the grape’s water content evaporates while the grape is still on the vine), but it also adds its own flavor. Identifying that exact flavor is tricky (honey, caramel, mushroom, yellow curry all pop up with some regularity), so we turn to more general adjectives: words like musty; lusty; carnal.

Now today’s Sauternes was not the scheduled feature for this particular day, but this is the time of year when opportunities arise, flicker, and disappear, so I wanted to act fast.

Why the urgency? First, tariff: Sauternes tends to be a high-end category (a split of 1998 D’Yquem goes for $150 at auction). Second, age: it is rare to access winery-aged, library Sauternes on these shores. Finding a Sauternes ten years past vintage is an unusual treat. Third, availability: Very few bottles were imported into Seattle, and they’re moving fast. No surprise, as we’re competing against every restaurant in Seattle angling to have a well-priced Sauternes on their dessert menu.

Luckily, we were able to get a hold on a nice chunk of wine for our list members to access, but we’ll need to place our order tomorrow morning, so please try to get your orders in by the end of the day. We’ll build in a buffer for latecomers, and if the buffer’s too big, well then, aw shucks, I guess I’ll have to add a few more sticky bottles to my ever-growing pile (fortunately, most stickies age forever, so I can continue deluding myself that there will be opportunities aplenty to get all of them opened).

Yikes. A dozen paragraphs in, and I haven’t even mentioned the winery name. I can see the large hook stage left, so I’ll try to wrap this up in time for all of us to get some productive work time in this afternoon. Chateau Coutet (located here) is one of a handful of First Growths in Sauternes, and one of only two in Barsac (Chateau Climens is the other). Barsac is the only village in Sauternes allowed to put their name on the bottle (producers there have options; they can label it Barsac, Sauternes, or Barsac-Sauternes), and they’re known for particularly high balancing acidity and high proportions of Semillon.

Coutet’s vineyards, for example, are planted 75% Semillon, 23% Sauvignon Blanc, and 2% Muscadelle. Chartreuse is Coutet’s second wine, but it’s not a barrel selection. It’s the same proportions as the Grand Vin (75/23/2) and raised with much the same care. The difference is that Chartreuse comes from the younger (15- to 20-year-old) vines of the estate.

As an introduction to Sauternes, this is lovely stuff. It begins with aromatics of marmalade, pineapple, alluring honey-fungal botrytis, and lovely top-notes of mint and fennel frond. The palate is rich, sweet, with a caramel-drenched marmalade core complicated by savory/leafy/tobacco notes. There is enough sweet intensity here that pairing it with another dessert seems like a bad idea. I’d aim for a cheese course instead, and it should include at least one blue cheese pungent enough to make you feel a little perverted for enjoying it. That is the perfect pairing for Sauternes, a ribald romp.

Please limit order requests to 12 bottles, and we’ll do our best to fulfill all requests. The wine should arrive in about a week, at which point it will be ready for pickup or shipping during the next temperature-appropriate shipping window.