2007 Full Pull & Friends CVBDX

Hello friends. I’m not sure any Full Pull & Friends bottling has been more popular than our inaugural offer. So I think many of our list members will be happy to hear that today’s FP&F offer comes from that same winery (let’s call them “Winery Alpha” going forward), and it too comes from the glorious 2007 vintage:

Now, a few quick reminders on the FP&F project:

Reminder #1: The Concept
This is far from an original concept. For generations, merchant-negociants in Europe, in addition to buying finished bottles, have purchased juice and/or grapes for their own labels. And every time I’m in northwest wine country, I’m tasting not just finished bottles but plenty of juice from barrel as well. The problem, until recently, was that we simply didn’t meet the volume requirements necessary to commit to a full barrel, or two barrels, or three or four. But in the past year, Full Pull has reached critical mass to where we can pursue these remarkable opportunities.

Reminder #2: The Name
Full Pull & Friends. Two clauses. The first (Full Pull) matters because this is juice that we believe in, that we *want* to put our name on, that we feel represents extraordinary value for our list members. The second (Friends) represents our wonderful list members, whose support of Full Pull has allowed us to reach the point where negociant wines were even possible, as well as our partner winemakers, who love seeing their carefully-tended juice get bottled on its own and offered to folks who they know to be enthusiastic about Washington wine. Oh, and CVBDX? That’s just shorthand for a Columbia Valley Bordeaux blend.

Reminder #3: The Winery
In some cases, we’ll be able to include the name of the winery involved, and in others (like today’s offer) we won’t. I understand the wineries that don’t want their names revealed. They have brand equity to protect, and they don’t want to see their name splashed on a bottle that costs less than half of their own. What I can say is: my plan continues to be to only work with wineries that are already popular with our list members, wineries with whom Full Pull has a long relationship. For example, we first started working with this winery partner in early 2010, and we’ve offered a grand total of 33 of their wines.

This wine comes from perhaps the best vintage of the past decade in Washington, and it spent a good long time in French oak, about 50% new. The fruit comes from outstanding vineyards (which by agreement must remain nameless), and it is a blend of 36% Cab Franc, 34% Merlot, 18% Petit Verdot and 12% Malbec.

I think those of you who liked the 07 FP&F Cabernet are going to dig this bottle as well; the two are stylistically similar. This begins with a piercing nose filled with layer upon layer of fruit: dried cherry, apricot, guava, blackberry. Some of the fruit is fresh and some is dried, sign of a wine beginning to move into a more mature phase. The densely-layered fruit continues on the palate, now complicated by soil notes and dusted with integrated oak flavors of cocoa powder and espresso. The palate is rich, seamless, with a plump mid-palate transitioning into a long, long finish full of softening, fine-grained, but still very much present tannin. It’s a silky, balanced, openly delicious bottle. It’s also throwing some sediment, so decanting or careful pouring would be a good idea here.

One more point worth remembering: this is a special bottle, exclusive to our list members. Outside of the Full Pull list (and nefarious list members selling through secondary channels, but we don’t have any of those, do we?), there is no place else to source these. They are one-off treats for our list members, and in some ways, by our list members. 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.

2011 Seven Hills Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Seven Hills Vineyard

Hello friends. Our Vast Network of Wine Spies™ strikes again!

This is a wine that I recently tasted, loved, and slotted into a late June/early July offering. But then, via a complicated set of encryption and, yes, de-encryption, I learned that the wine is set to receive a blistering (as in good) 94pt review from Paul Gregutt in the August issue of Wine Enthusiast.

Now when I heard this, I slapped my spy across the face with a white glove. “Don’t you lie to me, dammit!” I spat. “There are no Washington reviews in the August Wine Enthusiast. What kind of game are you playing?!”

“Please, please, I’m not lying,” he/she replied. “The vineyard is in the Oregon section of the Walla Walla Valley, so it gets published with Enthusiast’s Oregon reviews in August.”

“Oh. Um. Erm. Sorry about that.”

Yes, this is classy, classy, Seven Hills Vineyard juice made by the classy, classy Seven Hills Winery team. This is becoming a stalwart Washington (I mean Oregon! I mean Walla Walla) Cabernet. We’ve offered several vintages, and it is a singular beauty, all litheness and grace.

Seven Hills Winery has become a Full Pull list favorite, based in large part on Casey McClellan’s clear, dedicated house style: acid-driven, texturally elegant, long-lived. Casey deserves admiration for sticking with that style as fashion trends have waxed and waned. In the early 2000s, he held steady as trends towards alcohol and oak ruled the day. Casey is a grower’s winemaker, well-loved by vineyard owners and vineyard managers, because he picks fruit early and is single-mindedly dedicated to expressing the terroir of their sites.

A vintage like 2011 plays directly into Casey’s house style. This bottling is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, all from the old (1980s-planted) blocks at Seven Hills (location here), the queen of the Walla Walla Valley. It spent about two years in French oak, 40% new, and clocks in at 13.7% listed alc.

Casey McClellan has been working with these grapes for many years, and that comfort level shows. This Cabernet revels in the pretty side of the grape, offering soaring high-toned violet and lilac notes above a core of beautiful cassis and cherry fruit. The palate is a marvel of purity and elegance, with loads of inner mouth perfume, and plenty of structure in the form of both blood-orange acids and cherry-pit tannins. Wines like this from Casey have proven to be immortal agers, with all components in perfect harmony, evolving together. There’s intensity to burn, with nary a shred of excess weight. Wonderful.

Oh, and even before PaulG’s review appears in August, this wine already has two strong reviews:

Washington Wine Report (Sean Sullivan): “($45); [REVIEW TEXT WITHHELD]. Rating: ***** (Exceptional).”

Review of Washington Wines (Rand Sealey): “($45); [REVIEW TEXT WITHHELD]. 19.5/20pts.”

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.

Two 2012s from Purple Star

Hello friends. Our list members can’t seem to get enough of Kyle Johnson’s winemaking. Kyle was the winemaker for the dearly-departed Olsen Estates (we offered plenty of those), and he also makes the wines for the well-loved For A Song wines (we’ve offered plenty of those, too).

But that’s not all.

Kyle also has his own label, called Purple Star, and a recent tasting through this lineup revealed a portfolio studded with wonderful values. And that seems to be Kyle’s calling card, doesn’t it? The ability to craft wines with terrific value for the money.

Let’s dive into the lineup today with two of Kyle’s wines: one red and one white.

2012 Purple Star Cabernet Sauvignon

Yet another data point indicating that 2012 is a phenomenal vintage for value Cabernet. After serious challenges achieving ripeness at the low end of the price point spectrum for Cabernets in cooler 2010 and 2011, 2012 comes to us like a panacea.

This has 2% Petit Verdot in the mix, and it comes predominantly (73%) from a 1996-planted vineyard called Nine Canyon, a site farmed by Scott Williams (of Kiona fame) that sits just outside the Horse Heaven Hills AVA. There is also a sold whack (16%) of fruit from Kiona Heart of the Hill on Red Mountain, a spot whose Cabernet does not usually end up in bottles at this price point. The whole thing was aged for fifteen months in French oak, a mere 6% new, and it clocks in at 14.5% listed alc.

The aromatics are complex for this tariff, offering wonderful savory notes (beetroot especially, also tarragon and bay leaf and loamy earth) to go with the cherry and blackcurrant fruit. Of course with such a low % of new wood there’s virtually no overt oak influence on the aromas or flavors. In the mouth, what was noticeable right away was how polished the tannins are for Cabernet at this price point. It’s a silky mouthful that balances fruit and earth elements beautifully. As a midweek Cabernet, this is difficult to top, with plenty of delicious factor for the task but with sneaky-good, head-turning nuance.

2012 Purple Star Sauvignon Blanc

Back in April, we offered two Kyle-produced 2012 white wines from Caliche Lake Vineyard in the new Ancient Lakes AVA. Those were a Chardonnay and a Riesling, both bottled under the For A Song label, and they’ve been popular reorder targets since. No surprise, I suppose; this area (home to the famous Evergreen Vineyard) and its caliche/limestone soils is about as good as it gets in Washington for white wines.

To complete the trifecta, today we have Kyle’s Sauvignon Blanc from the same vineyard, this time bottled under Purple Star. It was done entirely in stainless steel, and it’s 100% Sauvignon Blanc, 100% from Caliche Lake. Chalky minerals come screaming through on the nose, along with so much citric fruit that you feel like you can positively smell the acid spine. But 2012 was a warm/normal year, and there’s surprisingly plush peach fruit to complement that nervy acid/mineral spine. Three months on the lees fleshed out the mid-palate, giving this wine a nice creamy bridge from attack to mouthwatering finish. Again a fine value and a good candidate as a house white or for summer parties and weddings.

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

2012 Famille Bieler “Lou Bar Rou”

Hello friends. Lou is back!

Well, sort of.

Today we have a new Lou, the follow up to last summer’s 2011 Lou Ven Tou, which remains the most popular import wine we’ve ever offered:

Our tariff has gone up by a buck (bummer), but I think you’ll agree that we’re pretty damned competitive price-wise on Lou nationally. Also, this is not really the same wine. It really is a new Lou. Let’s dig into it.

Now, Charles Bieler is no stranger to Washingtonians. He has been partnered with Charles Smith of K Vintners fame since 2010 in the Charles & Charles label. You know: these guys.

But before he got involved making wine in our fair state, M. Bieler was working with his father Philippe on Chateau Routas in Provence. Founded by Philippe in 1992, the Chateau was sold in 2005, and soon after the sale of Routas, Bieler Pere et Fils was founded. That label has made a killing mostly through its Provence Rosé, but they have also introduced a new project: the Lous.

Lou Ven Tou was a play on the pronunciation of Le Ventoux, the AOC where both wines come from. And Lou Bar Rou is a similar play on Le Barroux, the town that is the entire source of today’s wine. Here is its location. What a spot! You can see that we’re in the same neighborhood as Gigondas and Vacqueyras, appellations that command considerably higher prices than humble AOC Ventoux.

This is also a mountainous region, where ancient Triassic limestone has pushed up into the subsoils. The Bieler family knows how to spot value, and they purchased the vineyard that goes into this Lou in 2007, old vines that sit on those ancient soils, at elevations of 1500 feet. This part of the world is Grenache country, and that dominates Lou, at 60% of the blend, rounded out with 25% Syrah, 13% Cinsault, and 2% Carignan.

Another feature that Lou Bar Rou shares with Lou Ven Tou is the classy packaging, which easily belies the price point (isn’t it nice to have an inexpensive bottle that looks *and* tastes expensive to bring to other people’s parties?). Also, like Lou #1, Lou #2 was raised entirely in concrete, so it’s all purity of Provencal fruit that we get here. That expresses itself in a mix of ripe raspberry fruit, briny green olives, and hot-rock minerality. There are streaks of smoked meat and garrigue as well; again this is just way more complexity than we have any right to expect at this tariff. This is a fleshy, openly delicious bottle, summer BBQ wine if there ever was one. But man, put this into a blind tasting, and dollars to donuts that more than one pro would call this out as Gigondas. I don’t know what magic the Bielers are working, but this is two vintages in a row where they’ve made ringers for their more expensive neighbors.

Now unlike last year, this one is unfortunately much more limited, and likely won’t be reoffered or available for reorder. So let’s get now while the getting’s good. Please limit 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.

2011 Abeja Cabernet Sauvignon Columbia Valley

Hello friends. I have long admired the pithiness of the “Winery” section of Abeja’s website. It currently contains two sentences: “Our winery is housed in what was once the mule and horse barn of the old Kibler Farm. We are a very small team passionately dedicated to quality, and this is where our pursuit of extraordinary Washington State Cabernet Sauvignon begins.”

While they produce a whole host of other delicious wines, at Abeja Cabernet is king. Their Columbia Valley bottling is a benchmark for Washington Cabernet Sauvignon. We’ve been lucky enough to offer every vintage released in Full Pull’s existence – the 2007 through the 2010 – and today we’re back with the latest:

Now some quick reminders on the Abeja story: It was during his time as a pre-vet at Oregon State University that John Abbott happened upon sensory evaluation work in the Food Sciences department. Soon after, he traded in ungulates for grapes, transferring to Fresno State’s Viticulture and Enology Program. After post-grad stints in Napa making Cab at Pine Ridge and Pinot Noir at Acacia, he moved to Washington in 1994 to make wine from the nascent Canoe Ridge Vineyard. He remained at Canoe Ridge, making outstanding wines (the Merlots from this site were especially well-received) until 2002, when he helped launch Abeja.

The winery quickly developed a sterling reputation for its Cabernet Sauvignon, and its mailing list has been closed for years now, one of only a handful of Washington wineries with closed lists (here’s a link to their waiting list). Their Columbia Valley Cab is consistently beautiful, displaying purity, depth of fruit character, and real suppleness in the mouth. While I should know better, I find these Cabernets irresistible in their youth. Yes, aging will bring out subtle pleasures, but man oh man do these shine with vibrancy when they’re young.

This 2011 comes from Abeja’s outstanding Heather Hill Vineyard in the Walla Walla Valley, along with three of the Sagemoor Farms family of vineyards (Bacchus, Dionysus, Weinbau) and Kiona Heart of the Hill on Red Mountain. The sources are as good as it gets for Cabernet. The blend includes 14% Merlot and 1% Petit Verdot, and it spent 22 months in 60% new French oak. Listed alc is 14.5%.

It is true four-corner Cabernet, hitting notes of fruit/flower (cassis, blackberry, violet), earth (good clean soil), herb/savory (beetroot, mint), and barrel (coffee, high-cacao chocolate). And as is the norm with Abeja, it’s a textural marvel. Beginning with a soft entry, moving into a creamy mid-palate, it then transitions silkily/seamlessly into a long finish, with just the right amount of Cabernet chew. All the elements are in place. All the elements are precisely balanced. In a vintage where it was difficult to make fine Cabernet, this is a real standout among the ’11 Cabs I’ve tasted.

No reviews yet for this wine, and it’ll likely be all gone before a single review is published. 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.

Two from Cavatappi

Hello friends. We have offered many Cavatappi wines since Full Pull’s inception, and that’s no accident. It’s a terrific fit for our model: a 27-year-old Washington winery that few have heard of, started by a former Italian restaurateur and focusing on Italian varietals.

Although Peter Dow’s project has been around for more than 25 years, this is still an insider winery. Cavatappi flies under the radar in large part because their wines are much more likely to show up in restaurants than at retail. And perhaps that makes sense, since Cavatappi’s origins are deeply tied to the restaurant world.

Back in 1984, Peter Dow was the chef/owner of Cafe Juanita, a Kirkland restaurant featuring the cuisine of Northern Italy. After visiting the region himself, Peter was inspired by the number of restaurants in the Piedmont that were making their own house wine, and so he set about developing a winery in the cellar of his restaurant. Because there were so few of the Italian varietals planted in Washington at the time, Peter also had to develop partnerships with growers to put those vines into the ground (growers like Dick Boushey of Boushey Vineyard and Mike Sauer of Red Willow).

In its early years, Cavatappi sold all its wine through Cafe Juanita, but over time, they began allocating small portions of the wine for sales purposes. Most of that went to restaurants, as chefs and sommeliers quickly recognized that Peter was making wine intended for drinking with food. By 2000, Peter had sold Cafe Juanita (it remains a well-loved restaurant in Kirkland), but Cavatappi lives on, with much of its production still landing on restaurant wine lists.

Today we have new vintages of the two flagship wines, one named for each of Peter’s daughters:

2008 Cavatappi Sangiovese “Molly’s Cuvee”

What a treat: Sangiovese at six years past vintage from two of the shining stars of the Yakima Valley: Boushey and Red Willow.

There’s never much new wood used here, so it’s the rich Sangio fruit on display, beginning with a nose of plum, star anise, golden raisin, and dried cherries, those last two giving some sense that this is a wine in the process of shedding youthful baby fat. On the palate, this is a big, rich mouthful, mixing dried black cherry fruit, fig, and espresso. Despite all the rich fruit, there’s something insistently earthy to this, and the finishing lick of tannin is redolent of angostura bitters, a perfect complement to the lovely fruit. Time in bottle has whittled away any rough edges from this wine’s youth. It’s drinking great right now.

2006 Cavatappi Nebbiolo “Maddalena” Red Willow Vineyard

Here is a real rarity: new-world Nebbiolo. While it’s impossible to replicate the fog of the Piedmont, Red Willow Vineyard has proven adept at producing a Nebbiolo that can at least be confused with a Langhe Nebbiolo, if not one of the big guns (Barolo, Barbaresco). Peter and Mike Sauer (the grower at Red Willow) did bury a bottle of Barolo beneath the vineyard block before planting it in 1984. Perhaps their juju was successful.

Right away, they’ve succeeded with the tar-and-roses nose of classic Nebbiolo, here intermingled with dried cherries, dried flowers, and tea leaves. As food wines go, there’s nothing like Nebbiolo, with its big citrus-pith acids and even bigger tannins. This is chewy, earthy, leathery; just calling out for a hearty Piemontese meal. It’s about as far from a cocktail wine as you can get, and it is an impressive version of a grape that rarely succeeds outside its ancestral home.

First come first served up to 12 bottles of each wine, and the wines should arrive in about a week, at which point they will be ready for pickup or shipping during the next temperature-appropriate shipping window.

Two 2012s from Kevin White

Hello friends. My word, do Kevin White’s wines cut through the clutter.

My schedule is a little wacky these days (yes, those of you who mentioned that having a baby would impact the parental schedules pretty much nailed it), with nearly all our tastings compressed to Thursdays. That can end up meaning trying about 30-40 wines over the course of the day (woe is me, I know). On a particular recent Thursday, Kevin came down to the warehouse to pour his new releases, and his was the final appointment of the day.

It didn’t matter.  (And no, I wasn’t drunk. At least… I don’t think I was).

This is commercial release number three for Kevin, and something special is happening here. If one strong vintage is a coincidence and two is a trend, what is three? A winery in the ascendancy?

Who knows how long Kevin will keep the prices of these wines in the $20s? The quality at play here certainly merits higher tags, but Kevin seems determined to offer exceptional value as he builds his brand, and I’m thrilled that our list members can continue to be the recipients of his efforts in that direction.

And of course the reason we get competitive allocations of these scarce wines at all is that Kevin himself was a long-time Full Pull list member. I remember way back in 2010, we talked about his potential winery project, and when he mentioned mentors like Jon Meuret (Maison Bleue), Hugh Shiels (DuBrul Vineyard), and Leroy Radford (Baer / Flying Dreams), I knew this was a project with a serious chance of success.

Kevin’s stated goal for the winery is “crafting traditional old-world style wines with complexity and balance that pair extraordinarily well with food,” and Kevin’s favorite wines come from Cote Rotie and Barolo, so that should give you a sense of the style and texture he’s after. If you’re looking for greater depth of detail about the winery, Sean Sullivan penned a terrific writeup in 2012.

Logistics-wise, we’re likely to only get one shot at these. They’re small production (279 cases and 196 cases), and I’m already getting pressure to place our order and release the leftovers to the gathering hordes. If possible, I’ll over-buy so that we have some availability for reorder, but I’d say the odds of that are less than 50/50.

Now each of our previous Kevin White offers included Sean Sullivan reviews. Unfortunately, the timing isn’t going to work out this year, but I actually had the pleasure of tasting Kevin’s wines with Mr. S., and to judge his body language, I’d say it’s safe to assume some strong reviews are forthcoming. But for now, you’ll have to trust my impressions alone:

2012 Kevin White Winery “La Fraternite”

This is a blend of 41% Grenache (Upland Vineyard), 40% Mourvedre (Olsen), and 19% Syrah (Olsen and Wallula), and Kevin expects the Frat to hew close to those 40/40/20 proportions going forward. It was raised in 20% new French oak for just shy of a year and clocks in at 14.5% listed alc.

After seeing the cool 2010 and 2011 vintages as his first two, it’s encouraging to see Kevin take a more middle-of-the-road vintage like 2012 and knock it out of the park. This begins with a seriously expressive nose, soaring florals (lilac, magnolia) lofted above a core of raspberry pastille. The nose is all springtime. And then the palate, a rich mouthful of brambly berry fruit mixed with savory notes of braised beef and roasted herb. A total palate-coater, this doesn’t lack for richness at all in this warmer vintage, and yet still manages to convey a live-wire sense of energy and a sneaky sense of wildness (the Mourvedre perhaps). Balanced, polished, expressive.

2012 Kevin White Winery “En Hommage”

En Hommage is going to be Kevin’s Syrah-based wine, here at 82% of the blend (Olsen, Wallula), rounded out with 15% Upland Grenache and 3% Olsen Mourvedre. Similar to the Frat, this sees 10 months in 20% new French oak, and this too clocks in at 14.5% listed alc.

No surprise, given the varietal breakdown, that this is the deeper, darker, more brooding of the two, offering aromas of boysenberry and blueberry fruit, violet, and silty earth. Texturally gorgeous, this is again a complete stainer of the palate, coating every nook and cranny with its violet-and-mineral goodness. There’s a prettiness in the mouth that you wouldn’t expect from the nose, a dark beauty. The overall package hangs together with impressive grace, especially at this price point. Classy, classy juice.

Last year we set request limits at 12 Frat/6 Homm, and max allocations ended up being (gulp) 4 Frat/2 Homm. That said, production is up a little from 2011, so let’s dance with this bear one more time. Please limit order requests to 12 bottles of La Fraternite and 6 bottles of En Hommage, and we’ll do our best to fulfill all requests. The wines should arrive in about a week, at which point they will be ready for pickup or shipping during the next temperature-appropriate shipping window.

2011 Owen Roe Syrah Red Willow Vineyard Chapel Block

Hello friends. I can’t believe we’ve never offered this wine. It’s one of Washington’s pre-eminent Syrahs, and looking back at my archives, I see I even wrote an offer for it way back in 2010, but that offer was never sent (more on that below). Fortunately, circumstances have aligned today that finally allow us to offer this beauty:

Back in 2010, I had written up the 2008 vintage of Chapel Block and had it in the hopper, ready to send. And then…

And then Harvey Steiman (Wine Spectator) released a staggering 97pt review, and the wine disappeared overnight. No surprise that it later landed on Spectator’s Top 100 list for 2010 (coming in at #23), and no surprise that our offer was never sent.

Since the buzz of that year, Chapel Block has been more and more difficult to source, and even today’s offer is not without complications. This comes to us on a time-limited deal. We’ll be placing our Chapel Block order on Monday, so please do try to have all requests in by then. I don’t believe we’ll be able to fulfill any reorder requests, either.

It’s so time-limited, in fact, that I haven’t had a chance to taste this vintage. Given the pedigree of the fruit source and the winemaker, and the consistent beauty of previous vintages, I’m not concerned. This vintage also has a strong recent review from Paul Gregutt:

Wine Enthusiast (Paul Gregutt): “($55); [REVIEW TEXT WITHHELD]. 94pts.”

The first commercial Syrah vines in Washington went into the ground at Red Willow in 1986, partly due to the vision of the late Master of Wine and long-time Columbia Winery winemaker David Lake. Given Washington’s ever-burgeoning reputation for Syrah, it’s shocking to realize that the oldest vines in the state are still less than thirty years old. The Red Willow-Columbia Winery partnership persisted for many years, and it has only been very recently that boutique wineries have been able to contract for this amazing fruit.

The site (which had other varieties planted as early as 1973), is farmed by Mike Sauer and is about as far west as you can get in the Yakima Valley (see our vineyard map here). And the Chapel Block is famous for the stone chapel quarried from nearby rocks and constructed onsite in the vineyard. Owen Roe’s label includes a terrific shot of this picturesque, unique location in Washington winemaking. The wine was aged for a year in French oak (35% new) and clocks in at 14.1% listed alc.

Again, please try to get order requests in no later than Monday, and please limit those requests to 12 bottles. We’ll do our best to fulfill all requests, 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.

Four from Idilico

Hello friends. Idilico wines have become list-member favorites over the past few years, and why not? The label is a terrific project from our resident Spanish winemaker, Javier Alfonso, designed to highlight Spanish varietals grown in Washington.

I have rarely seen these wines reviewed anywhere, but even without the critics weighing in, this label has developed serious buzz, spurred on by the sommelier set and other insider types who know value when they see it. The sales focus for Idilico is mostly restaurant wine lists, and the wines are priced accordingly. That makes them incredible values at retail, values that have become well-loved by our list members.

Today, we have four new additions to the lineup:

2013 Idilico Albarino

This is the fourth vintage of Albarino (we offered the previous three) under the Idilico label. Quick primer on Albarino: it’s the main varietal grown and produced in Rias Baixas, along the northwest coast of Spain. Light-bodied and highly aromatic, with screaming acidity and generally low alcohols, these wines pair perfectly with the abundant shellfish and finfish of the region. To the best of my knowledge, there are no more than three Albarino vineyards in the state. This one is Dutchman Vineyard, a DenHoed-planted site in the cooler part of the Yakima Valley, north of Prosser.

The wine moves from those vines to bottle with little intervention: stainless steel fermentation and aging; moderate lees contact; no malolactic fermentation. It’s pure Albarino, awash in lemon-lime fruit and mineral, lifted by lovely floral topnotes. Bone-dry, ultra-vibrant (12.5% alc), this just pulses across the palate, all electric citrusy acids and crushed rock. This is turning into something of a Seattle summer staple on smart restaurant wine lists, and I can see why.

2013 Idilico Rose

An exciting development for our rosé enthusiasts on the list: a Garnacha/Monastrell/Tempranillo pink from Idilico. This is the debut vintage for this wine, and there were only 130 cases produced, so I wouldn’t expect much in the way of reorder opportunities here.

Javier clearly picked this for rosé (witness the 12.5%alc), and it has a lovely pale salmon color that leads into a nose of strawberry, lavender, and a terrific exotic spice note (star anise?). The Monastrell really shines through on the palate, with this drinking quite a bit like a good Bandol rosé. It drinks light and zippy on the attack, but transitions to a nice creamy mid-palate. Bone-dry and spicy, this has its own unique personality and is a welcome addition to the Washington rosé scene. A fine debut!

2011 Idilico Tempranillo

In a small field of Washington Tempranillos, this is always a standout, offering terrific value for the tag. It’s a sign of the grape’s recent success that Javier can now source from sites across our state, here about equal parts Snipes Mountain (Upland Vineyard) and Horse Heaven (Elerding), including specific Ribera del Duero Tinta del Pais Tempranillo clones imported from Spain and custom-planted and farmed for Javier.

Aged all in neutral oak for just shy of two years, this clocks in at 13.5% listed alc and begins with a nose of black cherry, tobacco leaf, and lovely fungal/underbrush nuance. In the mouth, the richness belies the cooler vintage; this is a precisely balanced mouthful of rich fruit and bright acid. The savory notes continue on the palate, porcini stock mingling with roasted herbs and black cherry fruit. There’s something about the flavor spectrum of Tempranillo that is so appetizing. Tasting this made me want to gather friends and braise some piece of tough meat for hours.

2011 Idilico Graciano

Javier has introduced a new Reserva line for Idilico with this, his second vintage of varietal Graciano. He only has access to two acres of fruit (I’m guessing that’s the only Graciano in the state), acres specifically planted for him and farmed by Todd Newhouse of Upland Vineyards, and that will end up yielding approximately 100 cases per vintage.

“The Petit Verdot of Rioja” is what Javier calls Graciano. Just as PV adds acid/tannin/color in small amounts in Bordeaux, Graciano adds the same in Rioja. And just as PV doesn’t generally get ripe enough to bottle varietally in Bordeaux, Graciano doesn’t ripen enough to be bottled in Rioja. But here in the warm, sunny new world, anything is possible.

This begins with a very appetizing nose of black cherry, mushroom, pepper, and tarry streaks: a deep dark profile. The palate, as you’d expect, contains loads of structure, both in the form of grapefruity acids and dark black tea tannins. There is terrific density here and a wonderful palate-coating character. A real powerhouse, it offers a great alternative for those of us stuck in Cabernet ruts. And of course it offers the chance to experience varietal Graciano, which is rare in Spain, let alone Washington.

Please limit order requests to 24 bottles total (mix and match as you like, and note that the Rosat and Graciano are especially limited and are the most likely two to end up being allocated) we’ll do our best to fulfill all requests. The wines should arrive in about a week, at which point they will be ready for pickup or shipping during the next temperature-appropriate shipping window.

Three from Italy

Hello friends. It has been exciting watching the development of Antonio Galloni’s new site (Vinous) after he parted ways with Wine Advocate. I consider Galloni about as strong a source of information and as strong a palate as there is covering Italy. Many of his best reports highlight underloved regions or under-the-radar producers in mainstream regions. We have both types today:

2007 Mastrojanni Brunello di Montalcino

Starting with the latter type. Brunello is certainly mainstream, serving as it does as one of the world’s beating hearts of Sangiovese, but Mastrojanni is anything but. We were able to secure a terrific price on this parcel (we’re well off the release price of $65, and as low as I can see nationally in a cursory internet search). Getting that tariff required grabbing the entire remaining stash, which we were all too happy to do. So this is in the warehouse and ready to go right now, and it’s now sold out, at least in the Seattle market.

Vinous (Antonio Galloni): “($65); [REVIEW TEXT WITHHELD]. 93pts.”

I agree with much of this note, but I’d pick a nit with the drinking window. Already garnet at its rim, for me this is in the middle of its drinking window and should be consumed within the next five years. Perfect for immediate gratification. I love the maturing leafy and mushroom notes to pair with dried cherry fruit. This is autumnal, crepuscular, evocative, with loads of smoky earth (almost like a peated Islay Scotch), licorice, and cherry-pit bitters. The finishing swallow is fine-grained tannins, softening and evolving but still redolent of chamomile. Characterful juice indeed.

Please limit order requests to 6 bottles.

2010 Terlano Pinot Bianco Riserva Vorberg

I’ve been looking for interesting producers in Italy’s great northern Alto Adige, which has more in common with Alsace and Austria than Rome. And I’ll admit it was entirely Galloni’s introductory text for this winery that sent me scampering off for samples:

“[TEXT WITHHELD].”

The best of the bunch that we sampled was indeed their Riserva Pinot Bianco Vorberg bottling, a glorious white drinking somewhere between Chardonnay and Gruner Veltliner, whose only drawback was the meager quantity available. But we grabbed the entire parcel again (yes, I know this is against the FP business model; thank goodness we don’t have a board of directors), which is (barely) big enough to warrant inclusion in an offer.

Vinous (Antonio Galloni): “[REVIEW TEXT WITHHELD].”

Please limit order requests to (sorry) 2 bottles.

2008 Le Piane Boca

Staying in the north, Boca DOC definitely qualifies as an under-loved region. One of the smallest and northernmost parts of the Piedmont, we’re far from the stars of Barolo and Barbaresco here. In this part of the world, they blend Nebbiolo (called Spanna here, and it must be 70-90% of the cepage) with grapes like Croatina and Vespolina. With a terroir formed from old glacial lake moraine (you can see the lakes on the map), these wines are generally lower-alc, higher-acid, and earthier/more minerally than their southern neighbors.

Le Piane has become something of a reference point winery for the region, and this bottling is 85% Nebbiolo and 15% Vespolina, aged in large Slavonian vats for 36 months. In a recent tasting, the wines of Le Piane were impressive across the board, but Boca DOC was the star of the show, a breathtaking pastiche of rose petals, earth, mint, and savory umami notes, carried on an electric, vibrant, live-wire palate.

Vinous (Antonio Galloni): “[REVIEW TEXT WITHHELD]. 96pts.”

Please limit order requests to 6 bottles.

Two of the three wines are already in the warehouse, and Le Piane should arrive in about a week, at which point all will be ready for pickup or shipping during the next temperature-appropriate shipping window.