Taste Washington Switched Out My Brain – Part 2

I ran three red lights yesterday afternoon. Not one, but three. Almost two full days after Taste Washington and I was still more dysfunctional than I normally am. Granted, I was talking on the phone but I’m usually much better than that!

Reflecting back onto Sunday afternoon, I can credit the core reason why I’m brain-dead to attempting to taste over 200 wineries’ selections and not spitting. Damn it, self!

I arrived in SODO promptly 17 minutes later than I planned on Sunday, checked my jacket which I almost left without 5 hours later and made it on my merry way. Since I focused my last food and wine event on the food (see: Seattle Food & Wine Experience), I decided to go my more natural route and touch on the wines only. Not a good idea when not spitting.

I did manage to take a picture collage of my favorites and texted descriptions to myself since I couldn’t find a notepad app on my incredible Droid. Here were my top billings:

El Corazon 2010 Red Frog Rose, Columbia Valley: I’ll drink whatever winemaker and owner Spencer Sievers puts in my glass. All things holy, he is pretty! And after batting my eyes and drinking (bad idea), subsequently all that got me was realizing that I was dizzy and that this wine is also pretty. With less than 60 cases made, it’s floral and full of red berry fruit and an awesome cumin spice element to give it an edge. Balanced, crisp and dry, patio sip that ish.

Taste Washington Switched Out My Brain – Part 1

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Now that brain that you gave me. Was it Hans Delbruck’s?

Igor: No.

Frankenstein: Ah! Very good. Would you mind telling me whose brain I did put in?

Igor: Then you won’t be angry?

Frankenstein: I will not be angry!

Igor: Abby Someone.

Frankenstein: Abby Someone. Abby Who?

Igor: Abby Normal.

Frankenstein: Abby Normal.

Igor: I’m almost sure that was the name.

Frankenstein: Are you saying that I put an abnormal brain into a seven and a half foot long, fifty-four inch wide GORILLA?

That gorilla was this gal come 8:30 this morning. I overslept my alarm not once but three times, it took three oil-consistency cups of coffee to get my motor running and I ate two lunches instead of working through lunch to make up the time I lost.

Thank you, Taste Washington!, for transplanting an Abby Normal brain into me at some point this weekend without me noticing. I must have been so fixated on the show-stopping cast of wines represented at the 2011 Taste Washington! The Ultimate Food & Wine Experience that it was easier to do than… Well, normal.

Vine & Sun: Home of Barons V and Winemaker Matthew Loso

Two Riedel decanters rest full of ruby juice on a pristine marble counter in the illuminated penthouse of Barons V partner Gary McLean. A Chihuly sculpture gleams through one of the wall-length windowpanes on a bright January afternoon and into the eyes of winemaker Matthew Loso.

He squints and introduces himself as if there hasn’t been decades of reviews written on his wines by nobler journalists than this one. He smiles and trades a handshake with an equally sun-shined wineglass.

Matthew Loso hails from self-made vintner pedigree. By setting the foundation for Matthews Cellars when he was months out of high school, he has the experience of a winemaker twice his age, the opportunity to get his pick of fruit in blocks next to the caliber of Betz Family Winery and Quilceda Creek and through trial, does not believe in vineyard terroir.

The cultivated Loso joined forces with and Gary McLean as well as three other shareholders to build Barons V parent company Vine & Sun, LLC. in 2001.

Although the wine company is lead by five “type AA personalities,” McLean said they leave the wine up to Loso. “We trust his forward palate, we give him our opinions and he runs with it in the way he sees best.”

Alois Lageder 2009 Pinot Grigio

In my younger days of this blog – a loquacious and long-winded three years ago – I had a slight obsession with Italians. Men, wine, food, you name it – it enraptured me. I think I have older posts that cry rather poignantly about my affection toward all things Mediterranean but just in a desperate attempt to better understand something that I wanted to know so badly. Kind of like a junior high crush on the guy who’s pencil you borrow every day but still doesn’t know your name.

Working for a wine company that specializes in the patron saint beverage in Italy has come in handy by introducing me to the lesser known regions of a country so wealthy in famous wines. This truly brought me back to my original trance under the sultriness of Italian wines and the culture wrapped into it.

An area so distinctive yet so blurry in its geography is the Trentino-Alto Adige region of northeastern Italy (think the right flap of the top of the boot). Resting on the Alpine border of the country, Trentino-Alto Adige touches Tyrol, Austria to the north and Graubunden, Switzerland to the northwest with Lombardy and Veneto to the west and south, respectively.

Needless to say, language is a bit of a toss up. The main language groups are about 60% Italian, 35% German, with a small minority speaking Ladin (a dialect combined of several neighboring languages).

How to Stalk Erin Tonight: El Gaucho’s Legendary Swirl

Thank you the select few Seattle Public Relations firms for believing I am a writer and inviting me to fun events that I wouldn’t normally be able to afford.

This week, it’s El Gaucho Seattle’s celebration of Washington Wine Month, dubbed as their annual Legendary Swirl event. The restaurant has invited some of the finest producers to pour their best juice amongst the steakhouse’s most sensuous bites.

Why I’m going:

1. I have never eaten at El Gaucho, not even with their prudently priced Happy Hour menu.
2. It’s over by 7:30 – wise planning for a Tuesday night when I still get to get to trivia at the Attic in Madison Park.
3. Big and little fish will be co-exiting in a smaller pond, with names like Chateau Ste. Michelle positioned next to Cavu Cellars and Kerloo Cellars.
4. Corliss: Exclusive estate wines brought to you by the masterful hands of Michael Corliss who maintains a devoted cult following to his Walla Walla wines. A favorite of Paul Gregutt’sand Seattle Magazine’s, the closest I’ve come to Corliss is their little sister brand of Tranche, which I have savored each time I get to taste it.
5. A’Maurice: Young, attractive, female winemaker. Gotta love that when she’s also extremely talented. Winemaker Anna Schafer also holds the title of co-founder with her crew and holsters harvest ammunition from Bordeaux-style wines in Mendoza to Tibetan Barley wine.
6. SYZYGY Wines: “When earth, moon and sun align – it’s syzygy. When earth, vine and wine align – it’s syzygy!” Charmingly kitschy and pronounced “szz-eee-gee,” winemaker and owner Zach Brettler takes his approach on Walla Walla wines to a celestial degree both in branding and in his heavenly wines. Hopeful to taste the 93-plus point Walla Walla Syrah for the past three years running.

Assuming you have nothing better to do tonight from 5:30-7:30 and you won’t be there yourself, check my notes on Twitter tonight!

Seattle Food and Wine Experience – FOOD FOCUS!

Cue the riveting string instruments and Matthew McConaughey’s silky Southern pipes following the screen as it pans across visuals of streaming, juicy cuts of steak fillets and you have yourself a commercial featuring beef as “what’s for dinner.”

In one of the final days of “I Heart Beef” month, the Washington State Beef Commission‘s (WSBC) tent might have been the highlight of the Seattle Food and Wine Experience (SFWE) for this hollow-legged blogger.

Through a blind tasting, WSBC offered up servings of grass-finished, grain-finished and naturally-raised beef to determine a favorite by their consumers. More than one million beef farmers and ranchers raise cattle in every state and do so with the resources available to them in their local area to produce nutritious, safe and tasty beef. In this instance, resources ranged from grain products to grass only or a combination of both and were played out in a consumer study at the event.

Breakdown of the beef bared at the tent:

• Grain-finished – Cattle spend most of their lives grazing on pasture, then spend four to six months in a feedlot eating grain-based products (potatoes are most common).
• Grass-finished – Cattle spend their entire lives grazing on pasture only.
• Naturally-raised – Cattle can be grain-finished or grass-finished but have not received antibiotics, preservatives or added hormones.

Overall best taste on this palate? Grain-finished! Although all three servings were prepared identically, it was the most robust in flavor and richness.

Stevens Winery 2007 Merlot, Yakima Valley

By the power invested in Woodinville veteran winemaker Matt Loso, he pronounced Tim Stevens man and wine in 1998. Upon hiring Stevens to fill the role of assistant winemaker, Loso also encouraged him start producing barrels for his own label.

In 2002, Stevens broke out onto the scene with his wife, Paige, acting as his right arm in their foundation of Stevens Winery. Located next to their good friends and fellow winemakers in the Warehouse District of Woodinville Wine Country, Stevens Winery produces four reds and two white wines, limiting their production to a distinctly artisan level.

Marking their distinction further is their choice location for fruit from Yakima Valley. Although it was Washington state’s first established AVA in 1983, Yakima Valley has caught some flack in the past for its cooler growing season and severe lack of rain. However, 40% of wineries in the state source their fruit from the region and its soils are often compared to that of Bordeaux, France, making it an ideal area for Washington’s claim to fame: Merlot.

The Stevens say they owe much of their success to their growing partners in Yakima, in the case of the 2007 Merlot, DuBrul and Meek vineyard are given all the credit.

With the support of Yakima’s finest, Stevens took on the “bad wrap” of Merlot to prove the negative stereotypes as false assumptions.

Riedel: THE Wine Glass

Neuschloß, Austria is the motherland to the 250-year-old wine glass known to the world as Riedel. Centuries of handcrafted glassware precision made its way to Seattle’s Urban Enoteca this last weekend, care of Daniel Vu, Riedel USA’s Director of Wineries.

In a mini-seminar that took place in a dauntingly white room – ceiling to floor, with red wine involved! – Vu managed to change many perspectives on wine glassware completely.

Through the power of wine in a Riedel crystal goblet, a few hugely phallic decanters and a festive pink tie, Vu wooed his intimate audience simply by using their own on-the-spot education to showcase the prowess of their glasses.

Riedel says: For a wine consumer to “fully appreciate the personality of different grape varieties and the subtle character of wine, it is essential to have an appropriately fine-tuned glass shape.”

Robert Parker says: “The finest glasses for both technical and hedonistic purposes are those made by Riedel. The effect of these glasses on fine wine is profound. I cannot emphasize enough what a difference they make.”Vu says: “The shape of the glass is responsible for the flow of the wine and consequently, where the wine touches upon entering the sensory and flavor receptors of your mouth.”

The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue/Science says: Flavor hits your tongue in specifics ways. Sweetness is found at the tip, salt is at the sides of the tip, sour (acid) is on the sides of the core and bitter (tannin) is on the back before you swallow.

Two Is Better Than One: Patterson Cellars Opens a Second Tasting Room

The more, the merrier. Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work. Two is better than one.

Patterson Cellars, a Woodinville “warehouse” winery now with a second location in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, also carries the same sentiment as a French proverb, a biblical verse and a popular alt rock band – just in a more business-savvy, less saccharine tween fashion.

Two is better than one for John Patterson and his fiancee, Stephanie, with this new addition to the winery as well as their pending nuptials. With the hope of bringing back good return for their work, the tasting room is anticipating the business they’ll see with the regular 10 million visitors the market sees annually, according to PikePlaceMarket.org.

The 1,800 square foot space is ready and able to handle private tastings, dinner parties that can seat up to 50 and weather permitting, patio seating over looking the Puget Sounds. Patterson Cellars is now taking John’s 22 years of experience in the industry to the next profitable level.

The winery has been awaiting its additional tasting room opening at the market for several years now, said Stephanie, who mentioned she and John have put in their due diligence since 2006 for this particular post to bare the Patterson Cellars.

“We just wanted to be accessible,” John said. “We couldn’t believe that this spot finally became available and it was well worth the wait to become part of Seattle’s most iconic institution.”

Called the “Soul of Seattle,” Pike Place Market is home to more than 200 commercial businesses year-round, 190 craftspeople and nearly 100 farmers who rent space on a daily basis. Not to mention the 240 street performers and musicans, the residents of the 300-plus apartment units and now Patterson Cellars.

Oh yeah, they have wine there too.

Here’s a few you can’t get yet but be patient like the Pattersons and you’ll get yours.

• 2010 Viognier-Roussanne, Ciel du Cheval: Them heats’ in the hills in Red Mountain, so for this bright and juicy blend, John took fruit from a vineyard that receives a little less heat and a bit more wind, flushing in the acidity necessary to keep these two varietals taut and sleek. With honey and tropical fruits of melon and pineapple on the nose, the palate mirrored the aromas with succulent fruit, spice and a clean, crisp acid-driven finish. – 7.5
• 2010 Tempranillo-Sangiovese Rose, Rattlesnake Hills: John does not shy away from the avant-garde of grape varieties in Washington State and his anomalous rose is none the different. Classic in the funky aromas derived from Spanish varietals, the Tempranillo screeches on to the scene with meaty tone comparable to ground beef (but unoffensive) backed by strawberry fruit and undeniable watermelon. Think the ultimate barbecued burger on the patio wine. – 7

Okay, that was mean. Here’s a few you can get now.

• 2008 Forbidden Red, Columbia Valley: You might have seen it now, well, everywhere. This juice has gotten some recent action with some retail giants in the city and is making headway with its, once again, original blending choices by John. Touriga (Nacional?), Cabernet Sauvignon, Primitivo, Cabernet Franc and Mourvedre make up this “everyday red.” Gamey with dried fruit and creme brulee on the nose, the palate is stuffed with raspberry, currants and vanilla cream, backed by easy tannins and a food-friendly approach calling you to the doors of Piroshky-Piroshky the next block up. PS – just because the name says it twice, does not mean you need to get two Russian pastries. I’m warning from experience. – 7

• 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon, Columbia Valley: 100% Cab and medium-toast barrels boast the potential amplitude of this wine, with dark, dried fruit, a bold fig aroma and plenty of smokey spice. The tannin sizes up the nose with similar sassy flavors and balanced acidity to back it up.  – 8

Visit Patterson Cellar’s tasting room within the Soul of Seattle, located at 1427 Western Avenue, Seattle (on Western Avenue below Pike Place Market adjacent to the Pike Street Hill Climb). Check Patterson Cellars online for more information or follow the team on Facebook or Twitter.

Robert Ramsay Cellars 2006 Syrah, Horse Heaven Hills

His friends call him Bob.

Although his enthusiasts have designated him a “Syrah specialist,” Robert “Bob” Ramsey has flown under the radar from critical analysis and heavy representation on search engines since Robert Ramsay Cellars (RRC) popped their first cork. Grooming his hobby from craft brewing to hard cider and taking his garagiste fermentation to another fruit, Bob cut his full-time winemaking teeth with Coeur d’Alene Cellars in 2001.

Now with RRC, Bob calls himself the chief bottle washer as well as a lesser known role as the sole winemaker.

His modesty can only go so far when his wines boast the title names from vineyard sources like Boushey and McKinley Springs, two of the more revered sites in Horse Heaven Hills. Rightly so, this appellation is riding on the coattails of a few 100-point vintages for Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvignons as its only source, with more wineries sprouting up and wanting to soak up a bit of their own Horse Heaven Hills glory.

For the triple-H, long-winded southward-facing slopes hit the chilling breeze from the Columbia Gorge just at the right elevation to kill off rot and fungi, which also manages to stilt the fruit to get balanced acidity from the cold, 50-degree nights yet establish concentrated fruit during the days that average around 100-degrees.

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