This week: Gilbert Cellars Gewurztraminer. New issue of Wine Press Northwest. Learn to pronounce European wine names. Oregon AVA seeks name change. Want free tickets to Taste Washington? Upcoming wine events. Platinum winners. What we're reading. Where in Northwest Wine Country. Wine funnies. Rio Vista Winery.
March 9, 2010
Vol. 11, No. 10
Wine Press Northwest's Wine of the Week is an independent opinion based on double- and single-blind tastings.
Pacific Northwest Wine Of The Week
Gilbert Cellars 2008 Estate Gewurztraminer
Appellation: Columbia Valley
Winemaker Justin Neufeld has several estate sites in his quiver, but Sunrise Vineyard near Yakima made him a marksman with this release. Aromas feature an assortment of pink grapefruit, apple, peach, gooseberry, Circus Peanut candy and a pina colada Lifesaver. The crowd-pleasing palate is focused on tree-ripened pears and juicy peaches, though, and there's just enough citrusy acidity to balance the residual sugar (2.2%). Rated "Outstanding" by Wine Press Northwest magazine.
Price: $15.
Cases produced: 246.
Food matches: Gewurztraminer is great for serving with dark turkey or chicken meat, as well as lighter picnic fare.
Gilbert Cellars, 5 N. Front St., Yakima, WA 98901, 509-249-9049, www.gilbertcellars.com
Recent wines of the week
-- Karma Vineyards 2007 Zen Red Wine, Columbia Valley
-- Fidelitas Wines 2006 Champoux Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Horse Heaven Hills
Best Buys
-- Kamiak 2008 Windust White Wine, Columbia Valley, $10
-- Willamette Valley Vineyards 2008 Riesling, Willamette Valley, $12
More about Gilbert Cellars
Gilbert Cellars is a family operation. Curtiss Gilbert purchased the Doc Stewart Vineyard in 2002 and also oversees estate vineyards in the Horse Heaven Hills and Wahluke Slope. Sean Gilbert is the winery's general manager, having learned the business while helping at Januik and Novelty Hill wineries in Woodinville.
The winery, open daily, is in the historical Lund Building in downtown Yakima. The tasting room goes beyond the traditional setup by offering tapas-style food for lunch and dinner, as well as live music.
New issue of Wine Press Northwest
The Spring issue of Wine Press Northwest is at the printer this week and should be heading to subscribers' homes by this weekend. Here are some of the highlights:
-- Pacific Northwest Winery of the Year: We honor a producer as our NW Winery of the Year, as well as four producers as Regional Wineries of the Year and four as Regional Wineries to Watch.
-- Merlot: We blind taste more than 150 examples of Merlot from the Pacific Northwest.
-- Snipes Mountain: One of Washington's newest appellations is explored in depth.
-- Match Maker: For the past 12 years, we have run a feature called Match Makers, in which we sent a bottle of wine to two different chefs to see what they came up with. We've retooled the feature a bit: Now, we select a chef whose focus is on using fresh, seasonal, regional ingredients and select two local wines for the match. This also gives us a chance to highlight small farmers who are an integral part of the Northwest wine industry.
Not a subscriber? Take care of that right here.
Prefer to test drive the magazine first? Check out our e-edition for no cost to get a flavor of the magazine, so to speak.
Chateau Unpronounceable
Ever wonder how to pronounce some of those French, Italian and German wine names? Yeah, me too. If I lived anywhere near Seattle, I would attend Arnie Millan's class on the subject March 21. Arnie, a longtime Seattle wine expert, will teach the class at the Warwick Seattle Hotel. Cost is $39. Email him for more information at millanwine@earthlink.net.
Oregon AVA seeks name change
Just five years after it was approved as an American Viticultural Area, the Yamhill-Carlton District is petitioning the federal government for a name change, hoping to drop the word "District."
Winemaker Ken Wright, perhaps Oregon's most famous winemaker, wrote that the word "district" was used in the original 2002 petition to enforce the idea that the region was distinct. However, he noted, it has not been historically used to describe the region. Additionally, many wineries have a difficult time fitting the entire name into their label designs. Thus, dropping the word would allow more wineries to use the AVA designation.
Want tickets to Taste Washington?
The annual Taste Washington is March 27-28 in Seattle. We have some tickets to give away. We'll start with a pair for the March 28 Grand Tasting, which will include more than 200 wineries and 75 restaurants. It will be at the Qwest Field Event Center.
We will give away two tickets through our Facebook fan page via a trivia question. This will take place Wednesday afternoon. We'll give a one-hour notice on Facebook and Twitter so you'll have fair warning that it is coming.
Upcoming wine events
Each week, we highlight an upcoming wine event in the Pacific Northwest.
The Rotary Club of Issaquah is putting a tasting Saturday of wines from Lake Chelan. The three-hour event will take place at the Hilton Garden Inn. Cost is $50. It is a scholarship fund-raiser.
To see more events (or submit yours at no cost), go to our calendar. We currently have 88 events on our calendar.
Platinum winners
The Winter issue of Wine Press Northwest unveils the results of our 10th annual Platinum Judging, in which we invite wineries to send us their gold medal wines from the year for a "best of the best in the Great Northwest" competition. Each week, I will highlight one of our Platinum winners.
Winemaker Steve Lessard, a California escapee, came to Washington to make wine for Hedges Cellars on Red Mountain. In 2002, he headed east to Walla Walla to become head winemaker for the new Whitman Cellars. His 2005 Narcissa Red, a proprietary blend, earned a unanimous Double Platinum in our 10th annual "best of the best" competition last fall. The wine is named for Narcissa Whitman, wife of missionary Marcus Whitman. The pair were on the wrong end of the infamous Whitman Massacre in 1947. Ironically, Narcissa was a teetotaler.
What we're reading
Here are links to stories and blog posts we think you'll find interesting. In most cases, the stories are related to Northwest wine, though on occasion we will include stories on cuisine or specialty foods.
Here are this week's stories:
Washington winery, critic spar over scores.
Walla Walla blogger decides on right time to drink that last bottle of Leonetti.
Review of Braiden Rex-Johnson's 'Pacific Northwest Wining and Dining' book.
See what else we're reading.
Where in NW Wine Country
I'm impressed with how many of you recognized last week's mystery photo. I thought it might be a bit too obscure.
Yet nearly 60% of you recognized the photo as showing the tasting room for Rex Hill Vineyards near Newberg, Ore. Meanwhile, 17% thought it was the tasting room for Gehringer Brothers Estate Winery near Oliver, B.C., and 12% each guessed it was either Facelli Winery in Woodinville, Wash., or Maryhill Winery in Goldendale, Wash.
This week's image was taken by Jackie Johnston of Wine Country Creations. She takes most of the photos for Wine Press Northwest and also designs our feature page layouts.
Click to vote
Wine cartoon of the week
We have added a new cartoon to our "wine funnies" gallery.
Check it out.
Rio Vista Winery
Last summer, we came across this remote winery on the Columbia River near Chelan, Wash. Rio Vista is perhaps the only winery in the Pacific Northwest with boat access. It's a stunning site with a unique story and delicious wines.
You can watch the Northwest Winecast two ways (both free):
On our Web site:
http://www.winepressnw.com/
On YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/WinePressNW
Find Northwest wine events
Looking for a wine-related event? Click here for our Northwest wine events calendar.
Wine Press Northwest e-edition
We have loaded up the past six issues of Wine Press Northwest in a freely available e-edition format, with a goal of eventually posting a complete archive of the magazine, going back to 1998.
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