WTN: Reynvaan, St. Innocent BdB, others

[Jenise]

Invited some friends round to dinner on Sunday. At least 12 bottles were opened, but these are the only ones I remember.


2021 Domaine de Cébène Faugères Belle Lurette Red Blend
My bottle. A grenache-carignan blend. Delightful and bright with fruity/floral nose and pomegranate and black raspberries on the palate. Lively and vivid, good finish. Purchased from Garagiste: would jump at them if they come around again.

2014 Array Cellars Chardonnay Celilo Vineyard Columbia Gorge
Heavy American oak influence, more pine than the typical dill and thus closer to Retsina than North American chardonnay. No bueno.

2018 Prospice Cabernet Franc Phinny Hill Vineyard Horse Heaven Hills
The oak is really prominent right now and it masks the herbaceous elements we love about cabernet franc. Blind, would not have guessed the grape.

2018 Culmina Family Estate Winery Syrah Golden Mile Bench VQA
Was this a fire year? This wine is riddled with smoke taint; undrinkable.

2018 St. Innocent Chardonnay Blanc de Blancs Willamette Valley
Purchased direct from the winery several months ago. Reasonable flavor and texture but lacks the pizazz to match the $70 price point.

2014 Reynvaan Family Vineyards Syrah Stonessence Walla Walla Valley
WOTN, decanted an hour before guests arrived. Huge improvement over the bottle opened in 12/22. A pretty perfect Rocks syrah with elegant dark red fruit well in front of the green olives, tar and Rocks funk. The tannins are silky but not soft--there's still some structure here. In fact, at ten years old this is the best Stonessence I've had. From here, should coast in a cool cellar for up to five years easy, no rush.

[David M. Bueker]

Sparkling seems to be the new must have thing for U.S. wineries. So few do it well.

Re the Culmina:

Wine grapes readily absorb the compounds responsible for smoky aromas, but once inside the grape, they are almost immediately transformed by enzymes into forms that cannot be perceived by smell or taste. The problem is, the yeasts used for wine fermentation are able to regenerate the original smoky aromas....What’s worse is that these horrid odours usually remain undetected until after wineries have invested money and effort to harvest and ferment tonnes of grapes that may smell perfectly fine.

On the 2018 vintage specifically see https://www.thestar.com/vancouver/your- ... 58971.html

[Jenise]

Sparkling seems to be the new must have thing for U.S. wineries. So few do it well.

Isn't that the truth. It would probably have been more informative for me to mention that one of my guests brought a Chateau Ste Michelle rose called LUXE that we opened after the St. Innocent which I liked a lot more. It was spicy, more like straight pinot meunier than blanc de noir, with great texture. Given a shoot-out kind of choice before tasting, who among us wouldn't have bet on the St. Innocent?

[Jenise]

Re the Culmina:

The problem is, the yeasts used for wine fermentation are able to regenerate the original smoky aromas....What’s worse is that these horrid odours usually remain undetected until after wineries have invested money and effort to harvest and ferment tonnes of grapes that may smell perfectly fine.

Did not know about the yeast regenerating but the rest, yes, which is why in one recent year (I was thinking it was 2020) premier Washington winery Betz essentially wrote off the entire vintage. Others went ahead and made wine saying they couldn't taste it but the chemical compounds that will result in those "horrid odours" are measurable, and none in their array of vineyard sources around the state escaped it.

I recall a Napa winery that suffered a fire next to their zinfandel vineyard, and instead of pretending there wasn't a problem they turned it into marketing gold by bottling a Dynamite Zinfandel for sale exclusively in the tasting room. And they made a killing, like the winemaker in your article describes. I purchased this Culmina at Everything Wine, I believe, because I'd been so impressed with their Gruner Veltliner--wanted to know more about what they do. Obviously, a mistake.