Walla Walla Wine Tasting

Our son, Craig and his girlfriend Lindsey, who works for a wine company, got a chance to take advantage of her company's bungalow over the weekend.  They invited Andy and I  to share the weekend with them and do a little wine tasting. 
   The bungalow is at the Waterbrook Winery just west of Walla Walla on Hwy 12.
Walla Walla is in southeastern Washington and is about fours hours from both Portland and Seattle. Walla Walla has become, I believe,the wine capital of the northwest.  About twenty years ago there were  two wineries and 50 acres of grapes, now there are over 100 wineries  and thousands of acres of grapes.
 Walla Walla has been transformed from a small farming community famous for it's onions to a community that embraces  the arts and culinary delights of the area and every tasting room is a architectural delight.
 The region's speciality are the red wines- Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Malbec, Sangiovese, Cabernet Franc, and Tempranillo.  They also make white wines- Chardonnay, Reisling,Viognier, Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc. 
 
We arrived at the bungalow about lunchtime.   We enjoyed a light lunch, a little wine and  started our wine tasting trek.



Frenchtown School No 41

       Lindsey had a few places she wanted us to try.  The first one was called L'Ecole Winery it was west of Waterbrook in the town of Lowdon.  It is in an old renovated two story school house, complete with an school bell that you can ring to announce your arrival.  Our sommelier was awesome. He spent a great deal of time talking about where the grapes came from, the flavors that were pulled from the soil, and how the winds effect the taste and texture of the grape.   Through his instruction , I enhanced my aroma repertory to include the smell of leather and earth/ minerality.  When we got ready to leave I was ready to buy a case of everything we tasted, because he had taken so much time with us.  But I was reminded by my husband we had the day ahead of us and we couldn't spend all our money in one place, so I walked out with only a bottle of  Sauvignon Blanc/ Semillon  aged in oak and a Syrah.  I will be back for more.

    Our next stop was south of Walla Walla  at Water's Winery a modern  unique tasting room.  Inside they had huge three liter bottles you could buy with the engravings etched into the label.  We were the only ones there, but shortly after the tasting room filled with other  tasters.  I bought a Rosanne/Viognier blend.
   Next stop was a mile up the roadto Amavi, which is built into the side of the hill and has a beautiful view of the surrounding country side and Blue Mountains.  We sampled a Rose' and then several different Cabernet from 2009, and 2010.  I picked up a 2009 Cab.

After Amavi's,  we made a quick stop at Safeway to pick up some steaks to grill and salad for dinner.  Our last stop for the evening-Waterbrook Winery. Some evenings Waterbrook offers tacos with their wine tasting.  We hit the jackpot. Since Lindsey is an employee of the company, they made sure we were taken care of with a big platter of tacos.  They were the best!!! After tasting their wines I walked away with three bottles of Reisling and I bought two bottles of Malbec  to send to our son, Andrew.
    Since they were closing for the night they gave us a couple of  their open bottles and we took them back and enjoyed a grilled steak dinner and then a game of hearts.
    Sunday morning we woke up hungry, ready for a good breakfast.  We checked out Urbanspoon and found a great restaurant called Clarette's Restaurant We all ordered omelets and the vegetables were all fresh and barely cooked.  We were not disappointed.  Will go there again for breakfast.
    After breakfast we headed back to the bungalow, packed up and headed for home.  It was definitely a five star weekend.  Not only did we get to spend time with our son, which is always fun, but Lindsey was great hostess and knows her wineries. Thank you Lindsey.  I came away very impressed with the Walla Walla area and plan on returning. 

Yard, Garden and Wine Show

Yesterday Andy and I went to the Yard,Garden and Patio Show at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland.  The theme was Gardens Through the Ages. There were approximately seven gardens you could walk through, each having it's own theme.  My favorite used a pond as the center spot .  It was landscaped to resemble a pond you might find out in the woods, with a little playhouse built over the water and rocks that you could walk on to a  patio area on the far side of the pond.

  After viewing the gardens I headed out for a workshop on  "Right Plant, Right Place." and Andy continued on looking at the different booths.  When I got to my workshop I  found out it  was canceled. Our speaker was caught in the snowstorm back east, so I started my search for Andy and found him in the Oregon Orchid Society Booth. We then went in pursuit of plants.  The  only plant sell we could find was the "Hardy Plant Sale." How appropriate for February.  Andy did buy one plant and then we noticed a Wine Tasting Section.  What better way to end our day. Since we didn't buy  plants, and we had money left in our pocket  we might as well spend it on wine.

   Our first stop was Tosoro Vineyards.  Last year at the Wine and Seafood Festival, we had bought a bottle called  Bulls Blood, which is a blend of five wines, one from Spain, one from Hungary and three from Italy.  It is a nice medium bodied red wine with some berry aromas and a spicy finish. We decided to get another bottle of it. This winery was a popular spot.  Don't know if it was because  the two men were quite entertaining or because their credit card machine took forever.  While I stood there waiting for their credit card machine to run my card, Andy visited two other winery booths and had some suggestions for me to try.
   The first place was Noble Estates out of Eugene ,Oregon.  We got a Pinot Noir Reserve.  It has a little more tannin texture than Pinot's usually have.  It was aged in oak, but I didn't detect a oak flavor, but I did notice a nice plum flavor.
   The last winery we visited was  Vitis Ridge from Silverton, Oregon. This was my favorite one.  Not only did I enjoy their wines, but I have a soft spot for Silverton Oregon.  I taught there for a couple of years and it's a nice little community.  Also the couple working the booth were former educators so I felt "right at home." Their wines were "smart and sassy." We got a Chardonnay and Gewurztraminer.  The Chardonnay was aged in stainless steel tanks and didn't have a secondary fermentation which gave  it a very crisp and  slightly sweet taste.  It just has a snap to it and made you want to just  get up and dance and laugh.
   Although we didn't get  plants   and I will continue putting the wrong plant in the wrong place, we did enjoy the day and visited some wineries that we would never visited otherwise.

Wine Tasting- Texture

I am trying to become more knowledgeable about wine tasting.  I came across a book called "Great Wine Made Simple" by Andrea Immer.  this book has opend my eyes to wine tasting.  She breaks wine tasting into very simple parts.  She starts with texture comparing  light, medium and full bodied wines.  Today I did white wines- Reisling, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay.

  After I tasted each one. Andy, my husband, had me close my eyes and then through smell and taste, I had to say which each wine was. I scored 100%.  What I discovered was once my eyes were close I had to rely on my smell and taste much more.  Afterwards Andy, mixed the two wine together and then I had to guess which wines he mixed. I was amazed that I did a great job again of calling out the flavors and getting them right.

Wine Tasting-Tannin

     This wine tasting was to discover TANNIN in the wine.  Tannin is a texture not a flavor.  It comes from the skin, stems and seeds of the grape. That is why it is only noticeable in red wines and not white wines. Tannin is a texture, you will mainly feel on your tongue.  If either there is a lot of tannin, or if you are sensitive to texture you may feel it  throughout your mouth.

  Three factors influence the amount of tannin a wine will have.
  1.  The grape.  The thicker the skin the more tannin. A Cab has thicker skin then a Pinot.
  2. Amount of skin contact. The longer the grape skins soak in the juice, the more tannin.
 3. Age of the wine.  Just like us, we mellow with age (hopefully), so do the tannins in a wine.  As the wine ages the tannins integrate with the rest of the wine components, creating a softer more balanced texture.
  According to Andrea Immar, like all components of the wine, tannin is a personal choice.
    Her descriptions of the levels of tannin are:
 " Low Tannin- hardly noticeable, the wine feels silky .
   Medium Tannin- Noticeable dryness, tacky feeling, but smooth rather than harsh.
   High Tannin- Ouch! Your tongue feels very puckered, dried out and leathery."

    Using my trusty "bible" by Andrea Immar, I chose two California wines. One was a Kendall- Jackson Pinot Noir and the other one was a Simi Cabernet Sauvignon .
  I was a little nervous about having to "feel"rather than "taste" something in my mouth.  Hot and cold is about the limit of my texture sensitivity. To be able to focus on the texture I closed my eyes, making my other senses  more heightened.   I started with the Pinot Noir  which was  smooth and flowed through my mouth. "Silky" is a good term for the texture.  An interesting side note- the Pinot Noir had been aged in oak and I could taste the oaky flavor. The second tasting was the Cab.  The term I would use for tannin is "roughness". The texture  on my tongue reminded me of the roughness you get when you  brush against the grain of  a fabric.  Afterwards there was a dryness to the mouth.

    I have tasted some wines since this tasting and I am  pretty confident about feeling the tannins. I don't know that I am ready to say it has low, medium or high tannin, but I can say  either ,"Yes it has tannin, or no it doesn't have tannin."
  Now that I know what tannin feels like, do I like it? One of the things I am beginning to enjoy about wines are the unique qualities each wine exhibits.  So"yes", I do enjoy the tannin. 

Wine Tasting- Crispness

 I haven't been able to find anyone to join a wine tasting club with me, so I am exploring it on my own. Today I tried "crispness". My mentor Andrea Immar in her book "Wine Tasting Made Simple," suggested comparing two Sauvignon Blanc wines for crispness. Crispness in a wine is defined as the acidity in the wine.  A general rule of thumb is white wines are crispier than red wines.  If the grapes come from a cooler area they tend to have higher acidity, because as grapes ripen, their acidity goes down. Grapes in cooler areas remain higher.
    Andrea Immer describes the difference between low acidity and high acidity as:
Low acidity- is soft, plumb and smooth-feeling in the mouth.
High acidity or "crisp" - like an electric charge going through you mouth-tangy, tingly, mouthwatering.
   I'm not sure I would say an electric charge, for me, it's more of tangy feeling, like  eating  a slightly sour candy.
  The two wines I compared were on her list as examples.
 My low acidity wine was Robert Mondavi Coastal- Sauvignon Blanc and
high acidity wine was a New Zealand brand called Villa Maria- Sauvignon Blance Marlborough.
  I expected a big difference between the intensity of the crispness. I was wrong ,the difference between them was very subtle. The Robert Mondavi Wine had a very fragrant grass smell and was smooth tasting to the mouth.  I'm not sure I know what plumb taste feels like, so I will go with smooth. The Villa Maria Wine, had a hint of  tang, fruit flavor. I had my husband do a blind taste with me.  We did it about four times. I did get them right, but the difference was ever so subtle. The New Zealand, actually had more of a slight fruit flavor, that is how I distinguished it as crisp.