Fortified (Port Style) Wine of the Yakima Valley: Final Episode

When a wine is referred to as 'fortified,' it means it's been made stronger (or 'fortified') by adding a distilled beverage, traditionally brandy. The brandy is added before the fermentation process is complete, which kills the yeast, leaving behind more sugar, which results in a stronger, sweeter beverage. As I mentioned here, to properly be called Port, the wine must hail from the Duoro Valley in Portugal. Since the wines I received were grown and bottled in Washington, they are more properly 'port-style' or 'fortified wines.'

The first stop in our Yakima Valley fortified wines was Cabernet Sauvignon followed by Syrah. Today's post will look at two very different kinds of Yakima Valley fortified wine. The first fortified wine will look at is a blend of three traditional Port grapes. The varietals used include; Tinta Cao, Touriga Nacional and Souzao. Thurston Wolfe sent two unique blends that contain some of the traditional Portuguese varietals, with Petite Sirah and Cabernet Sauvignon playing major roles. Finally, we'll look at our one unique port from Lopez Island Vineyards, the only Sangiovese we received.


We received only one completely traditional style fortified blend of 56% Souzau, 25% Touriga, and 19% Tinta Cao. The 2004 Hedges Family Estate Red Mountain Fortified, a regal and austere looking wine. The 2004 is a single vineyard blend from the North Block of Hedges Family Estate. Hedges blend is of course a recognition of the deep tradition of the fortified wines of Portugal's Duoro Valley. The wine, from bottle to flavor profile, means serious business. It speaks of deep dark wood and mahogany, and has hints of tobacco, earth and dark chocolate and cherries. While much of the Yakima Valley uses grape spirits, Hedges goes traditional with Brandy which smooths out the pallet on the wine and reminds you of that old world fortified wine. This wine is a serious one, and while it would go well with any chocolate desert it would also stand on it's own on the yacht or after closing the deal in the boardroom.

Thurston Wolfe sent two variations on the traditional Port blend theme. The 2007 JTW Port is a unique blend of Touriga, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Sirah and Souzao. The blending of the Cabernet brightens the fruit character and seems to mellow out the traditional Portuguese austerity. The JTW Port's final blend was created in 2008 and laid in barrel until bottling in the summer of 2009. The wine is a classic after dinner drink which tastes of chocolate and spices, Gwynne picked out notes of cloves. The JTW Reserve Port is a 2005 wine that has been selected for further barrel aging. The wine is a slightly different blend, with the Petite Sirah leading the way this time, followed by the Touriga, Cabernet and a tiny bit of Souzao. This wine is incredible, its smooth after two years in the barrel and two in the bottle. It's got dark fruit notes to spare. The extra time has made this a luxuriant example of Yakima Valley fortified wine.

The final fortified wine of our series comes from Lopez Island Vineyard, the 2007 Fireside Port is made of 100% Sangiovese. The wine is all Red Mountain fruit and the use of Sangiovese really makes it stand out from some of the other fortified wines we sampled. The fruit notes are more red than black and while it's very mellow, it's probably a bit more versatile with pairings. More strawberries and slight spice notes typical of Sangiovese. This wine is a sampling of Yakima Valley AVAs as the Sangiovese comes off Red Mountain but the grape spirits come from Wahluke Slope. Talking to Maggie, one of the owners, the attempt to make a fortified wine was more out of personal interest and curiousity but they're really happy with how it's turned out. So am I.

The wines we sampled over a three part series are just a small representation of what kinds of fortified wines are out there in the Northwest and for that matter just in Yakima Valley. I recommend you get out there and sample them before it gets too warm. Summer's coming and you'll have to wait until next winter or at least just until dessert.

Fortified (Port-Style) Wine of the Yakima Valley: Episode 2; Syrah

When a wine is referred to as 'fortified,' it means it's been made stronger (or 'fortified') by adding a distilled beverage, traditionally brandy. The brandy is added before the fermentation process is complete, which kills the yeast, leaving behind more sugar, which results in a stronger, sweeter beverage. As I mentioned here, to properly be called Port, the wine must hail from the Duoro Valley in Portugal. Since the wines I received were grown and bottled in Washington, they are more properly 'port-style' or 'fortified wines.'

The first stop in our Yakima Valley fortified wines was Cabernet Sauvignon. Today's post will focus on Yakima Valley fortified wine made from the Syrah grape.

I received Syrah based fortified wines from Daven Lore, Tucker Cellars and Kestrel Vintners.

The fortified Syrah wines has much more variance in style than did the Cabernets. Tucker Cellars sent two port style wines; one of which was done in a Tawny style. A Tawny style port is technically one that is barrel-aged for a long period of time so that the wine oxidizes and turns to a brownish gold color. The Tucker Tawny style was definitely lighter in color than it's Ruby counterpart but not the brownish gold of some tawny Port that you'll find out of the Duoro Valley. The Tawny Black Rock Creek port had an obvious presence of oak in the bouquet that came out in vanilla and smoky notes. The oak gave the wine a nuttier caramel flavor and was a welcome change of pace from the ruby ports we were drinking.

The Tucker Cellars Ruby Port was also quite good in a more typical style. This port was more fruit forward than the Tawny, with pomegranate and blackberries on the pallet. Both are fortified using grape spirits.

The Daven Lore Syrah Forte was a chocolate pairing delight. The grapes for this port-style wine are harvested from the Snipes Mountain AVA. The Forte is also fortified with grape spirits. This Syrah port-style wine aged 525 days in the barrel. The Daven Lore Forte has dark, dark cherries and rich red raspberries on the pallet. We had the Forte again recently at dinner at Picazo 7Seventeen in Prosser, and Chef Frank Magana paired it with his Strawberry creme brulee with chocolate ganache. It was an incredible pairing. The Daven Lore Forte was definitely the smoothest of the three Syrah port style wines that we sampled.

The Kestrel 2005 Syrah fortified wine is a very well balanced and interesting wine. Unlike many of the Washington wineries using grape spirits to fortify the wine Kestrel is using the more traditional Brandy. This creates a old world smoothness and the use of Brandy pulls out blackberry and dried fig aromas, as well as a deep dark smooth fortified wine.

Our final installment to come will cover two kinds of ports, a traditional Portugese style blend, that includes Souzao, Touriga Nacional and Tinta Cao in the blend. These ports are made by Hedges Family Estate and Thurston Wolfe. There will also be one outlier, a Sangiovese port style wine by Lopez Island Vineyards.

Fortified (Port-Style) Wine of the Yakima Valley: Episode 1; Cabernet Sauvignon

When a wine is referred to as 'fortified,' it means it's been made stronger (or 'fortified') by adding a distilled beverage, traditionally brandy. The brandy is added before the fermentation process is complete, which kills the yeast, leaving behind more sugar, which results in a stronger, sweeter beverage. As I mentioned here, to properly be called Port, the wine must hail from the Duoro Valley in Portugal. Since the wines I received were grown and bottled in Washington, they are more properly 'port-style' or 'fortified wines.'

I would like to take you on a figurative journey through the fortified or Port-style wines of Yakima Valley, through nine Yakima Valley wineries and one Idaho winery. In order to give you a sense of what I had the pleasure to taste, I'll be breaking out my posts based on varietal. We'll be touring fortified wines made with Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Sangiovese, or using a traditional port-style blend. Today's post will focus on the fortified wine made from the Cabernet Sauvignon grape.

Without further ado...Cabernet Sauvignon

I received three samples of fortified wine made from Cabernet Sauvignon: The Forte from Terra Blanca and two American Port-Style wines from Eaton Hill, Lot 99 and Lot 03. Because port-style wines are so enjoyable, I asked some friends to join us for the tasting of the Cabernets.

We started with the Terra Blanca Forte, 2005 ($42), which is 100% Cabernet. Put simply, it was quite good. This fortified wine is Terra Blanca's homage to the great Ports of the Duoro Valley. The nose had cherries and raisins, and one friend "definitely smelled raspberries." It went beautifully with dried figs and chocolate truffles, which enhanced flavor elements of the wine, including a resounding plum flavor that everyone picked up. Gwynne cited cassis which sent the group into a disagreement over what cassis actually was. Gwynne was right. The technical notes mentioned that the grapes were left to hang until mid-November. The sweetness that came out of that resulted in a very smooth texture in this delicious dark ruby wine.

Eaton Hill sent two fortified wines, the Lot 03, and the Lot 99, the respected harvest years of the fruit used in each.

The Lot 99 ($40) is made from Cabernet grapes and aged 17 months in oak barrels. This wine was awarded a silver medal at the 2003 San Diego National Wine Competition, and it came with a cool little silver sticker on the bottle. Gwynne described the nose of this wine perfectly: "it smells like a hot sunny day with over-ripened black berries crushed on the sidewalk." It had flavors of plum and caramel. We drank this along side the Theo Bread and Chocolate bar, which was a hit.

The Eaton Hill Lot 03 ($50) was amazing. Stunning. The nose of this wine is unbelievably luxuriant. This wine certainly benefited from the 30 months it spent in oak. Though it paired very well with the chocolate, cheese and dried figs we had on hand, this wine is a dessert in and of itself, with a nose of dried rose petals and vanilla. The wine tastes of chocolate, cherries and plum jam. One guest even a smoothness and depth of flavor reminiscent of crème brûlée. The wine was silky smooth and by far our favorite of the evening, and it had the jewelry to match. With six silver medals and one bronze medal this wine had more bling than Lil' John.

My next fortified wine post will be coming soon, but in the meantime, if you find yourself in need of an after-dinner drink, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend any one of the Terra Blanca Forte, Eaton Hill Lot 99 or Eaton Hill Lot 03.