Twelve Blind Pinot Noirs (From Washington) See How They Taste

Some friends at Wine & Beer of Washington State recently hosted a blind tasting of Washington Pinot Noirs, inviting an assortment of wine bloggers and twitterati. Many of us dubious, given that “Washington” and “Pinot Noir” aren’t often found in the same sentence. Bean Fairbanks and the Wine & Beer of Washington State crew had put together a line up of twelve Washington Pinots and one "ringer" from Oregon. With the foil wrapped bottles lined up in front of us, we went to work.

While there was some scoffing and smug remarks about the ability of Washington to produce a worthy Pinot, these were serious Northwest wine drinkers. All kidding aside, The Washington Wine Report's Sean Sullivan and myself had both previously had the opportunity to experience the Kyra Pinot, and we both found it to our liking. So while no one is ready to demand that Oregon's Willamette Valley fork over their title as America's Best Pinot Producer, (yeah, California, I said it) we knew that there was potential out there for this varietal in Washington. In addition to the Kyra Wines Pinot, word on the street (and in the newspapers) was that very good things were happening with the Pinot Noir from James Mantone down in the Columbia Gorge at Syncline Wine Cellars.

Below I submit my quick thoughts from the evening. Some of them are a bit rough, but this was how these wines tasted to me on this particular evening.

Wine #1: Pinot is not really supposed to have tannins like this. Lots of wood?

Wine #2: Not much palate on this wine. There's not much going on. Anyone home?

Wine #3: Whoa, oaky dokey. This wine is quite harsh. Tastes like it might be oxidized or a port style wine that's been open a long time.

Wine #4: Now that's a Pinot, finally. Cherries and cranberries on the palate.

Wine #5: Very good. Might be the Kyra. Baked cherries, concentrated fruit, restrained use of oak but some toasted almond elements.

Wine #6: This has got to be the Oregon Pinot, best one of the bunch. No oak to speak of, beautiful Pinot Noir. More please.

Wine #7: This wine has a lot of green elements, not so much oak to speak of; a relief. I'm getting sour cherries.

Wine #8: Sheesh. This wine, what is the deal? Tastes like strawberry daiquiri mix, and unripe rhubarb.

Wine #9: Fairly concentrated, judicious use of oak, a pretty solid example of Pinot Noir.

Wine # 10: Hmm...Bo Derek has nothing to worry about. Way too much oak on this wine, no hope at tasting the fruit. Cherry Halls comes to mind.

Wine #11: A bit of an earthy and musty nose, aromatic wine. Flawed? Brettanomyces?

Wine #12: A rosé. Fairly good acidity with grapefruit and other citrus notes in the wine.

So the verdict? My favorite wine of the night was easily the Syncline Pinot or #6. You know, the one I said had to be from Oregon. This Pinot, produced in the Columbia Gorge from the Celilo and Underwood Mountain vineyards, was the consensus winner from every guest. The restraint on the oak and the old world approach that James Mantone uses with all of his wines really lets the fruit and terroir speak for itself. This approach, which is often referred to in this country as Burgundian, is also typically Oregonian - at least, in what I feel are Oregon's finest examples.

Second place? Kyra Wines 2008 Pinot. Not much of a surprise. Actually, I was thrilled that I guessed this wine correctly. That rarely happens for me in blind tastings. It’s a bit more heavily oaked than what I prefer from Oregon, but it's not overly done. The fruit is certainly present, the concentration is good, and Kyra does a good job of blending multiple vineyards. The Kyra 2007, which was also in the lineup this evening, didn't fair as well. This was the vintage I'd had before, and I suspect that in this case this particular bottle may have been a bit off.

Third place? This was my biggest surprise of the evening, except perhaps for the fact that the Oregon Pinot faired so poorly. Third place went to the Challenger Ridge 2006. While it didn't approach the other two it was a solid Pinot Noir. I was particularly impressed given this one came from the Puget Sound AVA, which has some unique weather challenges to wine growing. Similar to the Syncline this wine allowed the fruit to come out and really backed down on the oak. Similar to the Kyra there was a vast difference in opinion between vintages from the Challenger Ridge, the 2005 was not very impressive at all.

At the end of the evening, as we prepared for a beautiful dinner, the conclusion of the group - besides that the food looked amazing - was that Washington can indeed produce Pinot Noir. However, there isn't yet a consistency in quality like what you'll find in our neighbor to the south. That might come, and it might not. In the case of Syncline, making wine from a cool climate like the western end of the Columbia Gorge may be the ideal situation, but Kyra and Challenger Ridge certainly prove that the wine can come from all over the state. Stop asking questions and give some of it a try.

Pinot from Washington State...Kyra Wines

I had heard rumors, whispers, even mumblings about top shelf Pinot Noir from Washington state. There aren't many of them being made in Washington, due in large part to the significant doubt that the growing conditions allow the fruit to become what it can truly be. Kyra Baerlocher of Kyra Wines in Moses Lake is one of those who is making a Pinot Noir. Given how much I enjoyed their Merlot, I was looking forward to giving their Pinot Noir a whirl. (Kyra sent me the wine to review.)

Washington state's AVAs are warmer than Oregon's, particularly in the more common wine growing areas east of the Cascade Mountains. Recently, the Puget Sound AVA has begun getting a reputation as a possible Pinot Noir spot. There is, however, quite a bit of skepticism and the jury is still out on how the Washington Pinot will hold up to vintners' experimentations. Some Washington winemakers have committed to making the varietal work in Washington and we should see some interesting wines over the next few years.

Kyra more or less happened into Pinot Noir while she was waiting for her estate vineyards to mature. As she put it, it found her. She was working with the Evergreen Vineyards in George, Washington and really liked their fruit, so when some of their Pinot Noir fruit came available, Kyra figured she'd give it a try. What she found is that Pinot is a whole different kind of animal, except, it's not really an animal, but a grape. That's just an expression people use, so you know.

Kyra speculates that winemakers in Washington may be going awry when they treat Pinot like other varietals: "Once I began to work with Pinot Noir, I realized it couldn't be approached like any red varietal from Washington." When Kyra Wines decided to make a specific investment in their production of Pinot Noir, they purchased wine making equipment that is specific to Pinot and started to think differently about how they'd approach this wine. Kyra spent a lot of time and effort on yeast selection and extraction to achieve the best color concentration, which seems to be a weak spot for many Washington Pinots.

In order to get the complexity she's looking for out of the wine, Kyra gives her blending a lot of consideration. She's worked with Mike Buckmiller from Okanogan Estate & Vineyards who has made Pinot for some time out of the Okanogan Valley. Additionally she's working with the fruit from Jack Brady of Underwood Mountain in the Columbia Gorge.

This Pinot Noir is considerably different from the majority of the ones coming out of Washington. Any that I've had anyways. The dark fruit elements of the wine and the color concentration are certainly unique,to Washington Pinot. It's not an Oregon Pinot either though, the completely obvious aside. It's a Pinot of a different color, if you will.

The wine has darker fruit characteristics, the nose is baked cherry tart and thanks to the oak program Kyra used, there's a hint of toasted almond in there as well. The flavor is concentrated - it almost has a smoky fruit element. In comparison to Oregon Pinot Noir I find less of the earth and soil tones. Kyra's Pinot is exciting and really holds great promise for what this varietal can be in Washington. The wine shows lots of layers and a flavor concentration that should allow for the wine to develop and age. I love what Kyra has done with this wine and look forward to her future endeavors.

#WA Merlot Tasting at Full Pull Wines

The twitter machine was all a buzz last week with the talk of #WAMerlot, particularly those of Northwest winos. For the uninitiated, that doesn't mean a pound of WAMerlot or the number of WAMerlot you're able to drink. In the twittersphere, "#" is a hashtag; a way of listing a particular subject or event to make it easily searchable. What #WAMerlot did was allow people from all over the country to participate in what its organizer, Josh Wade of the Drink Nectar called "the largest simultaneous tasting of Washington wine anywhere."



People participated in #WAMerlot from their homes and from wineries in Walla Walla, Tri-Cities and Woodinville that hosted #WAMerlot tweetups. In many cases a few wineries threw in together to host events and provide Washington Merlot for tasting. There were wine bars and restaurants hosting Merlot flights for a fee, and private #WAMerlot events where a short guest list was established and admission was free.

All these events were organized to promote Washington Merlot. In many cases the rallying cry was to undo some of the damage that Merlot suffered at the hands of Paul Giamatti's character Miles in Sideways. The #WAMerlot event fell on Thursday March 25th from 5pm to 7pm, just one day prior to Taste Washington, an enormous wine undertaking. It was a good way to get your liver warmed up, as one winemaker said.

While Merlot has seen it's cache change since that fateful movie, it is still the number one purchased wine in the United States. It's seen as an approachable wine that pairs well with a variety of foods and has a nose and palate that are broadly appealing. Though those statistics make it clear that Merlot is still a wine of the people; it's wine aficionados and wanna be wine snobs who have turned up their noses, pun intended, at this great grape.

Gwynne and I went to the #WAMerlot event at Full Pull Wines in Seattle's SoDo neighborhood. Full Pull Wines' Paul Zitarelli offers Washington wines from small producers as well as hard to find boutique gems. When he finds a great deal, he emails his list. If you opt to purchase that wine, you can decide to have it shipped to you or you can become part of the Thursday Pick Up crowd. This gets you a bigger discount and an opportunity to come by the place and taste some of the wines.

Full Pull is hard to find. It's got a door sign smaller than 1 foot square, so you have to be on the look out. The party was already in full swing when we got there. We were greeted by Paul and Emily and sent over to the bar where we found Doug Haugen of Wino Magazine already into the variety of Merlots assembled before us.


We began with a Hestia Cellars limited release and Emily told me she'd introduce me to the winemaker Shannon who was "around here somewhere" but he snuck out with Paul to catch the Sounders game before I could say hello. From there we moved into a Ward Johnson 2007 Red Mountain Merlot that I learned Kurt Johnson had brought by just on my account. (Pretty cool, Kurt.) The WJW Merlot was deep and dark and displaying cherries on the palate.

When it was all said and done, we tasted probably two thirds of the 12 to 15 Merlots they had assembled at Full Pull. Our two favorites were the Alexandria Nicole Gravity 07 Merlot and the Kyra Merlot, both of which we had decided to purchase. Doug from Wino and I both were having a hard time believing the price point on the Kyra: One of the best wines in the house was only $13.

This was our first Twitter related event, I had a good time; Gwynne was a bit let down by the lack of actual social interaction. To her point; she was right, much of the time was spent sipping and then texting away to update the rest of the world what we were tasting in these brilliant Washington Merlots. The conversation was sparse but it was great meeting some others from the wine blog community.