Barrage Cellars - Woodinville, WA

A few posts ago I had mentioned that I would have a write-up on the Barrage Cellars 2007 Outcast Cab Franc. Well, that time has finally come! I was finally able to enjoy this bottle with some friends while on a trip down in Utah (yes, I took my own wine.. sssh.. don't tell!). I thought it would be fun to get the first taste notes and flavor opinions from all of the people I was drinking it with, so they are all included here as well. In attendance for this bottle was myself (Taryn), Heather (a born and bred wine lover), Tyler (fiance of Heather, her wine love has rubbed off on him), and Ryan (Tyler's roommate, and oddly enough someone I went to high school with in AK!).

To start with, a little about Barrage Cellars: Barrage is owned and operated by Kevin Correll and his lovely wife Rebecca. They have a wonderful space in the Woodinville Warehouse District, side by side with many other wineries that have space in the area as well. Their tasting room is beautifully simple and inviting, where you're greeted right as you walk through the door. The barrel room in the back of their space holds the liquid treasure that has yet to be bottled. This is a great winery that produces some fantastic wines.




The 2007 Outcast Cab Franc is 100% Cab Franc from the Boushey Vineyard in Grandview, WA. My first impression of the aroma of this wine was that it was very pleasant and that of a true cab franc. My first taste was delightful, and the flavors consumed the entire mouth. Especially noteworthy was the taste I got on the back of the pallet, which was very smooth. Flavors of black cherry were present and kept me wanting more. It has a beautiful dark color that is very solid when you try to take a look through the glass. I am a big fan of caesar salad (I make mine from scratch!) and the rich garlic flavors of that salad would be so tasty with this wine. In fact, I would eat just about any food with this wine! The wine definitely improved as it sat open for awhile, and decanting it would make it even better.

Heather's opinion was that it had a "nice bouquet" and that at first taste it was very "fruit forward" and "very smooth". Tyler said that it had "a nice aroma" and that the wine was "good, and very smooth". He went on to say that it was "not overly complex, but complex enough" (my favorite note of the tasting!). Ryan tasted it and announced "I like hot cabs" and said that it has "a fair amount of black cherry". Everyone in attendance was a big fan of the 2007 Outcast Cab Franc and we were very lucky to enjoy this bottle to start out our Friday night!

Thanks again to Kevin Correll for creating such a tasty wine. I look forward to what the future vintages have to offer!

Washington Merlot Tweetup - Seattle Wine Outlet - Seattle, WA

Now, Merlot has never been a favorite of mine and is never my first choice on a wine list. But when Josh Wade (@nectarwine) of Drink Nectar put together the WA Merlot tasting for March 25th, 2010, I knew it could not be missed. The tweetup I attended for this celebration of Washington State Merlot was at Seattle Wine Outlet (@SeaWineOutlet), at their Interbay location. I had never had a chance to visit either of their store locations and I was super excited to see that their Interbay store was so close to where I live (can we say new favorite place to get wine??). My good friend, the wonderful Seattle Wine Gal (@SeattleWineGal) put together the event with the help of the awesome staff at Seattle Wine Outlet. They had a terrific sitting area with tables and chairs where we could all gather around and sip our wines and discuss together. It was the perfect venue for our event.


In addition to seeing some familiar faces in @BlackPearlSEA and @SeattleWineGal's other half Jason, I was able to meet a few new twitter folk at this event, including @KarenRosenzweig, @larsryssdal, @HipsForHire, @jojolocal, @kirste, and the one and only @ChrisPirillo (who provided quite the wine commentary at the event, with some of my favorite quotes to come). Owner Richard Kinssies put together some amazing snacks for us to accompany our wine, including several cheeses (so wonderful!) and pulled pork sandwiches! We lucked out in getting to have our event here!

We had nine different wineries featured in our line-up for the event. Some I had tasted before, but most were brand new to me. What I liked most about this event was that by trying so many different types of Merlot, I was able to determine what it is that I do and do not like in this varietal. The following wines were featured at our event:

-Latah Creek Winery (@LatahCreekWine) 2008 Wahluke Slope Pheasants Vineyard Merlot
-Hard Row to Hoe Vineyards (@hardrow) 2007 Shameless Hussy Merlot
-Milbrandt Vineyards (@milbrandtvino) 2007 Traditions Columbia Valley Merlot
-Maryhill Winery (@MaryhillWinery) 2006 Columbia Valley Merlot and 2006 Proprietor's Reserve Merlot
-Wilridge Winery (@wilridge) 2003 Klipsun Vineyards Red Mountain Merlot
-Hestia Cellars (@HestiaCellars) 2007 Columbia Valley Merlot
-Sparkman Cellars (@SparkmanCellars) 2007 Outlaw Red Mountain Merlot
-Pepper Bridge Winery (@PepperBridge 2007 Walla Walla Valley Merlot
-Barrage Cellars (@BarrageCellars) 2007 Trifecta Merlot

My favorites of these included the Hard Row to How Shameless Hussy (that was a fun one to crack jokes about, I think mine was something like "she really gets around the table"), the Milbrandt Traditions Merlot, the Maryhill Proprietor's Reserve, and the Barrage Cellars Trifecta. While I enjoyed most of the wines I tasted, these wines stood out as my favorites of the bunch. I don't like a very peppery Merlot. I like the smooth finish that hits the taste buds in just the right way. I will say that I will definitely be trying these favorites again!

Some of the best quotes of the night came from @ChrisPirillo, who held his wine like a "goblet" and referred to the Maryhill Reserve by saying "it's like a summer day picnic without humidity or ants". He also said that the Hard Row Shameless Hussy was "sexy; it's nibbling my tongue". Oh the laughs were a plenty during this event with Chris's colorful commentary. It was a great group to be at a tasting with and I was so fortunate to have met everyone!

(big thanks to Seattle Wine Gal for taking such an adorable picture of us w/ her phone. I just had to share it here!)

Andrew Will Winemaker's Dinner - Purple Cafe & Wine Bar - Seattle

I have always wanted to try out a winemaker's dinner and what better than to try one of the various events that Purple Cafe & Wine Bar (@heavyrestaurant) hosts. Purple has had a few of these dinners recently and they always look amazing. At Purple Seattle, there is a beautiful back room behind the bar area with windows all around and a beautiful wood table that can sit the entire group in attendance. The dinner on this night was for Andrew Will Winery (@andrewwill), a winery located on Vashon Island. I had never had a chance to try Andrew Will wines before so I was even more excited about the dinner.

We (I attended along with @jenkmiller) arrived and were immediately handed a yummy glass of prosecco. We took our seats at one end of the big table and got to chatting with all the great people in attendance at the dinner. It was so great to learn about the winery and how it got started. Their grapes are grown in eastern WA, and while they don't currently have a tasting room on Vashon Island, there was talk that one may open up sometime in the future near their vineyards.


The meal started with Gorgonzola stuffed dates which were simply amazing. They were topped with pine nuts and the perfect start to the meal. We moved from there to a dungeness crab salad with avocado. This was paired with Andrew Will's 2008 Cuvee Lucia Pinot Gris. This was a light refreshing wine that was an excellent match for the crab and avocado combination. This was a great spring and summer wine that would likely pair well with any type of salad or BBQ fare.



Next we moved on to a seared Alaskan halibut fillet served with a tomato-fennel sauce. This paired nicely with Andrew Will's 2007 Cuvee Lucia Sangiovese, a red mountain wine. Growing up in Alaska, I have had a lot of halibut cooked in various different ways. The cut and preparation of the fish by Purple at this dinner was incredible. It was perfectly flaky to the fork and so amazing with the sauce. The sangiovese was by far one of my favorites of the evening. I need to go find a bottle of this to add to my collection and enjoy it with some of the halibut from my freezer! It was such an amazing pairing I look forward to trying again.


Our "intermezzo" of the evening came with a small bite of papaya sorbet along with a shot of potato vodka. This was to cleanse the pallet before moving on to our next course. It definitely did the trick and my mouth was free of all of the other wines we had already tasted. It was a great way to ready myself for our next amazing course.


Our next course was roasted mustard-herb crusted lamb tenderloin served with asparagus. This course was paired along with Andrew Will's 2007 Two Blonds Vineyard blend from the Yakima Valley. This wine was a blend of 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Cabernet Franc, 19% Merlot, and 7% Malbec. The combination of the tenderness of the lamb and the softness of the wine was such a treat.


Our dessert of a Delice cheese and chocolate paired with Andrew Will's 2007 Champoux blend from Horse Heaven Hills was the perfect finish to this amazing meal. This blend is 19% Cab Sauv, 52% Cab Franc, 21% Merlot, and 8% Petit Verdot. The large percentage of Cab Franc in this wine really stood out in an amazing way. I had never had the variety of cheese served with this and I must say I have a new favorite!


At the end of the meal I was full but not overly, as the portions served with the meal were absolutely perfect. It was interesting to learn about how the chef creates the food pairings to work with the wine, not the other way around. Both the food prepared by the chef at Purple and the Andrew Will wines tasted were so fantastic and I can now say I'm hooked to the concept of food and wine pairings. I will be in attendance at more winemaker's dinners in the future for sure.

Columbia Tower Club, Washington Wine Tasting - Seattle

They always say it’s all about who you know and this came in very handy this past week as I was able to attend a great event. My friend Jen (@jenkmiller) is a member of the Columbia Tower Club and Wine Society (@columbiatower), which is located on the 75th floor of the Columbia Tower, the tallest building in Seattle. The views from here are AMAZING and on a beautiful day I don’t know that there is any place better to get a view of the entire city of Seattle. The CTC’s Wine Society holds monthly wine tastings and this month showcased Washington Wines to celebrate Washington Wine Month. There were 70 wines being poured at the tasting, which featured both wine distributors as well as winemakers in attendance. There were several wineries at this event that I had yet to try and was excited to see such a wide variety of WA wineries featured here.

A big favorite was Guardian Cellars, owned by Jerry Riener. Jerry was pouring at the event and was able to give me all the background about each wine and how the winery came to be. For Jerry the winery is actually a side project, he has a full-time job in law enforcement in the local Seattle area. This is a running theme with his wines, with names such as “Gun Metal” and “The Wanted”. It’s so great to see a story behind each of his wines and the names he uses for them. My personal favorite of the Guardian Wines was his 2009 Angel Sauvignon Blanc, which made me instantly visualize a warm summer day on the porch kicked back with a glass of the wine and some BBQ type snacks. This wine will no doubt go fast. I purchased a bottle of this through the event, but now I’m thinking I need to stock up on this! Jerry mentioned that his release party was the next day for some new wines. His tasting room is located in Woodinville and will remain open this summer only as long as he has wine left! Once this year’s batch is gone, it’s gone, and the tasting room shuts down. I need to get out there quick and taste through the entire line again as it was such a treat to chat with Jerry at this event and learn about his wines.

Another winery that I have always liked, Barnard Griffin, was pouring the brand new 2009 release of their Rose of Sangiovese. I have been a huge fan of their Rose in previous years, and this release was the best one yet. The flavors blended very well and nothing stood out too significantly alone, which is what makes it so enjoyable. This is another one of those wines that makes me wish it was summer already and not still March! I look forward to drinking this one throughout the summer months.

I was also able to meet and briefly chat with the owners of William Church Winery (@wmchurchwinery), which is located in the Woodinville Warehouse District. I have seen them on twitter in the past and it was great to meet the people behind the wines. I was a big fan of their wines poured at this event and will hopefully be visiting the tasting room soon to check out more of their wines.

One of the best things about this event was that all of the wines poured were made available for sale at a cost a little above wholesale. Though we didn’t get to leave the event with our purchases, I am excited to pick up my new bottles when they come in! These tasting events are a huge perk of being a CTC member and Wine Society Member. Definitely something to look into!