Grape Cup 2010 - 415 Westlake, Seattle, WA

University rivalry runs deep, and here in Washington our two largest schools are looking for bragging rights at every turn. Whether it’s a win in the Apple Cup, or raising the most money for a great cause (remember in 2005 when the Space Needle was painted crimson & gray?), the University of Washington and Washington State University have a rivalry that goes back over a century. This year, the 2nd annual Grape Cup was held as another of these contests to let each school battle it out for supremacy. The Grape Cup is no ordinary battle and while there are no sports involved (well, ask a winemaker how much physical energy goes into each vintage, they may beg to differ there), it is a contest of ability; to see who makes the best wine or beer in the state of Washington.

This year’s event, held at 415 Westlake, had a great turnout of both winemakers and fans alike. This was a great venue for this event, with an open spacious room to wander around, a kitchen to prepare food, and beautiful high ceilings. On this night, the tables were adorned with their crimson & gray or purple & gold, and there was more school spirit in that room than I’ve seen at some sporting events! It was great to see the winemakers and fans in attendance all dressed up in their respective school colors. In true sporting fashion, the judges for the event were dressed in referee uniforms as they made their rounds to sample the wines and beers. We nibbled on some tailgate snacks (macaroni and cheese?! sliders?! I was in heaven…), and made the tour around the room on our quest to determine who made the best wine: UW or WSU? It was a hard start for myself and my friend Erin (@ErinDrinksWine) as WSU alum, as we were slightly biased and seemed to be drawn first to the Cougar tables. We overcame the natural pull toward the crimson and were able to try some amazing wines (and beers!) from around the state. As mentioned in my preview post for the event, the Grape Cup benefited the Washington State Farmworker Housing Trust and we had a representative in attendance to explain a little about the organization and how they work to benefit our state’s farmworkers.




Some of my favorites of the event included the Willow Crest 2009 Pinot Gris (Cougar wine!), the William Church Winery (@WmChurchwinery) 2008 Bishops Blend (38% Malbec, 11% Syrah, 9% Merlot, 3% Cab Franc – another Cougar wine), the Brian Carter Cellars (@briancarterwine) Oriana (Husky wine), the Pandora Cellars (so new they don’t even have a website yet!) 100% Cabernet Sauvignon (Husky wine), the Tempest Sol Winery 2008 Dusk (Merlot and Syrah blend – Cougar wine), and the Mercer Estates (@MercerEstates) 2008 Sauvignon Blanc (Cougar wine). While there were many many others that I enjoyed at the event, these stood out and were the ones I wrote down to remember!





Palouse Winery won my heart (and my stomach) with their addition of one of the most amazing things ever to their table: Cougar Gold Cheese. Folks, if you have never tried this little bit of heaven in a can, get yourself to Met Market or the Cougar Connections store at Westlake and get some to try for yourself. This is a constant staple in my fridge!


In the end, the Washington State Cougars prevailed, beating out the University of Washington Huskies by just ½ a point in the referee’s voting:

1st place: Smasne Cellars 2007 Carmenére (Cougar)
2nd place: Pandora Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon (Husky)
3rd place: Skylite Cellars 2007 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon (Cougar) and Brian Carter Cellars Oriana (Husky)

The people’s choice voting went to the Huskies, who beat out the Cougs in the team competition by just ONE point. But once again Robert Smasne was on top, winning the people’s choice individual winery first place award:

1st place: Smasne Cellars (Cougar)
2nd place: Pandora Cellars (Husky) and Two Mountain Winery (Husky) (tie)
3rd place: Goose Ridge Estate Winery (Cougar)

HUGE congrats to Robert, who has now won this competition two years in a row with one of his wines. Robert is an avid WSU alum, and also participated in a WSU Alumni wine event that I helped organize a few months back. I love that such fantastic wines come from a WSU Coug!


This year’s event was a blast, and will be one that I will no doubt continue to be a part of from here on out. Both the Cougs and the Huskies will be back with a vengeance next year, whether it is to defend the title (as WSU will be) or de-throne the champs (as UW will try to). Until next year, there’s only one thing left to say:

GO COUGS!

BLEND: "The World's Best Wine, Food & Places" - Seattle, WA

Back in September I attended an event called BLEND, a food and wine tasting featuring wines from inside and outside of Washington (all blends, no 100% varietals allowed!), as well as food from a variety of resorts and conference centers. The event, which benefited the Washington Wine Industry Foundation, was held at the beautiful waterfront Bell Harbor International Conference Center. BLEND was put on by the wonderful Jamie Peha of Peha Promotions. Some of Jamie's past events I've attended include Wine Rocks Seattle and The Seattle Food & Wine Experience, which were both fantastic food and wine events. BLEND was one of the same, offering great wine, food, and views (once that pesky cruise ship decided to get out of the way).

Our first stop at BLEND was a Bordeaux blending seminar, put on by Columbia Winery. This seminar might have been the most enjoyable parts of the whole BLEND experience and I highly recommend the seminars for anyone who will attend this event next year. We started out by learning some great facts about the Bordeaux region in France and how the blending of different grapes from this area came to be. In France, blending is most often tradition and all of the different regions have their own rules and traditional blend of grapes. In Burgundy, no blending is permitted and wine makers actually risk jail time if they are caught blending the grapes of this region. In Bordeaux, anything goes. They will blend everything. The five Bordeaux grapes used in their blends include Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Malbec and Petit Verdot. Carmenere is permitted, but is almost never grown. I was interested to learn also about the different blends that come from the left bank and right bank sides of the Gironde river in France. Left Bank wines are generally Cabernet Sauvignon based blends, with Malbec and Petit Verdot being added mostly to enhance the color. The soil on the Left Bank contains more gravel than the more dry soil of the Right Bank. Right Bank wines are mostly Merlot and Cabernet Franc based.


For this seminar, Columbia Winery provided their bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec and Cabernet Franc for us, as well as some blending "guidelines" for the blends. (Cabernet Sauvignon: 25-75%, Merlot: 15-40%, Malbec 1-20%, Cabernet Franc 1-20%, and Petit Verdot: 1-20% (we were not blending with Petit Verdot at this seminar). Also at our table were several beakers, measuring containers so we could get the exact % blend and some charts to record our sample blends. With wide and eager eyes we set off on our blending adventure (It's science!). Each table was given the task of creating their own blend, which would then be blind tasted by the entire room, with a winner chosen off the vote of the room. Our wine "dream team" included myself plus Clive Pursehouse (@clivity) of The Oregon Wine Blog; Annie Hong (@blackpearlSEA), GM of the fabulous Black Pearl restaurants; the one and only Sean Sullivan (@wawinereport) of Washington Wine Report (did you see his "100 Best WA Wines" article in Seattle Metropolitan's September issue?); and Jessica Voelker (@JessVoelker), Seattle Metropolitan's lifestyle editor. We each set about creating our own blend (basically, we just winged it) with the wines provided. My first trial was a 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot, 20% Malbec, and 5% Cabernet Franc blend, which I thought didn't turn out half bad for my first go at it. We all tasted each others creations and determined that best in show for trial #1 was Clive's "Dark as the Night" blend, a 50% Malbec, 20% Merlot, 20% Cabernet and 10% Cab Franc combination. We set off on trial #2 (my second run was not so wonderful), and determined once again that Clive's "Dark as the Night 2.0" was indeed the best our table had created. We mixed up the big version to submit for judging, did a little field blending at the last minute (seriously, the container was already on the front table and Sean ran up there to add more Malbec in at the last minute) and crossed our fingers. It turns out that we should probably keep our day jobs, as we weren't the best blenders in the room, coming in 3rd place of four groups. Whoops. The winning table's members each took home a bottle of Columbia's 2003 Peninsula blend, a 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Cabernet Franc, 15% Merlot, 6% Mablec, and 1% Petit Verdot. After hearing a lot of this wine and its recent accolades, I might have to venture out and find a bottle for myself! While we didn't come out on top, I had so much fun creating my own blends, and left the seminar inspired to go home and start ripping into my 100% varietals of each of the Bordeaux grapes to start my own home blending operation. In any event, I can't wait for next year's seminars!


After the seminar was the general tasting event, which was spread throughout the convention center in separate rooms. I liked this spread out feel, as you were able to wander around the building, as well as take a break on the large patio extending off the side of the building. While there were way too many wines to recap here (this post would be a mile long), I took plenty of photos of the different wines I enjoyed at the event. Food was also incredible, with places offering up small bite size samples of everything from BBQ brisket sandwiches to granola crunch s'mores. There was a bite of something to please every taste. It was wonderful to chat with winemakers and friends and to try so many different blends of wine.

Mike Sharadin of Northwest Totem Cellars (@NWTotemCellars) had his new 2007 Potlatch at the event, a Syrah, Tempranillo, and Grenache blend. The 2006 Potlatch was a favorite of mine, so I was delighted to try the 2007 vintage. This bottle will open up even more in the future, very nice.



I always love trying new wineries and wines I have never had in the past, so I was excited to come across Arbor Crest Wine Cellars (@arborcrestwine), a winery based in Spokane, WA. They were pouring their 2003 Dionysus, a 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc and 5% Malbec blend. I really enjoyed this wine, which has won several awards and is a 90+ point rated wine in Wine Spectator & Wine Enthusiast.


Another favorite was the 2008 Helix Aspersa, by Reininger Winery, based in Walla Walla, WA. This 82% Chardonnay and 18% Viognier blend was a refreshing palate pleaser. I think my first quote after tasting this wine was "I want to be on a beach in a bikini with this wine", which got quite the laugh out of Mr. Sullivan.


An additional white blend I enjoyed was the Page Cellars 2009 Sentimental Blonde, a Klipsun Vineyard 80% Sauvignon Blanc and 20% Semillon combination. Light and refreshing, this is another one of those "summer wines" that I love on a hot day (too bad we don't get any more of those days until next summer!).


I'm so happy to have attended BLEND Seattle 2010. In addition to learning some great facts about Bordeaux blending and what types of wines come out of that French region, I was able to work my own magic to create my own Bordeaux blend! This is a must attend for any wine lover and I look forward to next year's event!

Cabernet Day - Bin 41 Wine Shop - West Seattle, WA

Everyone loves a day to celebrate something, and on September 2nd of this year, we were able to celebrate the “king of grapes”, Cabernet. For this special #Cabernet day (which was a huge event on twitter organized by @RickBakas), various locations around the country held special tasting events, many showcasing different wineries pouring their favorite Cabernet or Cabernet blend. I started my day by writing an ode to Cabernet, and that night I chose to attend a special tasting at a new wine shop in West Seattle I had yet to visit, Bin 41 ( @Bin41wine). I had heard great things about this shop, and have actually been on their mailing list for a few months now since a friend of mine had put me on it when she visited the shop (I think it went something like “Taryn likes wine, she should be getting your emails!”). What a great little shop this is! Owned by Jon McNamara and his wife T., the shop is located in West Seattle in an area known as “the Junction”. My first thought on walking into this shop was how neat their wine display racks were and how colorful and welcoming the shop was. We picked up our glasses & tasting tickets from Jon at the door and started off on our Cabernet adventure!



Our first taste came from Bartholomew Winery (@BartholomewWine), owned by Bart Fawbush. I’ve had Bart’s wine on several occasions in the past and can say that he makes some good juice! He recently opened his new tasting room in the Old Rainier Brewery Building in south Seattle and is open on Saturdays and Sundays from 12-5pm. For the Cabernet event, Bart was pouring his 2007 Reciprocity, which is a mix of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon and 50% Carmenere. This wine comes from the Horse Heaven hills region of the Columbia Valley. This is a great wine. It’s spicy on the palate but finishes smooth. I look forward to seeing how this wine ages also. Bart has a new winery, but his wines are stellar straight out of the gate. Can’t wait to see more from him!


Next we moved on to Stevens Winery, who was pouring their 2007 Stevens 424, a 5th vintage Bordeaux blend from the Yakima Valley. This blend was 39% Cabernet Franc, 36% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Merlot, and 9% Petit Verdot. It was aged 50/50 in new and used French Oak. This Cab heavy wine (both Cab Sauv and Cab Franc) was good and had a pleasant aroma also.


Next up was the Patterson Cellars 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon from Red Mountain. This was 87% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Cabernet Franc, and 4% Syrah. I have enjoyed Patterson’s wines in the past and have visited their tasting room in Woodinville during a tasting adventure back in May. The wine poured at this event was smooth, but with a firm finish. The small amount of Syrah in this added just a little something extra.


My favorite wine of the Cabernet event came from Guardian Cellars. It was great to get the opportunity to chat again with Jerry Riener, owner of Guardian. I had first heard his story at a tasting event at the CTC back in March. Jerry continues to release exceptional wines, and the wine poured at this event was no different. We tasted the 2008 Chalk Line from the Columbia Valley. This “pizza and Doritos” wine, as Jerry called it, was 31% Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Syrah, 21% Merlot, and 21% Cabernet Franc. This is a multi-vineyard blend using grapes from all of the vineyards that Jerry pulls from for his wines. This wine was well balanced from start to finish and will definitely sell out quickly. Definitely one to try if you haven’t already!


Beresan poured one of the few 100% Cabernet Sauvignon’s at the event. This 2006 Walla Walla Cab stood out among the blends for being a pure Cabernet for Cabernet Day. I had never had Beresan wines before and it was great to be able to try new labels at this event.


Balboa (@balboawinery) poured a 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon from the Columbia Valley. This single vineyard Cabernet was very tight and definitely needs more age. Balboa is one known for putting out good Cabs, as I have enjoyed a bottle on occasion at local restaurants on Seattle. This wine will definitely improve over time but this night it just wasn’t quite there.


We finished with Forgeron Cellars (@ForgeronCellars) which I had tried for the first time recently at the South Lake Union block party. At that event they had an amazing Chardonnay and at this event they had a great 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon. This 95% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Malbec is a multi-vineyard wine from Walla Walla, Red Mountain and Horse Heaven Hills. This will age very well and that little bit of Malbec spice is a great addition to this one.

A great addition to this event was pizza brought over from Talarico’s Pizzeria, which is located just down the street from Bin 41. Throughout the event, they brought over several enormous pizzas (seriously, how could that even fit in a car?!) for the Cabernet tasters to enjoy. They were quite good, and I look forward to getting back over to West Seattle sometime soon to try some more of their concoctions at the pizzeria.


Overall, this was a great way to celebrate Cabernet Day! I enjoyed some old favorites and some new Cabernets as well. I love the concept of celebrating a particular varietal and doing tastings from different wineries of just that varietal. Even if it’s not for an organized event, I think it’s something I want to do on my own more in the future!

Upcoming Event: Grape Cup 2010 - 415 Westlake, Seattle, WA

I don't think I have ever been so excited for an event. This 2nd annual tasting event combines my two passions: wine and the WSU Cougars. This coming Thursday 9/16/2010 there will be over 20 (last I heard up to 24!) wineries and breweries going grape to grape (and hops to hops!) to battle it out for bragging rights. Just like the Apple Cup decides who is the best at football annually, the Grape Cup answers the question: Who makes better wines, Husky alums or Cougar alums? The Cougs won last year, with Robert Smasne of Smasne Cellars taking first place. This year's event will be held at a new venue, 415 Westlake, near South Lake Union. Even better than just knowing your Alma Mater makes the best juice, this event benefits the Washington State Farmworker Housing Trust. And what goes better with a rivalry than tailgate food? Reknowned Chef Tom Black and Mark Huston will be there to provide great food to accompany the wine and beer tasting. Click here for photos of the 2009 event by Nityia Przewlocki.

So who's coming? Ladies and gentlemen, here's the line-up:

Cougars:

Edmonds Winery
Goose Ridge Estate Winery
Kana Winery
Mercer Estates
Palouse Winery
Plaza Winery
St. Laurent Estate Winery
Skylite Cellars
Smasne Cellars
Tempest Sol Winery
Tulip Valley Orchard + Red Barn Cider + Burroloco Cider
William Church Winery
Willow Crest

Huskies:

Brian Carter Cellars
Georgetown Brewing Co
Gilbert Cellars
Pandora Cellars
Nicholas Cole Cellars
Nota Bene Cellars
Red Hook Ale Brewery
Snoqualmie Falls Brewing Co.
Wilridge Winery
WineGirl Wines
Two Mountain Winery
Madsen Family Cellars

In order to get some more excitement going about this awesome upcoming event, yesterday I came up with a Top 10 list for reasons why everyone needs to attend. I posted them all to twitter, but here they are again, the full list!

Reason #10 to attend #GrapeCup: Cool new venue this year, 415 Westlake

Reason #9 to attend #GrapeCup: It benefits the Washington State Farmworker Housing Trust

Reason #8 to attend #GrapeCup: Because there will be 20+ wineries and breweries there!

Reason #7 to attend #GrapeCup: Because football is just one game a year for #WSU and #UW. A wine is forever (or until you drink it).

Reason #6 to attend #GrapeCup: Two words. TAILGATE FOOD!

Reason #5 to attend #GrapeCup: For only $40 you get food, wine, AND beer

Reason #4 to attend #GrapeCup: Learn which fantastic wine & beer makers are #WSU and #UW alumni

Reason #3 to attend #GrapeCup: Because wine is crimson. And grapes are purple.

Reason #2 to attend #GrapeCup: Because you get to wear your favorite #WSU and #UW gear. From head to toe.

And reason #1 to attend #GrapeCup: Bragging rights! (aka smack talking) Get your tix and I'll see you there!

Get your tickets by clicking HERE! I'll see you there (I'll be in crimson.. ;) GO COUGS!