The Wine Knows

Friday night we were invited to a barrel tasting at Bethany Vineyards in Ridgefield (just north of Vancouver, WA).
A friend had bought the private barrel tasting at a charity acution and invited a group of us to go. I had not been to Bethany in several years.

Their wines were better than what I remembered the last time. My wife really liked their Syrah; it had a nice spicy kick.

Most of their non pinot reds are blended from estate fruit and fruit from Prosser. Their estate non pinot fruit are from starts he got in the Yakima valley.

We barreled tasted a Cuvee; 50% cab/50% merlot and I was surprised how much I liked it. When I picked some bottles of their Syrah for my wife I looked at the bottle of their Cuvee (06); 12.5%.

Obviously it was a different year than what I had barreled tasted but I bought a few bottles and look forward to trying them as well as sitting a few down to try later.

I told Larry, the winemaker, I appreciated the lower alcohol in the Cuvee and I wish I could find more wines like that. (the syrah is 14.3%)

I know the lower alcohol wines are hard to find and it has been discussed here before. Has anyone else found any nice reds below 13% recently?