The Wine Knows

It has been a busy late summer and fall, and have spent entirely too little time walking vineyards. Part of that, I think, has been the lateness (actually normalness) of the vintage.

So this morning, I headed into Washington's Horse Heaven Hills with Wade Wolfe, owner/winemaker for Thurston Wolfe in Prosser. He was checking grapes and picking samples at three vineyards that I'd never been to, so I was happy to tag along.

The first stop was Zephyr Ridge Vineyard, which Wolfe once was a part owner of. He was required to sell his share when Vincor purchased Hogue Cellars. At the time, Wolfe was general manager of Hogue, and Vincor decided it would be a conflict of interest for him to own a vineyard that sold grapes to Hogue.

One gets the feeling that Zephyr is Wolfe's favorite vineyard. That's where he sources Petite Sirah, Primitivo, Zinfandel and Lemberger. Part of the vineyard faces north, and part faces south toward the Columbia River. The sections where Wolfe's grapes grow are fairly steep, up to a 20-degree slope. Even the very fit Wolfe was huffing a bit after hiking through a Zinfandel block.

Then we drove past Columbia Crest, along the Columbia River and back into the Horse Heavens through the town of Alderdale (population: 34). Our next stop was Destiny Ridge Vineyard, estate vineyard for Alexandria Nicole Cellars in Prosser. We dropped by the winery, where Wolfe talked shop with owner/winemaker Jarrod Boyle.

We then walked through a block of Cabernet Sauvignon, which Wolfe could quickly tell was not yet ready to harvest. After sampling Lemberger, Primitivo and Zinfandel grapes, I was struck by just how much smaller the berries are on Cabernet Sauvignon. That's one reason the resulting wines are darker in color, more concentrated in flavor, heavier with tannins and, as a result, more prized by wine lovers.

Our third stop was Andrews Horse Heaven Vineyard, checking another Cabernet Sauvignon block. Andrews has a great reputation with wineries, and the family has a lot of new acreage it has planted, primarily for Ste. Michelle Wine Estates.

From there, we headed back to Prosser and the winery, just in time for Wade to run into the tasting room and help with a couple of bus tours that had pulled up at the Vintners Village. After they departed, he began analyzing the grapes for sugar levels to see when he should call for them to be harvested.

All in all, it was a fun day - much more than I would have had watching the Seahawks get their collective helmets handed to them by the Giants.