The Wine Knows

Last week, we chatted with Charlie Hoppes, owner/winemaker of Fidelitas Wines on Washington's Red Mountain. He and longtime Yakima Valley grape grower Dick Boushey have planted three acres of Cabernet Sauvignon on his five-acre property on Sunset Road.

Pacific Rim Winemakers, the Randall Grahm-owned winery in the shadow of Washington's Red Mountain, has plans to be more than just a Riesling producer.

Nicolas Quille, Pacific Rim's winemaker and general manager, revealed that the winery will release an Italian-inspired red wine this summer. This will be a first for the winery, which relocated from Santa Cruz, Calif., to Washington's Columbia Valley in 2007 (the year it bumped its production to 135,000 cases - mostly Riesling).

For the next 30 days or so, we will all be partaking in a variety of holiday meals, beginning with Thanksgiving on Thursday and running through Christmas (and possibly New Year's Day) dinner. Between dinner invites and holiday parties, you may be expected to provide some wines.

Saturday afternoon, I traveled to Walla Walla, Wash., where the good folks from Ste. Michelle Wine Estates put on an event that was, shall we say, rather interesting.

It also was the hardest ticket to get in town.

I stopped by at J. Bookwalter this morning to chat with owner/winemaker John Bookwalter. He was, quite literally, on the sorting line going through 10 tons of Cabernet Sauvignon from McKinley Springs Vineyard in the Horse Heaven Hills.

In fact, as I write this, John and his crew likely still are sorting that fruit, as they can go through about a ton to a ton-and-a-half of fruit per hour, double-sorting for leaves, sunburned grapes, etc.

Lettie Teague of Food & Wine mag has written a delicious article on how she created a counterfeit '82 Mouton to fool snooty wine people. The wine used: Andrew Will from Washington's Vashon Island.

This evening, I was grilling tri tips and Peruvian purple potatoes grown in Eltopia, Wash. This called for a robust red wine, so I went to the cellar and picked out a Fidelitas Wines 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon, Walla Walla Valley.

I've written on a number of occasions recently that demand for Washington Syrah would seem to be slowing down. This comes from retailers who see a greater interest in blends, as well as winemakers who have decided to stop making it.

A few weeks ago, Wine Press Northwest collected about 75 Northwest Italian reds, wines that use traditionally Italian varieties such as Sangiovese, Nebbiolo, Barbera, Zinfandel, Primitivo and Dolcetto.

As a follow-up to last week's blog item about how interest in Syrah appears to be waning in the marketplace, I got the following note from Chuck LeFevre, owner of Esquin Wine Merchants in Seattle.