The Wine Knows

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.

I've begun to wonder what has happened to all the buzz about Syrah, that luscious red grape whose ancestral home is France's Northern Rhone Valley?

In the past decade, interest in Syrah has skyrocketed in the Pacific Northwest, with more than 200 different examples coming out of Washington, Oregon, British Columbia and Idaho.

I could not be more jazzed about our big judging Friday for the Fall issue of Wine Press Northwest. We've gathered about 70 Italian red varieties from throughout the Northwest.

I figured we'd end up with a lot of Sangiovese and a bit of Zin and the odd Nebbiolo. Here's how it stands at the moment (with a couple of more wines showing up Thursday morning:

Doug Charles of Compass Wines in Anacortes, Wash., announced in an email blast to customers today that Quilceda Creek Vintners in Snohomish, Wash., has earned another perfect 100 from The Wine Advocate, Robert Parker's publication.

A guy in our office endured a faux pas a couple of weeks ago that I'm certain will make you squirm.

This guy - we'll call him "Joe" - doesn't know a lot about wine. He was in a very nice Thai restaurant with his girlfriend. This particular restaurant has a reputation for its great wine list.

Last night, I opened Lost Mountain Winery's 2004 RainForest Red, a Bordeaux-style blend of Cab, Merlot and Cab Franc. It went perfectly with the grilled flank steak I was preparing.

A number of folks out there think that just because I love wine, write about it, collect it and even grow wine grapes in my backyard, perhaps someday I'd like to make my own wine, perhaps start a winery.

If I'm alone, I laugh it off with a line I heard from wine writer Bob Woehler: "I learned long ago that I'm better at drinking the stuff than making it."

If I'm with my wife, I shout: "No way! I'd never take on such an endeavor!" before she has the chance to give me the hairy eyeball.

As a journalist, I get a fair number of pitches from public relation types for stories and/or coverage. Via email, I'd say they number two dozen per day. I receive two to four daily by mail and an occasional phone call.

What arrived today was easily one of the most bizarre. The fact I'm writing about it probably proves it served its purpose and perhaps its expense.

Over the weekend, I opened two bottles of wine made by Charlie Hoppes, longtime Washington winemaker.

The first was a Fidelitas Wines 2002 Optu, a Meritage-style red. The second was a new release, Goose Ridge's 2005 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.

Steve Lessard, winemaker for Whitman Cellars in Walla Walla, Wash., has released a wine under his own label, Corvus Cellars.