Sometimes you get depressed when you realize you've stayed around long enough to realize how good it once was and compare it to what it has become.
Unfortunately, this Hogue is in that category.
Hogue used to be one of the shining stars of the Washington wine revolution. Under founder Mike Hogue (of the longtime Columbia Valley orchard family) Hogue managed to snag some great winemakers, and it consistently made wine of the highest caliber. It was the odds on favorite for quite a while to be one of the "breakout" wines of Washington to help establish it on the national wine scene.
It was, in part, what attracted me to leave Texas and relocate to the Washington area. My wife, for twenty years a resident in the Columbia, and deeply involved in the entire wine business, was friends with all the Hogue crew, and she and I promoted them at every opportunity as a winery to watch closely.
That was then.
Now, Hogue has been sold (twice by my latest count) and it changed from a pioneer of quality and distinction to just another place producing mediocre wine in large quantities. And that's sad.
This wine? Could have been just about anything, from anywhere, by anyone. Had a bit of vague lemony character, perhaps a hint of muddled herbal, but not a whole lot else. It is a monument to insipidity.
It's not the fruit source. The Sauvignon Blanc in the Columbia Valley is pretty damned good, as is the Semillon (although there's less of that now). Nope, this is just winemaking to the lowest level of blah to fill bottles.
And, as I said, that's sad.