Canadian friends dropped by Friday night with a bottle of wine and one thing led to another (as they do). They brought the just-released 2008 Blue Mountain Pinot Blanc (cream label), one of those exemplary Pinot Blancs they do up in the Okanagan Valley that's unlike the flabby chardonnay-wannabe's we see from Oregon. Lemon, apple, pear, loquat, beeswax and a touch of fresh basil were there on a very taut frame full of delightful acids. I enjoyed the wine immensely, but this is really one to hold and drink 3 to 7 years out.
To prove that point, I pulled the last 2003 Blue Mountain Pinot Gris (stripe label) out of my cellar. I didn't take any notes but my guests were very impressed, and I didn't have to hurry to drink this.
Curiosity spiked, we decided to check on another BC white, a bottle of 2003 Burrowing Owl Chardonnay. This was the last vintage made/supervised by Napa consultant and ex-Sterling winemaker Bill Dyer. It's not flabby but is all about buttterscotch hard candy and sherry flavors nonetheless, and it was quickly deemed unworthy of brain cell loss.
Chat turned into dinner and with our main course I stayed on theme with a 2003 Burrowing Owl Meritage. Large, broad purple black cherry and black berry cab sauv flavors greeted on first sip, but by the end of the glass some green herbs crept in and made the wine taste like 100% cab franc. Nothing wrong with cab franc, I love the grape; but the wine just didn't have that whole-greater-than-the-sum-of-the-parts thing you look for in a good Bordeaux blend, and low acidity made it seem heavy. For me, anyway. My guests loved it, so I happily left it for them and instead devoted myself to the Washington red they brought and which I preferred by a mile: a 2007 Columbia Winery Cabernet Sauvignon. Though this winery makes a number of more ambitious wines, this is their entry level cabernet and probably just a $10-12 wine so it's structured as a pop and pour, but what a sensational little old-world style pop and pour it is. Restrained red and black fruit mingle with Graves-like minerality and perfect acidity to make a perfect food wine, though I'd happily go curl up in a corner with a glass too. Killer stuff if you prefer rocks to blueberries.