WTN: Van Westen, Abeja, Felsina and a Cahors

[Jenise]

2013 Van Westen Vineyards Viognier Okanagan Valley
WOW. My husband chose this wine (a gift from a friend) from the cooler so I was tasting blind, and it's all kind of wonderful that I did not recognize it as Viognier. It has the intense minerality of Okanagan terroir, concentrated yellow fruit, good body, and the acidity to complete the package. And even better, it lacks the old lady perfume that ruins most No American versions of the grape. Vivid, stylish, compelling, outstanding.

2003 Abeja Cabernet Sauvignon Columbia Valley
Purchased on release. Powerful as befits the vintage, youthful and a nice drinking wine for sure. But here's the problem: it's kind of a stagnant youthfulness. It seems frozen in time. That is: the wine has merely gotten chronologically older without evolving, without developing the satisfying secondary nuances I crave in aged cabernet. IOW, there was really no point in cellaring this past the 5-7 year mark where it lost it's baby fat. It got that far and no further, and that's a common problem in WA state reds though not all end up this way. I really appreciated that the 99 Matthews we opened last weekend had true aged panache. Anyway, I bought Abeja in 03, 04 and 05 and then stopped--sensing that these didn't have the kind of potential I like, and none of the vintages has. Good move.

2009 Fattoria di Fèlsina Berardenga Chianti Classico Chianti Classico
A bit better than the thinnish bottle of 6/15 but nonetheless lackluster and not at all what I hope for from a Felsina.

2005 Le Clos d'un Jour Cahors
What? In ten years nobody else has TN'd this wine on Cellar Tracker? I bought it in the States, it's not like it was something rare I drug home in my luggage. I can't be the only one who bought it! But I digress. Inky black, firm and dense, delicious, rewards food, very good but probably not peaking for 3-5 more years. I marvel every time I taste a Cahor at the difference between Cahorian and Argentinian malbecs--it's so not even close. I'll put the drinking window out to 2020 on my remaining bottle. Not that anyone will be looking at it....

[David M. Bueker]

I am puzzled by your Felsina note. Their 2009s are quite ripe through the range. Shut down?

[Jenise]

I'm puzzled too. would have expected this basic bottling from a warm vintage to be wide open/ready. but I didn't buy on release, instead purchased them about 18 months ago from a Seattle retailer, so provenance could be an issue.

Le Clos d'un Jour uses terracotta amphorae to mature its cuvée Un Jour sur Terre and there are reports that the results are excellent. Do you know if yours saw terracotta or just conventional barrels?

[Jenise]

Tim, I'm SO glad you asked because you made me research it and yes, it did, and in fact that's what intrigued me into buying the two bottles I have. None of which I remembered when I opened the bottle because it was sold as 'Cahors Terra Cotta" and not "Le Clos..." so I didn't connect the dots when it arrived (a long time later) and I inventoried it. You solved a mystery! Here's the sales blurb:

"Hand turned, 100 liter terra cotta jars are made in Carcassonne
(expressly for this wine) from earth extracted from the region. The
jars are like old olive oil vats but the clay/earth is fresh and
porous. The neutral nature of the jars does not impart flavor to the
wine but it does allow it to ever so slowly oxygenate and begin a
metamorphosis into a Cahors unlike any other. The wine usually spends
anywhere from 18 months to 30 months "in jar" until it is done (yes, I
use the word "done", like a roast chicken). The Cot grapes are grown
completely by hand with organic methods and picked berry by berry for
this wine. Some have seeds manually separated and skins manually
separated for a proprietary mix of whole grapes, skinless and
seedless. The wine is completely vinified with wild yeast and is as
traditional as it gets. The labor cost involved in producing this
elixir is so high that they should be charging at least $50-75 but
they choose not to.

The resulting wine seeks a balance between the soil, the plant, the
climate, and the environment to create wines that are the reflection
of all the elements combined and not of the winemaker or process. In
a vintage like 2005, the wine literally made itself and the massive,
dark black oil that will emanate from the clay jars will be
memorable. Thick and viscous, with a presence that is akin to
liquefied black felt with incredible, weighty balance and fresh
acidity - this is as real as it gets ... While unforgettable
and experimental to drink in youth, this wine should age into a
mysterious expression of a place you and I will rarely have the
pleasure to experience."

I'm less of a fan of BC wine than you are, but I admit there are some lovely exceptions to the (my?) rule. The Van Western viognier sounds like one of them!

I'm beginning to wonder about the longevity of WA reds too. As you say, I'm not sure a great majority of them really improve over time, in terms of getting secondary and tertiary characteristics like Old World wines. Why would that happen? Young vines? Too much fruit and/or oak? Climate/terroir issues (e.g., is it too hot)? Teething pains in terms of winemaking?

[Jenise]

John, let me set the record straight: I'm a big fan of Okanagan whites--love that overt minerality and what it does for wines like this viognier (a grape I typically don't care for). On average, the quality is very high and I don't think, now that you mention it, that any other source of white wines in North America comes close--we certainly don't get this kind of across-the-board quality in Washington. Oregon also produces stunning whites, but without much variety among grape types. California makes a lot of great whites but the bright spots are diluted by boatloads of extracted, flabby, high alcohol dreck. All this from someone who would rather drink Chablis than anything else.

As for reds, the OK is a long way behind the rest but for Le Vieux Pin and La Stella. So that kinda sums up my feelings.

But yes, weird about Abeja and similar wineries. I don't understand the differences, though I'm thinking oak plays a big part as does emphasis on huge showy fruit NOW. And I don't understand reds priced at $50 and up when the wines don't even strive for successful secondary development. By that measure alone I think $30 should be about top for that style of wine.

Wines I've had that have developed well: DeLille, Quilceda Creek, Cayuse, Betz, Columbia (when it was David Lake), Woodward Canyon (I just picked up an 89 Charbonneau at auction, out of curiosity since Doug's 89 Dedication Series wines have aged so well), and Matthews (loved a 99 a few weeks ago). Some older Andrew Will Sorellas have shown well, and then there are wineries like Col Solare who used to make an ageable style but don't any more--not sure what changed. I have some 05 Boudreaux that is aging well, and the winemaker is someone whose head is in the right place to make the style we value.

A major problem is that most of the wineries aren't making wine for people like you and me. I have a new friend who is a VERY successful blogger: she gets all expenses paid weekends at Taste of this and Taste of that, and cartons of wine show up at her doorstep gratis. YET, get this, she really only likes Cabernet Sauv and Franc, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris. That's it, four grapes, and basically none of the rest. When she blogs about the wines she likes she uses the descriptors big, rich and robust over and over. She picks up well on quality and we agree on many wines, but her palate does not discern or dislike high alcohol or excess oak and she likes a lot of wines I don't. But she's a person of influence, and I'm not. There are more buyers like her and fewer like me and you. As long as that's the case, nothing will change.

SELL OUT! SELL OUT! SELL OUT!

come on, Jenise! Think about those cartons of oak goop you could get for free!

[Jenise]

She's not a sell-out, though, she's completely sincere about what she likes (though I don't believe she's taken any pains to point out what she doesn't like). OH, big thing I should have mentioned, she doesn't age any wines. When I opened the Matthews 99 two weekends ago, she'd never seen sediment in a bottle before. She didn't know what that dark stain in the bottle was. And as such, she has more in common with the average Washington wine buyer than I do.