WTN: And that's a wrap

[Jenise]

2011 Efeste Final-Final Columbia Valley Red Blend
Recent auction buy based on having liked the Final-Finals young plus finding a lot to love in certain 2011's of late. And it did not disappoint! Complex dark fruits, dust and mint; a beautiful integration of two grapes (cabernet and syrah) that should be combined more often. And something of a masterpiece in that there were no evident pyrazines yet this was a very weird, cold vintage in which in many cases wineries had like one week between the grapes getting just ripe enough in late Oct or Nov and when the frosts came.

It's becoming kind of 'a thing' in the Northwest since so many wineries make both Cabernet and Syah, but IMO a marketing opportunity is being missed in that we don't have a name for it. Think CT--categorically there are Bordeaux blends and there are Red Rhone blends, but if it's Cab-Syrah you're on your own. Without going down the Meritage path, you'd think someone would come up with something.

Btw, the name on this one, Final-Final, came from an in-house joke the first time they made this wine. The winemaker kept tinkering. Someone would ask is it final yet, and he'd answer 'yes' and then change his mind. Or something like that. Only when he said it was FINAL-final did they bottle it. And the name stuck.

[David M. Bueker]

Done Done instead of just Done.

I always thought the Australians should have called cab/syrah blends an 'Australian blend' or something like that as they were the first to make that blend in any significant numbers.

[Jenise]

Unfortunately, if that had happened and Aussie had been in the name it might have scared the snobs off even more, fearing something gobby like Mollydooker vs. something more durable like Bin 386. As it is the WA wineries that make it give it proprietary names, so well-made wines like this get treated like stepchildren.