One of my colleagues at work is fortunate (?!) enough to have been born into a family that now owns one of the premier vineyards in the state -- along with a top notch winery. Thanks to him, we've become acquainted with them -- and know that whenever we see a wine made from their grapes, there's a good chance it's going to be good. After all, in order to make great wine, you've got to start with great grapes.
The vineyard in question is DeBrul vineyard -- and although tonight's wine wasn't completely sourced from there, since it's a weekday, after all, my quest for a DeBrul wine led me to tonight's bottle.
I was looking for the 2004 DeBrul Vineyard Reserve from Lone Canary Winery (http://www.lonecanary.com/techsheets/04DuBrul.pdf), which a mutual friend had discovered. It's an award winning blend of Merlot & Cabernet Sauvingon made & bottled by Lone Canary, which is clear on the other side of the state in Spokane. My quest led me to Malt & Vine (www.maltandvine.com <http://www.maltandvine.com/> ) here in Redmond, which has a wide selection of Lone Canary wines, including a couple of bottles of the DeBrul, which I bought.
I also found, in their "under $20" rack, a bottle of the Lone Canary "Bird House Red", an American style blend of Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Sangiovese. These days, I like pretty much anything with Syrah & Sangiovese in it (and this one is 16% sourced from DeBrul...), and so I decided to pick this up to have with dinner. I wasn't disappointed -- a nice nose with hints of berry and chocolate, with a spicy/smoky finish that I've come to love. It went along really well with the Braised Pork Belly I had waiting in the fridge (I finished the belly with a nice sear before serving, so maybe it was a Seared Braised Pork Belly?).
Anyway, I went looking for one DeBrul sourced weekend wine -- and found an outstanding table wine too.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Bottle Shock!
We went to see Bottle Shock on Friday at the Big Picture in Redmond.
Bottle Shock is a dramatization of the events surrounding what is probably the one of the most significant events that ever happened for wines made outside of France, since it marks the point at which the world starting taking American, and eventually many other countries' wines, seriously.
The event, for those who aren't aware, was a blind side by side tasting of French and Californian wines staged by a British wine shop (and school) owner (played by Alan Rickman) in France. In an effort to expand his business outside of just French wines, he traveled Napa Valley, selecting and bringing back a selection of Californian wines to put up against the best that France had to offer.
To make a long story short, the French wine snob...err... experts chose the wines that they were certain were the French ones (since no non-French wine could, of course, be worthy of drinking). When all was said and done, though, the top wines in both the white and red categories were from California.
The world of wine has never been the same since. The movie, which got 3 1/2 stars from Roger Ebert, does a great job of connecting with the viewer -- go see it!
When we were there, the Big Picture was serving glasses of the current vintage of the winning wines, but we thought the $25/glass for the Stags Leap Artemis Cabernet was a bit too pricey - especially since it goes for about $55/bottle in wine shops.
One gripe -- it would've been nice if they had mentioned Washington at the end of the movie when they plugged New Zealand and other places. I mean, after all, Washington is #2 in premium wine production...
Bottle Shock is a dramatization of the events surrounding what is probably the one of the most significant events that ever happened for wines made outside of France, since it marks the point at which the world starting taking American, and eventually many other countries' wines, seriously.
The event, for those who aren't aware, was a blind side by side tasting of French and Californian wines staged by a British wine shop (and school) owner (played by Alan Rickman) in France. In an effort to expand his business outside of just French wines, he traveled Napa Valley, selecting and bringing back a selection of Californian wines to put up against the best that France had to offer.
To make a long story short, the French wine snob...err... experts chose the wines that they were certain were the French ones (since no non-French wine could, of course, be worthy of drinking). When all was said and done, though, the top wines in both the white and red categories were from California.
The world of wine has never been the same since. The movie, which got 3 1/2 stars from Roger Ebert, does a great job of connecting with the viewer -- go see it!
When we were there, the Big Picture was serving glasses of the current vintage of the winning wines, but we thought the $25/glass for the Stags Leap Artemis Cabernet was a bit too pricey - especially since it goes for about $55/bottle in wine shops.
One gripe -- it would've been nice if they had mentioned Washington at the end of the movie when they plugged New Zealand and other places. I mean, after all, Washington is #2 in premium wine production...
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