Sean P. Sullivan's Northwest Wine Report

The pendulum in Washington has been swinging far and wide of late. 2010 saw the coolest vintage since 1999. 2011 was even cooler still, for some growers, their coolest vintage on record. 2012 was then a year that tracked to 20-year heat accumulation averages. 2013 was one of the warmest years on record. 2014 has been warmer still and for many sites, their warmest vintage on record.

The white wines from each of these vintages have been reflective of these differences. 2010 and 2011 brought some thrilling white wines, some of the best I've had from the state, with good intensity of fruit flavors and noticeably higher acid levels (read a summary of 2010 whites and a summary of 2011 whites). The 2012 white wines meanwhile were markedly higher in alcohol than recent years, with many labeled north of 14%. The reasons for this are not entirely clear given how average the year was in terms of heat accumulation. Still, a great many high quality white wines were produced that vintage, with Chardonnay in particular showing well (read a summary of 2012 whites).

Today’s Fresh Sheet – reviews of new and recent releases – includes wines from Kevin White Winery, Kerloo Cellars, Brian Carter Cellars, Columbia Crest, Long Shadows project wines, Guardian Cellars, Maryhill Winery and more.
Note: These are reviews for wines received and sampled prior to October 1^st when my responsibilities changed for Wine Enthusiast to cover all of Washington.

The November issue of Wine Enthusiast has an article I wrote on the The Rocks District of Milton-Freewater appellation proposal. The October issue of Alaska Airlines magazine has an article on touring west coast wine regions (Note: the link opens a .pdf). Finally, as previously noted, the October issue of Seattle Metropolitan contains this year's Top 100 Washington wines as well as a number of other articles.

Enjoy!

A round-up of stories on Northwest wine from October 1st to 7th. Read previous round-ups here.

From around the world…

Decanter writes about Oregon’s ‘juggernaut’ vintage.

Business Day Live writes about Portland’s urban wineries.

The Guardian writes about Hedges.

This year's Top 100 Washington wines from Seattle Metropolitan magazine is now available on-line. If you have not already picked up a hard copy, which is still available on newsstands, you can read the electronic version here.

The article is broken up into a series of sublists with "jump to" sections below the introduction. In addition to the Top 100, there are also articles on the top wines under $25 and under $15, The Rocks region, and how to taste 700 wines in 13 days.

Enjoy!

While 2014 has been another warm year in Washington, many grape growers in particular are quite pleased with the results.

“From a growers perspective, everything went right,” said Kent Waliser of Sagemoor Vineyards. “Consider, except for a few isolated exceptions, we had no fall freeze last year, no winter damage, no frost damage, no real disease pressure, warm steady growing weather, good fruit set, generally resulting in larger berries which has resulted in tonnages higher than estimated.” Waliser noted that this was a considerable difference from the previous four years.

A round-up of stories on Northwest wine from September 22^nd to 30^th. Read previous round-ups here.

From around the world…

Ottawa Citizen recommends the Michelle Brut.


From around the country…

ESPN talks with Drew Bledsoe of Doubleback.