Kevin White Blue LabelEvery now and then, a wine comes along that sits at a rare nexus of high quality, exceptional pricing, and limited availability. When that happens, it’s time to pull the alarm for an Emergency Wine Review: one that simply can’t wait for the next review cycle.

Today we have the fourth wine in this series. (See one, two, and three.) It’s a bittersweet one: the 2024 Kevin White ‘Blue Label’ Red Wine Yakima Valley.

Kevin White Winery introduced its ‘Blue Label’ wine in the 2014 vintage. (It’s not actually labeled ‘Blue Label’; it just has a blue label.) The wine has traditionally come from declassified barrels and the excellent vineyard sources that the winery works with.

Is Kevin White’s Blue Label consistently the best Washington Rhône value? Yes. The best overall red value from the state? Quite possibly.

The 2024 offering of the Kevin White Winery Blue Label is particularly noteworthy for three big reasons. First, this is the last Blue Label wine that is being made. Kevin White Winery is shutting down in March.

Second, winemaker Kevin White knew that 2024 would be his last vintage, so he only took in fruit from a limited number of vineyards. White also only produced his other wines in limited quantities that he pre-sold. This means, in both cases, that the 2024 offering has even higher quality fruit than it would normally have.

Third, the 2024 vintage was stellar in the Columbia Valley. As a result, this is the best Blue Label wine Kevin White Winery has ever made, and that is saying something. See the full review below.

The catch? (There’s always a catch.) This year’s offering was pre-sold at the winery. It sold out in 48 hours. There will be no additional tasting room sales.

A limited amount of the wine also goes into distribution. At retail – where it will be available imminently – it sells out near-immediately.

Some is also sold via Full Pull Wines, a Seattle-based e-retailer. (See previous articles about Full Pull here and here and here.) Full Pull will be offering the 2024 Kevin White Blue Label Monday, January 26th at 10 a.m. If you are not already on Full Pull’s email list, now is the time to join to buy this wine. (I can’t recommend Full Pull highly enough. My wife and I buy a lot of wine from them each year.)

Bottom line, Kevin White’s Blue Label always sells out essentially instantaneously. But the last-ever offering of this wine? It’s going to sell out even faster.

Think case purchase – or more – as availability and your budget allow. You will not regret it. It’s one of the best Washington wine values that you will see, ever.

Moreover, once this wine is sold out, the Kevin White Blue Label will be gone forever. It will simply be one of the tales that Washington wine lovers tell their children.

“Once upon a time, there was a wine of such absurd quality, value, and scarcity…”

NB: The 2024 Kevin White ‘Blue Label’ Red Wine Yakima Valley was recently bottled. I’d give it another two months before opening to let it fully settle in and deliver all that it has to offer.

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At Northwest Wine Report, all scores come from blind tastings in varietal/style sets. Read more about this site’s process for rating and reviewing wines. See the Northwest Wine Report rating system and special designations. Read about how to interpret scores. See a list of recently reviewed producers.

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