Kevin White of Kevin White Winery by Richard Duval

40+ wines reviewed below and in the database, including the latest from Amos Rome, Avennia, Balsall Creek, Devison, Frank the Tank, Itä, Kevin White, Reali, Ridgecrest, Sagemoor, and Tsillan.

As I’ve written previously, Kevin White Winery will be closing in March. The wines reviewed below include the winery’s final offerings. It is the best lineup of wines that the winery has produced to date, and that is saying something.

For the last 15 years, Kevin White Winery has firmly established itself as one of the top wineries in Washington, with exceptional wines made in a distinctive style. The wines, to my palate, were somewhat of a descendant, stylistically speaking, of the wines of Jon Meuret at Maison Bleue. They brought a shared sense of purity and clarity.

That said, Kevin White had had its own voice. Nothing else in Washington tastes like the wines from Kevin White Winery. It is perhaps the highest compliment that I could give.

Earlier this month, I spoke with White about a variety of topics. I’ve included snippets of that conversation below.

On how Kevin White Winery came out so strong out of the gate:

“I think it really stemmed from two things. First, tasting a lot and having an opinion early on. What wine tastes good to you? Then, trying to learn as much as you can from as many people as possible.”

On the 2024 vintage, the winery’s final one:

“I remember barrel sampling those a couple months after we barreled them down, and they were just stellar. They were tasting great right off the bat.”

“‘24 reminds me of a mix of the ‘15, ‘18, and ‘22 vintages. There’s just really beautiful fruit, but they are really powerful and concentrated in their own way. There’s a little bit of that savoriness. That’s across the board, so it’s clearly a vintage characteristic.”

On closing the winery:

“We definitely feel like we ran the race. We had a great time, really proud of the 15 vintages.”

“I’m really happy with where we’re landing. I’m really happy with the last release of wines, and I’m really excited to see how people react to them and how they like them.”

Why customers responded so strongly to the Kevin White Winery wines over the years:

“If you have great quality for a great price, people really appreciate that. That’s a little bit easier said than done. Being able to operate at my scale to make really high quality wine at the amounts I was making – even at the top, which was maybe 2500 cases – is very different than having a lot of wine in distribution.”

“Authenticity is something that guests and customers love. You can’t really fake it, but if you have it and you’re obsessed enough to really go down the rabbit hole and learn as much as you can, and really kind of bring your own personality and your own perspective to it, people love it.”

On how to make top quality wine:

“Great wine isn’t made by the big decisions. Great wine is made by every tiny little decision. And if you are not paranoid about everything, with a point of view that’s backed up and have people that you can talk to, you’re probably not going to get out of it what you want to get out of it. The rest is like a lot of science at the beginning and a lot of art at the end.”

On the influence of Kevin White Winery:

“I don’t know if I have a sense of what I think the impact is, but I think I have a sense of what I hope people saw that we were able to achieve. I think that maybe, in a little way, we showed others that you can kind of branch out. We can try to make some more reserved wines. We can take inspiration from different parts of the world.”

“I really value the relationships that I had with lots of different folks in the industry, and I learned a lot from them. Maybe some folks can say they learned a little bit from me too.”

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The wines reviewed below also include the first red releases from Reali. I’ve written about Reali previously. The winery has its own estate vineyard in Walla Walla Valley, with long-time valley winemaker Serge Laville making the wines. The inaugural red releases are statements for this new producer. Seek them out.

The reviews below also include a set of Cabernet Sauvignons from Sagemoor Estates. I’ll have a separate article dedicated to Sagemoor coming up, but the direction that the winery has gone with these wines is very exciting.

Sagemoor has 2021 vintage Cabernet Sauvignons from Bacchus/Dionysus, Southwind, and Weinbau vineyards. It has 2022 Cabernets from Bacchus, Dionysus, and Gamache. This allows for one of best direct site comparisons that I’ve seen to date for Cabernet Sauvignon from Washington. The wines almost demand a tasting party with your friends to compare and contrast.

Without further ado.

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