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Good Wine Buys and Wine News

Blog: Living Well

October 18, 2009

Have you noticed?

I'm surprised there hasn't been a major news report about this, but perhaps the scientific community is keeping quiet about it for now. Surely you,too, have noticed that the universe is speeding up and time as we know it is slipping away at an alarming rate. Didn't you notice that September flew by, and now October is doing the same? At this rate we will be able to prepare one meal to serve both Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner at the same time, and that new wine you bought will be properly aged.

At the same time, the wine bargains at Grocery Outlet are quickly disappearing. The G.O. is a popular stop for those of us looking for affordable wines in these days of bargain hunting and budget restrictions. While most of the wines are just what they seem to be--lesser quality at a lesser price--some are true good buys. The G.O. wine person, based in California, looks far and wide for wines which are, for one reason or another, being offered at excellent prices. If a distributor goes out of business or a winery changes labels or ownership, that stock is usually sold off at a very low price and places like G.O. buy it and resell it at good prices for their customers.

Recently we found the ForestGlen Reserve Merlot 2003 from Sonoma CA at $7.99. It was excellent, especially after decanting. Only six were left on the shelf as of Saturday noon.

Pacific Oasis, another label, has two varieties on the shelves: unoaked Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. We both liked the Chard and Alex liked the Pinot. I thought it was "too Pinot-y", as though special effort had been made to give it a heavy barnyard aroma and flavor--not that I've really tasted a barnyard flavor, but you get the idea. Having mucked out a few horse barns and cow stalls in my youth, I am familiar with barnyard aromas.

We also saw a Napa Chardonnay called Joya, but haven't tried it. If anyone does, I'd appreciate a comment on it.

The WA State Liquor Store on N. Wenatchee Ave. has increased and improved its selection of wines. For instance, Kiona has a Red Mountain Zinfandel for around $15. Maybe this is common knowledge, but not for us. So much has been going on in our area these past few years that we have somewhat lost track of the rest of the state.

A good way to see what wines are on sale in the state is to go to the WSLCB site. I think the local store will still order in a case of something if they are out of it.

A little news came my way the other day, and although it may be old stuff by now, it's news to me. Did you read the WinepressNW list of top WA cabs? Wedge Mountain’s 2006 Red Mountain Cab Sauv was on the recommended list, as was Rob Newsom's 2005 Reserve Cab. And the Wedge Mountain hasn't even been bottled yet, but is just winding up its 1000 days in new French oak. It will be bottled soon and in the market in a few months. We're looking forward to it.

One of the more recent wineries to open in our area is Chuck Egner and Frank Dechaine's 37 Cellars, up here in Leavenworth.

We went up this week to pick up some wine and watched them crush their last load of grapes. We wanted to take some pictures, too, but someone had left the camera at home.

Fortunately, the day was not a loss, for Chuck just happened to have wine and glasses sitting on a barrel near the crush. Although our teeth were chattering, we managed to sip our way through the delicious 2008 Chardonnay and the wonderful-though-chilled reds: the 2007 three-blend Trio (I think I was just redundant there), the 2007 Merlot and 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon. It was an unexpected treat, as Chuck and Frank were really working hard--too hard, in fact, for them to pause and play and sing my favorite song, Aragon Mill (Let me brush away a tear or two here; it's a mournful song and Chuck has a real way with it.) They did play it for us a few days later when we went to view the pictures they had taken with their camera!

Of course these wines are not G.O. bargains; they are comparable in price to other area wines, and excellent in quality, especially for such young reds. It's exciting to see what new wines are coming out of our immediate area these days; even better is tasting them and perhaps laying some down for future consumption.

If you're a Napeequa fan--and aren't we all?--don't forget the Icicle Arts/Mt.Springs Lodge October 28 Jubilee:

Up in Manson, Ray Sandidge, noted area winemaker for his family's CR Sandidge Wines and for Lake Chelan Winery and KarMa Vineyards ,has opened a tasting room.

And November 7, 2009 from 2:30pm - 5:00 pm, Vin du Lac in Chelan will be celebrating the opening of its new Chelan Falls Production Facility with an open house and the release of the eagerly anticipated 2006 Barrel Select Malbec. We’re looking forward to that, too.

Our Atlanta son who was here for a few days commented, as we were arranging our schedule so as to get him to Pangborn on time and still get home in time to put in a few hours at the Ryan Patrick tasting room before going on to help out at the Democrats' annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner, "You sure do keep busy out here. Is it like this all the time?"

We were happy to say, "Yes," for I had just read a NY Times piece about a number of retired people who seem to be just sitting around, waiting to die. Who has time for that? There's new wine out there to be discovered, events to attend and interesting people to meet. I hope we see you at some of these events. Come up and say hello.

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