BLOGS

Nefarious Cellars is the only North Central Washington winery to show up on Wine Enthusiast magazine's list of 2012's Top 100 wines. The list was released on the Internet Wednesday.

The magazine gave Nefarious Cellar's 2011 Stone's Throw Vineyard Estate Grown Riesling 94 points and put it at number 55 on it list of the world's best wines sampled by its reviewers this year.

"This marvelous, off-dry Riesling, from an estate vineyard just outside the Lake Chelan AVA, is built upon delicately-woven threads of lemon, orange, apricot and cantaloupe, with a smattering of spun sugar," Editors wrote. "Nefarious just keeps going from strength to strength." The wine sells for $18.

Dean and Heather Neff planted a test vineyard in the Methow Valley in 1998, purchased property above Lake Chelan in 2001 and opened their winery in 2006. The awards — for their reds as well as white wines — increasingly often ever since.

An amazing 10 Washington wines made the Top 100 list, showing that Washington is definitely improving its stature in the wine world and among the magazine's wine reviewers who sampled more than 15,500 world wines this year.

Four Washington wines were picked for Wine Spectator Magazine's recently released Top 100 list. None were from NCW, but it's just a matter of time.

Two wines from Milbrandt Vineyards in Mattawa were picked for Wine Spectator's list of 100 Outstanding Values. Milbrandt 2010 Traditions Cabernet Sauvignon at $15 and its 2010 Traditions Riesling, $13, both scored 90 points. Several other Washington wines that source their grapes from the Wahluke Slope also made the lists.

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