WBW #34: Washington Wines

Hello everyone! Today is Wine Blogging Wednesday (WBW) and today, we’re also the Featured Blog here in Typepad-land. If you’re not familiar with WBW, let me introduce you.

Back in July of 2004, Lenn Thompson of LennDevours proposed the excellent idea of a virtual tasting party. It’s not a true tasting, as we’re all trying different things. But once a month, across the Internet, bloggers taste wine within a certain theme and then share the tasting notes online. One lucky blogger gets to host WBW, which means they pick the theme and compile all the submissions a few days later. You certainly don’t have to be a wine & food blogger to participate. I joined WBW tastings before I ever launched the wine blog. Heck, you don’t even have to blog. You can just taste your wine and email your notes to the host. It’s a great way to find and try new wines. Interested? Good. Next month’s theme hasn’t been announced yet, but watch this space. We’ll announce it soon.

This month’s hostess is Catie, the Walla Walla Wine Woman, who requested that we each try a cabernet from her home, Washington State. Kevin & I cheated a little, as we had a difficult time finding a Washington cab that wasn’t from Chateau Ste. Michelle or Columbia Crest. I wanted something a little different, and we ended up with the Matthews Claret, recommended by our Party Town wine guy, JP.

2003 Matthews Cellars Columbia Valley Claret , $25

This wine is a blend of 52% Merlot, 44% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Malbec. The wine was aged in previously used French oak barrels for 14 months.

The nose had a lot of plum and jammy qualities, with a slight bit of chalk. This was without a doubt a wine meant for food, as the wine felt like it stuck to your teeth. But it stood well on its own. There were mineral qualities throughout, reflecting the Bordeaux style of the wine. There were also a lot of plum, cherry, and berry notes.

We chose our food well – and we chose simply. A nice steak lightly seasoned with pepper and garlic. The tannins in the wine grabbed onto the steak and it was delicious. After dinner, I tried the wine with some dark chocolate. I was surprised that the darkness of the wine disappeared with the chocolate, leaving mostly raspberries.

We paid more than we wanted to for the wine. This time it was worth it. In fact, this wine tasted like it cost more than $25, which is always a pleasant surprise. The wine reminded Kevin of a cool fall evening. To me, it was brisk, like fall leaves blowing across a sidewalk. Was it too much for a hot summer night? With a nice steak dinner and the air conditioning, it was the perfect reminder of seasons to come.
Our rating:

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One Response to “WBW #34: Washington Wines”

1. RLS says:

   June 15, 2007 at 4:42 pm

   Matthews Cellars makes some incredible reds. The new 100 percent Cab Franc is a mind-blower, altho a little pricey… somewhere north of $70 per when it’s released.