Had a fantastic weekend - Seattle is absolutely amazing in the fall. Crisp, beautiful, and just so clear you can see every mountain peak from downtown. LOVE IT! It is also harvest/crush time in the PNW - so we decided to head out to Woodinville this weekend to see how things are coming at a few of our favorite spots. There is always a distinct odor in the Wine Ghetto storage units - and a lot of guys running around in rubber boots eagerly awaiting the grape delivery from Red Mountain or other vineyards over east of the Cascades. In particular we stopped in at Darby Winery, Patterson, and of course ANC. ANC just has a tasting room in Woodinville but the staff are fantastic and happily were pouring hte Block 17 Syrah. Delicious and perfect red for fall. Darby has a couple newbies one of which we tested out - btw this guy makes the MOST amazing white - Le Deuce - just creamy, spicy like fall, and just worth every penny. Ok back to reds - new wine from Darby - '07 Swagger - big guns, this guy definitely needs a bit more time in the bottle but has a nose that is full of promise. We also tried the Aunt Lee Syrah which was fantastic. Only open on weekends - if you are in Washington make sure to stop by this winery.
We ended up getting back into California this weekend - finally - and found a couple really amazing bottles that were just out of this world. Paired beautifully with dinner (beef stout pot pie, fresh garden salad, and tarte tatin) and really made our weekend. Here is what we found:
Demetria 2006 Estate Grown Viognier - Santa Ynez Valley
Beautiful, creamy, apricot nose - wish I had a case of this wine - my favorite wine maker Michael Roth!! When the bottle was empty we tried to scrape the last few drops out - worked really well with the green salad we put together (roasted garlic feta vinaigrette yum!!) and the crab stuffed mushrooms our pals brought over.
Larkmead 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon - Napa Valley
Big, bold, decanted for just about 2 hours and it was still huge. Thank you Jamie for bringing this gem over it was fantastic!! Paired perfectly with the beef stout pot pie - toned down the beef a bit and this was definitely lick the glass delicious.
Zaca Mesa 2004 Estate Grown Syrah - Santa Ynez Valley
Still huge! Very spicy and lots of that big tobacco that my hubby and I always notice with the hot climate Syrahs from California. Had it after dinner and probably would have been better with food - just a lot of tannins still hanging out. Regardless we loved it and wish we had another bottle!!
Thanks for reading all - signing off for now - that brings us up to 5ish bottles from California 25 to go. We are going camping this weekend up in the North Cascades so if you have any suggestions as to what we should bring with us in the freezing north send them our way!!!
