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Doubleback Winery

High Scores for Doubleback’s 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon

Doubleback “Doubleback has already proven to be one of Washington’s most important ventures of the past half decade.” — Wine Enthusiast We are very excited to share the news that the current vintage of Doubleback Cabernet—2016, has been awarded 95 points by the 2019 Decanter World Wine Awards. This rating from Decanter puts Doubleback Cabernet at the top of the list of all Cabernets made in Washington State. Drew Bledsoe, Josh McDaniels, and their entire team, couldn’t be more proud to see the fruits of their labor rewarded on a global scale. The 2016 vintage has received the highest ratings across the board of any of their wines to-date. 2016 Doubleback Cabernet Sauvignon Walla Walla Valley Stephen Tanzer…………………...

DeLille

Wine Game Changes on Red Mountain

Washington's "grand cru" wine region could be about to get even better, W. Blake Gray reports.By W. Blake Gray/Wine Searcher | Posted Tuesday, 09-Apr-2019Red Mountain is one of the trendiest AVAs in the United States. Its name describes not what the mountain usually looks like – it's actually desert-gray, with green when the vines are in bloom – but what the wines usually taste like. It's famous for big, ripe Cabernets: some of the best in the country, yet much cheaper than Napa's best.But Red Mountain, a young AVA, is in transition. In 1985, there were just 60 planted acres and the site was unknown to all but the geekiest of wine fans. Now two extremely expensive projects at opposite ends of the mountain promise to permanently change its reputation in very different ways.On the very peak, which once seemed unplantable, former Microsoft executive Cam Myhrvold (brother of the food engineer Nathan) is...

Washington 2017 Whites

High Praise for Washington State Whites, including DeLille & Gramercy

Washington’s White Wine Paradox Often overshadowed by the state’s reds, the 2017 vintage shows it’s time to pay attention to Washington’s white wines. By Sean P. Sullivan In Washington’s earliest days as a grape-growing region, the state was thought too cool to successfully ripen many warm-climate red grape varieties. Subsequently, cool-climate white grapes, especially Riesling, dominated production and brought early acclaim. But as the industry developed, successful cultivation of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and others showed that red wines could also excel. This led to increased plantings, so much so that by 2013, for the first time, the majority of Washington’s grape production tilted from white varieties to red. And now, there have been several points over the past 20 years at which the state’s red wines have seemed to overshadow their white wine counterparts in focus and recognition. Today, 50 years into the state’s development as a wine producer, white bottlings seem both imperiled...

Jeb Dunnuck

Jeb Dunnuck’s Top 50 Wines of 2018 features Gramercy & Force Majeure

New AVA and new online profile by the Oregon Wine Board and the Willamette Valley Wineries Association honor uniqueness of the state’s winegrowing landscapeOregon wine lovers now have 19 reasons to celebrate Oregon’s acclaimed viticultural bio-regions. Now with the Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) having approved the Van Duzer Corridor as an official AVA, or American Viticultural Area, Oregon has 19 winemaking regions—second only to California—with sufficient distinct features to be declared their own unique areas. The Van Duzer Corridor AVA and 18 others are showcased on the Oregon Wine Board’s trade site, each paying homage to their distinctive characteristics, and the Van Duzer Corridor has joined the Willamette Valley’s other six embedded AVAs listed on the Willamette Valley Wineries Association (WVWA) site.Now that the federal government has approved the AVA, on January 14 bottles with “Van Duzer Corridor AVA” may be printed on labels from the AVA’s seven wineries nested within the Willamette...

DeLille’s 2015 Four Flags Honored as one of the “Year’s Best US Cabernets” by Wine & Spirits Magazine

Aside from the D2, DeLille's Four Flags Cabernet is one of their most popular wines. Year after year it garners high scores and praise from major critics. 94 Points     Wine Advocate "The 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Four Flags reveals and attractive bouquet of cassis, black plums, dark chocolate, warm spices and loamy soil that has already nicely integrated its 100% new oak. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, deep and layered, with a chassis of rich, fine-grained, but firm tannins, good concentration and a long, youthfully firm finish. This is very impressive and an appreciable step up above the D2 this year. It will demand several years of bottle age and enjoy two decades of longevity, perhaps more." 94 Points     Jeb Dunnuck The 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Four Flags comes from the top four vineyards in any vintage and in 2015 is 30% Grand Ciel, 30% Upchurch, 25% Ciel du Cheval, and the...

Meet Oregon’s French Winemakers

These pioneering expats have ventured to Oregon and are showing the world why this state is called the Burgundy of the Pacific Northwest.By Paul Gregutt | Posted November 7, 2018To some degree, the diversity and excellence of Oregon wines makes comparisons to Old World styles irrelevant. But those factors should not undercut the influence French-born and trained winemakers have had on the state’s success.Along with the pioneering Drouhin family, which enters its fourth decade making Oregon wine, a number of more recent arrivals have put their winemaking expertise to work in the state, which remains one of America’s leading producers of Pinot Noir.These French winemakers praise Oregon’s welcoming winemaking community and open horizons. Moreover, they seem to have a lot of fun as they revel in the palpable sense of freedom that the state’s wineries enjoy.Perhaps it’s simply the break from the constraints of tradition, but the biggest reward to leave home, and...

Larry Stone & Thomas Savre

Lingua Franca makes Wine & Spirits Top 100 List

We're pleased to announce Lingua Franca's well-earned place on Wine & Spirits Top 100 list this year, with Lingua Franca Bunker Hill and Avni Chardonnay making the year’s best Top Chardonnay list. In addition, the winery was also recently featured as one of the Wine Spectator's Rising Stars in Oregon. Earlier this month, the winery released the last two wines of the year for wholesale: Hope Well Pinot Noir 2016 and The Plow Pinot Noir 2016.The Plow has already received a 94-point score from Tim Fish of the Wine Spectator. Hope Well is a Dijon-clone PN667 expression of Mimi Casteel’s vineyard which also produces our Mimi’s Mind Pinots. It is more nuanced and delicate than The Plow, which comes primarily from Elton, the neighboring vineyard, among the oldest in the region....

Wine & Spirits Top 50 Wine's In America's Best Restaurants

Cristom’s 2015 Mt. Jefferson Cuvée is the “No. 1 Pinot Noir on the wine lists of the best restaurants in America.” by Wine & Spirits Magazine

The dining room at Bâtard in Tribeca was full at noon on a recent Tuesday, when the restaurant is usually closed. The yellow walls looked brighter than at night, when they contrast less with the raised pattern of branches in a paler shade, more the color of limestone in a vineyard in Puligny. Comte Louis Michel Liger-Belair, who farms a domaine centered on La Romanée in Vosne, was in town to present a project in Oregon, one he had helped found five years ago. Liger-Belair described the first wine—a blend of fruit from snaking ribbons of vines, selected to follow the edge of lava flows at different vineyards in the Eola–Amity Hills, the Chehalem Mountains and the coast range—alongside a wine from an estate vineyard, Black Walnut, in Dundee. Both wines were savory, with more mineral than fruit flavor in the tannins, though the Dundee Hills wine was fuller, richer, more...