It was surreal to think that this year’s Washington report began with a tasting in Napa Valley and ended with Zoom tastings in Hong Kong in my wine bar, James Suckling Wine Central. But it was well worth the extra effort considering all the outstanding wines I found in the more than 400 samples I tasted and rated, mostly in Hong Kong.
I also had many great conversations with some of the best winemakers of Washington over Zoom. I appreciate their professionalism and down-to-Earth nature. It’s fun to learn about what they are doing and how they make their wines while tasting and comparing notes. And I like their enthusiasm for their wines which comes with a critical eye on how their bottles relate to their neighbors in Oregon and California as well as Europe. Most of the wines they were talking about were the recently released 2017 reds.
Alex Stewart, winemaker at Quilceda, said that the 2017 vintage was “one of the best of the string of hot years in recent memory.” Check out the videos.
He and other winemakers interviewed for this story said that the year started a little late with the bud break and then it got hotter and hotter through the summer. Some grape growers were concerned with the overexposure to sunlight and heat. But fires in the north in British Columbia provided a strange film of high altitude smoke that created a screen to the intense ultra-violet rays from the sun. It was like a sun cream for the vines!
“Thankfully for us, and unfortunately for BC, the vines instead of experiencing 105 plus degrees temperatures, were in the sweet spot for ripening,” Stewart said.
This certainly made the difference in the wines I tasted. They showed a richness of fruit and ripe tannins yet remained fresh and vibrant. Even the best reds that are built for aging were attractive and approachable and already gave pleasure when tasting.
Washington State wines bring a lot of the New World qualities such as the opulence you get out of places like California but they also show restraint that comes from European regions like Burgundy or the Rhone. “It’s the restrain that you would get out of Burgundy at the same time,” said winemaker Brennon Leighton of K Vintners. “It’s in between. It’s not New World and it’s not Old World. Washington has the best of two worlds. You have the focus and you have the restraint and the etherealness of the Old World wines but it has the freshness and bigness out of New World wine.”
My top wines certainly had this character as Leighton describes and two of them were his wines. I rated all of them 98 points including Hors Categorie Syrah Walla Walla Valley 2016, Cayuse Vineyards Syrah Walla Walla Valley Bionic Frog 2017, K Vintners Syrah Walla Walla Valley Phil Lane 2017, and K Vintners Syrah Wahluke Slope The Hidden 2017.
It’s worth noting that all my top wines were syrah. The grape is magical in Washington and it produces rich and intense wines with a diversity of aromas and flavors and a freshness and structure at the same time. I would argue that the state makes the most consistently great syrahs in America and different than anything out there from Barossa to the Rhone valley.
“Washington makes some of the most incredible syrahs in the world,” said Leighton. “It is not only the soil types like broken basalt or limestone soils or ancient river beds, but it’s also where the temperatures are absolutely perfect, where you have a fairly warm period in July and August but then it cools down significantly in September and October and you are typically picking the best syrah in late October.”
I really enjoy the richness of fruit to the syrahs yet at the same time they have a green tobacco and fresh herb undertones that give the wines wonderful complexity on both the nose and palate. It’s not just about rich and intense fruit like most other American syrahs.
In fact, the same could be said for most other grape types in Washington and blends for that matter. Everything seems to make excellent wine in the state, even less popular grapes such as malbec and aglianico or roussanne and chenin blanc. Washington winemakers often lament the fact that their state doesn’t really have an identity or that they are not known for one grape; it’s no longer thought of as a great merlot producer as it was in the 1990s. However, they probably should be focusing on how Washington makes wonderfully drinkable wines that are at the same time extremely age worthy and site specific when produced at a top level. This is very convincing and people love to drink the wines.
For me, I still find it difficult to generalize about region, subregions and specific vineyard areas. I know that winemakers themselves like to. But I tend to focus more on producers. And my tastings tend to support this buying and drinking strategy. However, I hope to explore the wines and vineyards more in the future.
Vintage variations are more obvious in Washington than in places like Napa Valley yet the quality in recent years is extremely high regardless of whether it’s 2015, 2016 or 2017. That’s a good thing for all of us. Most winemakers, however, agree that 2018 is a fantastic vintage and may be one of the best ever.
“The grapes [in 2018] tasted other worldly,” said Louis Skinner of Betz Winery. “The cuvees and fermentations tasted like nothing I had ever seen. Everything tasted so good.”
The 2018 vintage began with a very dry and mild winter. They had an average bud break. It started off cool but they had normal and hot weather during the summer. And it was dry. But September to October was cool and perfect for growing grapes and harvesting. Skinner said it’s because of this that one can see lots of stylistic differences in the wines with a consistently outstanding quality.
So far I have only tasted about 100 wines from the 2018 vintage but it looks to have made some stunning wines. The only serious red I reviewed from the vintage this time was the Leonetti Cellar Merlot Walla Walla Valley 2018 and I loved the way the wine was pristine and focused and delicious to drink now, yet showed the balance and structure to age. Whites are equally poised and precise with an attractive balance of ripe fruit and fresh acidity.
I am looking to forward to tasting more 2018 wines from Washington for our next tasting report, regardless of whether I am in Walla Walla or Hong Kong.
– James Suckling, CEO & editor
