Gretchen Neuman
VinoVerve Editor

You must have thought that I forgot all about the series I was writing about Washington State wine AVAs. But you would be wrong. Like an elephant, I never forget. Busy, distracted, confused, possibly, but forgetful? Not so much.

We have looked at nine of the eleven appellations in the state and with time ticking down until I leave for my trip to the 2010 Wine Blogger’s Conference, I thought it would behoove me to get cracking on the last couple.  Today, I am going to look at the biggest of the AVAs.  The Columbia Valley.

The Columbia Valley is like the big daddy of Washington wine regions, though less a Titan like Cronus who swallowed his children whole and had to be cut open to set them free, but more like Zeus from whose forehead Athena sprang fully formed, in that it is home to six of the smaller, sub-AVAs.  Specifically, those AVAs include Horse Heaven Hills, Lake Chelan, Rattlesnake Hills, Red Mountain, Snipes Mountain, Wahluke Slope, WallaWalla and Yakima Valley (additionally two new AVAs named Ancient Lakes and Mid Columbia River have been applied for… we will let you know when we hear about it in the future).

The region is huge at 11 million acres of which 17,000 are under cultivation and includes 99% of all the wine grapes grown in the State of Washington.  The soils are generally volcanic and loamy which allows for excellent drainage but also nutrient depleted which makes the vine work harder to produce fruit.  The valley is located in the rainshadow of the Cascade Mountains (think Mt. Rainier, Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens) which means that the area is dry and drip irrigation is used in vineyards  Oh, yes.  These grapes suffer to produce their beautiful fruit!  Additionally, due to its more northern location, the Columbia Valley receives two more hours of daylight then more southern wine producing regions (i.e. California).

I am looking forward to my Washington adventure and have started to compile of list of things to do with if I arrive early (something about a leadened foot of mine that causes that to happen).  For instance:

• I would like to see hops growing.  75% of the hops grown in the U.S. are grown near Yakima and apparently there is a Hops Museum in Toppenish.
• I have been to Mt. Rainier but I would LOVE to see Mt. St. Helens. (I know WAY too many geologists to not get a little nerdy when it comes to rocks)
• I would love to see the petroglyphs at Buffalo Eddy
• or the first Catholic church in Washington
• or the Ahtanum Mission
• and I am certain that there will be a ton of Lewis and Clark stuff.

If you know about something that a nerdy girl like me would like please let me know.  I am planning to take much more audio visual stuff this year, so I am hoping to have some really cool things to show.  You can contact me here.

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Gretchen Neuman
VinoVerve Editor

When I bring home wine, it is generally white. Not because I don’t like red wine, but for during the week, I tend to avoid red wine because sometimes the tannins wreak havoc on my head. So imagine my husband’s surprise when I came home with a bottle of red wine on a Tuesday. Better yet, a California Cabernet Sauvignon which I generally view as too big a wine for most occasions (California wines generally get too much publicity).  After he had a sip, he understood.

The wine, The Girls in the Vineyard is silky smooth, intense and fruity.  The wine makers, Rob and Kat McDonald and Matt Stone believe in bringing “wines from the vines to you without any fuss and where possible do a good deed along the way”.  To that end, they do not have a fancy tasting room, waste money on advertising or excessive print materials.  What they do provide is wine produced from sustainably grown grapes from the Amber Knolls Vineyard, the bottles are made near the winery to lower to carbon footprint of the process and the capsules are recyclable.   Additionally, the winery makes a $2.50/bottle or $30/case donation to the non-profit of your choice for those customers who purchase directly, but it is available locally if you aren’t looking to buy in bulk. Check Good Grapes for instance.

One of the reasons that I decided to write about this particular wine is where the grapes are grown.  The Amber Knolls Vineyard is in the Red Hills Lake County AVA.  Kevin was a bit surprised to hear that there were hills in Lake County.. but only until I pointed out that this particular Lake County was located in California.  Of course, with twelve Lake Counties in the United States, it is easy enough to be confused.  This particular Lake County surrounds Clear Lake which is the largest natural lake completely within the State of California (Lake Tahoe is partly in Nevada).

“So,” Kevin asked me, “Who are the girls?  Are they the daughters of the owners?  Or their pets?”  HA!  As if!  The folks at The Girls in the Vineyard specifically promise as part of their pledge NOT to sell you a “lifestyle” to avoid showing you pictures of their pets.

The Girls, as they turn out are the vines themselves.

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Gretchen Neuman
VinoVerve Editor

While in St. Louis, I did more than drag an underaged teen from one winery to another… I went out to dinner… With grownups even!

Yes, it is true. After spending a long day in volleyball and touring Daniel Boone’s favorite wineries, the girl and I headed back to the hotel where she immediately ditched me for team related activities and headed up to see my favorite wine-loving volleyball mom. After snacking on some cheese and crackers and drinking some delicious Mt. Veeder Cabernet Sauvignon we headed down to the hotel’s restaurant, An American Place.

The room for this restaurant is beautiful with ridiculously high ceilings due to the Mezzanine being above. The ceiling seemed to have Wedgewood cameos engraved, painted, however it is done.

One of the things that I liked about the menu was that the Chef/Owner Larry Forgione sources many of his supplies locally. Unlike many chefs, he extends this policy to his list of libations which contained selections from :

Mt. Pleasant
Chaumette Estate
Schlafly
O’Fallon

Better yet, the meals were terrific. We started out with an amuse bouche of blue cheese panna cotta with a reduced balsamic glaze and chip of cured pork shoulder. Next I had the sweetbreads which were a treat I haven’t had in a long, long time and finally the hanger steak which at that point I forgot to photograph because I was enjoying the food and conversation…. Oh, and I loved the presentation of the shrimp cocktail, which I thought looked like mini versions of the St. Louis Arch!

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Gretchen Neuman
VinoVerve Editor

So there is Augusta… but where else do you find wine in Missouri?

Well, the area entirely surrounding St. Louis is part of another AVA. This one is the Ozark Mountain AVA.  In fact, Augusta is contained withing Ozark Mountain as well as four other AVAs:  Ozark Highlands, Hermann, Altus, and Arkansas Mountain.

This AVA covers 3.5 million acres of land in what is the Ozark Plateau in the states of Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma.   Ironically, the Sugar Creek Winery that did not list itself as an Augusta AVA winery?  It also didn’t claim to be in Ozark Mountain. Neither do  the wines of Yellow Farmhouse Winery or Chandler Hill (although in all fairness, they seem to have wine from all over so maybe they get confused) Ah, well..

Still the news is that Missouri and its surrounding neighbors are full of wine…

And I will eventually get to visit all of these regions!

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Gretchen Neuman
VinoVerve Editor

So I have driven all the way outside of St. Louis to get to an Augusta winery and it turns out that they don’t label their wines as part of the Augusta AVA. What’s a wine nerd to do?

Travel 20 miles down the road? Sure, I had promised my volleyball serving whiz kid/travelling companion, Sophie that we would just be going to Defiance because that town provided three wineries for me to visit. But how could I abandon my greater plan?

we compromised. One more winery. I promise. We just have to go a little further down the road.

And off we went. It was one of the first nice weekends of the season, despite the fact that it would snow that night throughout the plains (St. Louis was spared). People were out riding their bikes on the Katy Trail which is the former right of way of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad that was turned into a state park in 1986 after numerous washouts (this part of the railroad was in the Missouri River bottoms). The name Katy came from K-T portion of the name, which I had to look up because… well, because I did. I am a nerd. That’s my job. We travelled down State Highway 94, also referred to as the Missouri Weinstraße (the ß=ss in German).  From what we could see, wine lovers were out that day too.

As we got closer to the town of Augusta, we saw signs for more and more wineries.  Our destination?  The Augusta Winery.  Surely this one would carry the appellation mark.  We were not disappointed.

The town in on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River. At the bottom of the hill, the  floodplain is wide and flat, used mainly for agriculture.  The winery is located on one of the terraced streets.  The winery is housed in an older stone building which has been renovated to allow tourists to see winery operations from the outside.

Inside, I looked over the wine list and decided to taste five selections out of the seventeen (17) available  (FYI The Cabernet Franc is now sold out).

The Chardonel is fermented sur lies (mixing the yeast into the fermenting juice) in French oak barrels.  The wine tasted of green apple and pears and is medium bodied.  The Vidal Blanc is floral and light with a slightly sweet finish.  Unfortunately it was a bit light for my taste.  La Fleur Sauvage is a  medium dry rose that smelled or strawberries and tasted of raspberries and cranberries.

Again it was the red wines that I really appreciated at this winery.  The Chambourcin is full of red fruits, particularly of strawberry (according to the nose of my underage companion, but who’s smell instincts I rely on when I am not sure) and medium bodied.  The Norton had the lightness of a Pinot Noir with a spicy cherriness.
Even better, these wines were marked as being produced in the AVA and the winery.

My mission was accomplished!

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Gretchen Neuman
VinoVerve Editor

“Defiance!” I said, while pointing the car down the highway.

“What did I do?” Sophie asked.

“No, no,” I quickly explained, “That is the town we are going to”.

Not that this really helped my 13 year old traveling companion. But then, she really hadn’t done any research.. Defiance is the name of several towns and villages throughout the U.S. It is also the beginning of the Missouri Weinstraße, Route 94 between Defiance and Marthasville.  It was also the final living place (though not resting place) of Daniel Boone.

It is also home to  three wineries.  Chandler Hill Vineyards, Yellow Farmhouse Winery and Sugar Creek Winery & Vineyards.

I stopped at Sugar Creek after finding the Yellow Farmhouse closed (and across the street from a really active biker bar).  The tasting room was off the road and across the Katy Trail and up about 150 feet (yes, it was a steep hill).  I liked that there were different outdoor settings for people.  There were at least two decks, a  patio and scattered tables surrounding a gazebo.  Additionally, there was an area that was set aside for music and (presumably) dancing.

The tasting room was relatively small but opened up into rooms in the back that were available for additional seating or for event rental.  Sophie looked around while a started my tasting.  The winery produces 15 different wines ranging from dry to sweet.  I settled on tasting the dry varietals beginning with the Vidal Blanc.  This is an estate grown wine that was fermented in stainless steel with the addition of oak chips while the wine is aged.  The  wine is light and crisp with just enough oak.

The next wine I tasted was the Chardonel which is a hybrid of Chardonnay and Seyval grapes.  This wine is also an estate selection.  It was fermented in aged in French oak barrels.  This wine was fuller bodies than the Vidal Blanc with nice citrus notes and butteriness.  Overall though, I thought both of the white wines lacked a certain oomph.  The reds, on the other hand, stood out.

The first red wine that I tried was the Chambourcin.  I have to admit that I have been enjoying Chambourcin more and more and this wine was no exception.  The wine was ripe with cherry flavor and dry.  It was aged in oak which provided a richness.

Next was the Cynthiana, more commonly called Norton.  This varietal is a native American grape.  The wine it produced tasted of black fruit and had a pleasant tannic finish.  It was finished in American Oak.  I will be looking for more Norton wines in the future.

The last wine that I tasted that day was the Michael’s Signature Red.  It was produced in honor of the winery owner’s Italian grandfather who taught him about wine making. This wine was softer with a smokiness.  It, like all of the wines that I tasted that day, were estate grown and bottled.

I was surprised to find that the Sugar Creek label did not list the Augusta appellation.  They just designated that they were from Defiance.  The winery is listed as an Augusta winery on the Missouri Wine Country website.  Never fear!  I managed to find AVA designated wine nearby!

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Gretchen Neuman
VinoVerve Editor

Missouri. The Show Me State. Home of four AVAs and before Prohibition the second-largest wine producing state in the country.

And being in St. Louis meant that these wineries were a hop, skip and jump from me.

So what did I do? Naturally, in our Friday afternoon break, I grabbed the car and started out to wine country. Missouri has over 80 wineries to choose from located both within and outside of their AVAs. Given my love of AVAs, I wanted to try to reach those in designated regions. All four are within a reasonable drive from St. Louis.

Given that I was being accompanied by my personal sommelier but somewhat easily bored teenager, Sophie, I decide to stick as close to the hotel as I could to keep her happy. This narrowed my options to two.

Augusta was the first designated appellation in the US beginning June 20, 1980 and is located along the river bottoms and alluvial plains of the Missouri River though generally at slightly higher elevations. The loamy soil has more of a clay content. The location is that of one of the first wineries in the state, the Mount Pleasant Winery. The region is fifteen (15) square miles and is home to seven wineries and one brewery.

I visited two of the wineries.

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Gretchen Neuman
VinoVerve Editor

Yes. I have to life outside of wine blogging. I don’t enjoy large parts of it, but that is another story entirely. Wow, has it really been a month since I posted?  More like six weeks?  Well, what is six weeks among friends, right?  Besides, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you what I was doing.  Heck, I barely believe it.

I was thinking about wine.  And drinking quite a bit of it.  And I even got to travel a bit.  Not a fancy trip with luxury accomodations… but the kind of trip that I like to make…  A ROAD TRIP!

And where did I go?

Missouri.

Remind me again… is there any wine in the Show Me State?

YES there IS!

But first, I had to survive volleyball!

Yes.  I am teasing you.  But there will be wine on Friday.  I promise…

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Gretchen Neuman
VinoVerve Editor

I might be temporarily abstaining from wine on school nights (due to lent) but that doesn’t mean that I can’t continue to talk about the wines that I have already tasted.    This wine, like the Passion Has Red Lips, also falls into the Tip O’Neil Corollary territory and I was lucky enough to get to taste it when the rep came into the store.

The Chono wines are  associated with a wine I discussed a while ago… say, in the Fall of 2008, the Palin Syrah, which are both distributed by GeoWines.  I always like Chilean Carménère because it reminds me of my wine history. Carménère is the lost grape of Bordeaux where it was used to enhance the flavors of the other noble grapes of the region, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Petite Verdot and Merlot.  After Phylloxera destroyed most of the vineyards in the region, it was believed that Carménère was all but wiped out.  In 1994, an oenologist discovered that a variety of Merlot in Chile that tended to ripen faster was in fact the long, lost grape.  They were interplanted with Merlot which they resemble and accounted for a  large percentage of the grapes produced.  It turns out that Chilean winemaking owed more to France than Spain as one might have expected.

I have also learned that there were so many Carménère grapes produced that they were often used in the production of Pisco and Aguardiente.

The Carménère is produced in the Maipo River Valley of Chile which is in the heart of the most productive vineyards in the country and relatively close to Santiago. The grapes are picked in the second week of May are macerated in stainless steel and then partially aged in oak.  My first sip gave me a smokey taste of dark fruit. The second sip after a few minutes allowed the wine to open up and become smoother and fuller with more of an emphasis on black cherries and less on the smoke.  Clearly, a wine to let breathe a moment or two.

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Gretchen Neuman
VinoVerve Editor

I don’t think it is news to anyone that I love wine. Ok. Stop laughing already. I SAID it wouldn’t be news. And as much as I love local wine, I love trying wine from all over the world. Is this inconsistent with my locapour ways? Not at all… I refer to it as the Tip O’Neil Corollary, when speaking of politics, Speaker O’Neil once famously pointed out that “All politics are local”. And I believe that the same holds true with wine. It is local to somebody.

when I got a chance to try some wine from the “local” vineyards of the Clare Valley of Australia, I naturally jumped at the chance.

The wine is produced by Some Young Punks. Already, you know that I was enjoying this. Their name alone, indicates to me that while they love their wine, they don’t take themselves too seriously. The wine was the 2007 Passion Has Red Lips which was a Cabernet Sauvignon/Shiraz blend. I thought it was earthy, almost leathery. 1500 cases were produced. The artwork was taken from an old pulp fiction novel, Sin On Wheels.

I am hoping to find more of it soon.

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