Columbia Gorge Passport Weekend

Well... between getting a new job, going to school and... oh yeah... having a kid... my co-conspirator and I have had essentially no time for serious wining. The sad consequence, as you can see, is that I've posted absolutely nothing for far too long. That makes me a sad panda.

But never fear, we're going to fix that. My co-conspirator and I recently went to Columbia Gorge Wine Region for their Passport Weekend. It was a nice deal; $15 got you a "passport" good for special tastings, discounts, and free food at a bunch of different wineries. The discounts alone are worth the price of the passport, but it's a useful exercise even if you set aside all of the shiny extras. It's a special event throughout the entire region, so the tasting rooms are all on their best behavior. They generally have a full selection of wines available to sample and instead of the vinter's daughter's boyfriend conducting the tasting you get the vintner emself. That's probably the most important factor of all; having knowledgeable, engaged staff at a tasting makes all the difference in the world. So yeah, two thumbs up for the concept as a whole... now on to the specifics.

Naked Winery/Cascade Cliffs Vineyard and Winery

Our first stop was the Naked Winery tasting room in downtown Hood River which, in addition to wine from Naked Winery, also has wine from Cascade Cliffs available for tasting. For Passport Weekend they were offering a vertical tasting of Naked Winery's Merlots which, frankly, left me a little underwhelmed. We sampled the '02 - '05 vintages, all of which were largely unremarkable. Of the four I found the '03 to be the most interesting (or the least uninteresting) on account of relatively high tannin content; my co-conspirator like the '04.

It's really a shame that they chose to focus on the offerings from Naked Winery; the few Cascade Cliffs selections that I tried were far superior. The '07 Nebbiolo was fantastic, one of my favorites of the whole weekend. It's a bright wine with balanced fruit and tannins, really quite a joy to drink. There was also an '07 Barbera which seemed very well put together, though a little on the sweet/heavy side for my taste. Sadly for us both were on the pricey side: $40 for the Nebbiolo and $40 for the Barbera, prices which are probably justified but too rich for us.

Quenett Winery

The next stop for us was the Quenett Winery tasting room, also located in downtown Hood River. There's not a whole lot to say about Quenett; most of the wines failed to leave any sort of impression at all. Looking at my tasting notes it looks like I had good things to say about the '05 Zinfandel at the time ("deep", "complex", "pretty tanic"). I seem to recall thinking it was a decent wine, but not worth the $29 that they were asking. They were also pushing a Cabernet Franc rose which seemed a little off to me but which L liked and would have purchased had I been into it. Eventually we ended up purchasing a bottle of the Viognier on the grounds that it was a well-execute white that we both enjoyed.

The Pines 1852

After Quenett we hit The Pines 1852, also with a tasting room conveniently located in downtown Hood River. This ended up being the highlight of the trip, but before I get into details I want to offer a bit of context: I didn't find out about the backstory on The Pines until after I tasted their wares, so I believe that the assessment I offer below is as objective as any wine tasting can be expected to be.

So, for Passport Weekend, The Pines was offering a vertical tasting of their Zinfandel ('01 - '03 vintages) for the low, low price of only $15. Normally I would have looked at the price and scoffed ("Pay that much for the privilege of tasting? Never!"), but I was on vacation and didn't really pay attention to the price until after the fact anyway. No matter, it was worth it; their Zin was some of the best wine I've ever had in my life. Here's the rundown:

• '01: Absolutely delicious. Subtle and smooth with a creamy mouth-feel akin to consomme. I wrote "I want to guzzle it" on my tasting sheet; it was that good. L described it as having a "bouquet of dust", which is fairly accurate, but shouldn't be interpreted negatively.


• '02: After L's comment about the '01 I paid more attention to the nose on this one. It smelled like old books left out in the sun, with maybe a hint of raisin. I know that sounds like a negative, but it shouldn't be taken that way; it was strongly evocative, but not unpleasant. As far as taste it was a little sweeter than the '01, heavy on the dried fruit. I didn't like it quite as much, but it was still a fantastic wine.


• '03: The '03 was a lot like the '01. A little smokey, but with the same overall character and mouth feel.

All three were absolutely phenomenal and, unfortunately for us, rather expensive. The '01 was $55/bottle, the '02 was $60, and the '03 was $45. Prior to this tasting I couldn't see myself spending so much on wine on the grounds that I wouldn't be able to appreciate it, but these wines clearly merit the asking price.

Nevertheless, we decided to forgo purchasing any of them on the the grounds of "too rich for my blood". Instead we ended up taking home a bottle of the ice Gris, which was plenty interesting in its own right. It was neither as sharp, nor as sweet, as a typically ice wine, and compared favorably with products I've sampled from the Niagara region.

Now, the backstory: if I understand things correctly The Pines has the oldest vines in the entire region. The vines themselves were planted in 1987 and are, in turn, clones of some much older vines. So mayhap there is something to be said for old growth Zin after all.

Syncline and Cor Cellars

After the experience at The Pines the rest of the trip was fun, but largely anti-climactic. We paused to have lunch, then headed over to the Washington side of the gorge and visited two wineries, Syncline and Cor Cellars.

Syncline was OK, but not great. As part of the festivities they'd put out an array of different types of chocolate, that was definitely a plus, but I came away with the feeling that Syncline takes itself a little too serious. Their big problem is that their wines aren't stellar, but they're pricing them as if they are. The '07 Pinot Noir, for example, is pretty good, but they're smoking crack if they think its worth $28/bottle. Likewise with the '07 Syrah; it's has a beautiful, stunning color, and doesn't taste bad either, but watching people forking over $24 just had me shaking my head.

People on the West Coast seem far too eager to overpay for good red wine. I think, perhaps, that I've been spoiled to some extent because I spent my formative wine years in the Finger Lakes region. Out there it's easy to find wines for under $20 that would have no problem standing up to Syncline's wares. Lakewood Vineyards makes an excellent Pinot Noir in that price range, a wine that serves as my personal yardstick for Pinot Noir value, and there are many other wineries in the area turning out similar wines. But I digress...

Our last stop of the day was Cor Cellars; when we arrived their tiny tasting room was already full, and it was absolutely packed to the gills by the time we left. The two gentlemen in charge did their best to give a little bit of attention to everyone in the room despite the crowd, and for that I tip my hat to them. The crush of people made the baby freak out, so we only got a chance to taste the whites they were offering, but that was enough. The '07 Sauvingon Blanc was light and nicely acidic, but the real find was the '08 Alba Cor, a Gewurztraminer/Pinot Gris blend was unusual and intriguing. We ended up buying one of each; thanks to the 25% Passport Weekend discount (you guys insane?) we came out with two bottles of good white wine for $24, definitely the best value of the trip.

That's it for now. I hope that life provides me with more opportunities to post in the near future.