The best commercial wine in the county

There are all of three commercial wineries in southwest Washington’s Clark County. None of them have particularly good wine but they are fun to visit nonetheless.

A few nights ago we opened a bottle of 2002 English Estate Pinot Noir (Gravel Mine Vineyard) and deemed it the best commercial wine in Clark County (we know several home winemakers who make better stuff).

An interesting aspect of the English Estate winey is that a gravel mine is indeed right next door. According to the wine's back label:

Grapes love gravel. This porous soil forces the vines’ roots deeper to find water and nutrients, enhancing the flavor and character of the fruit.

We’ve heard the same about rocky, volcanic soil. This is what we are pinning our hopes on for our own grapevines.

As for English Estate’s Pinot Noir, we first noticed that it was a bit darker than is typical of Pinot Noirs. Not a bad sign; just something noteworthy. It had a nice light, berry smell but we could also smell the alcohol (listed as 13% on the label; not especially high). As for its taste, well, we pondered this for a good long while. It was honestly a bit difficult to come up with any descriptions. It wasn’t a bad wine by any means. It just was not memorable and there really was not much to it. And yes, since this is the best commercial wine in the county, you can imagine our thoughts about the other two wineries’ offerings! Again, fun to visit, but no need to leave room in the trunk for purchases.

This wine is likely only available at the winery (or its website) and in Clark County wine stores. The website lists this wine at $22.95. We could not have possibly paid that much for it when we bought it a few years ago. This is a $10-$12 bottle at best.

Our own wine!

So this probably won't be as well written, since it's written by the winemaker. Here's an update on our 2006 vintage aging away in the barn:

The cold snap this past week was a wonderful tool for the wine, as it went through "cold stabilization". Cold temperatures (in the 20s) take out excess acid from the wine and causes it to crystallize at the bottom of the container.

This year's Riesling is very nice. It was originally too acidic, but the cold stabilization worked wonders on it. Instead of being grapefruit-juice-sharp, it's now more apple/pear juice sharp. A lot more gentle to sip, though still not sweet (sorry to those sweet wine lovers - I'll make one of those here in a couple weeks). The wine's perfectly clear, and I'm almost tempted to bottle it now, but I expect another couple of months won't hurt it at all. Besides, it's more of a summer wine, anyway.

This year's Pinot Noir is actually two different wines. I bought grapes from a source who had two different soil types in his vineyard - very rocky like where we've planted our vines, and more typical soil. So this year's Pinot Noir is a comparison of what to expect from our plants vs. similar plants in more, um, plant-friendly soils. The two Pinots have completed Malolactic Fermentation (perhaps another post...) and cold stabilization, and at this point they're still a little young to make a firm comment as to where they'll end up. But the rockier wine is more dark, not so open with its flavors, and still obviously needs time. It's not heavy, just not ready to show itself. The less rocky wine shows a lot more light fruit already, although it shares some of the heaviness of its brother. It's only been aging 3 months at this point, so this isn't too surprising - check back over the summer.

More updates to come as the winemaking process goes along.