Unimaginable in Napa, Real in Washington

Imagine for a moment that Napa's most famous Cabernet vineyard produced a Cab from one of Napa's most celebrated wineries for less than $40...actually, it's unimaginable.

But in Washington, that unimaginable combination is very real. The most famous and celebrated Cabernet vineyard in Washington, source of multiple 100-point Quilceda Creek Cabs and amazing Andrew Will Sorellas (including the 99-point 2019), is the one and only Champoux. Andrew Will's Champoux Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 is real and real-ly delicious—we know because we've tasted it. Get it while you can!

Andrew Will Champoux Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2019

Andrew Will Champoux Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2019

$ 44.95
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Imagine for a moment that Napa's most famous Cabernet vineyard produced a Cab from one of Napa's most celebrated wineries for less than $40...actually, it's unimaginable.

But in Washington, that unimaginable combination is very real. The most famous and celebrated Cabernet vineyard in Washington, source of multiple 100-point Quilceda Creek Cabs and amazing Andrew Will Sorellas (including the 99-point 2019), is the one and only Champoux. Andrew Will's Champoux Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 is real and real-ly delicious—we know because we've tasted it. Get it while you can!

2019 was an exceptional vintage in the Andrew Will cellar and particularly for Champoux vineyard. We've tasted the 2019 Champoux blend and Sorella and this apple didn't fall far from those trees, if you catch our drift. The hallmark of Champoux Cabernet is its unstoppable fruit purity—black cherry, black raspberry, and cassis shine together here—and its plushness. This is super-supple-smooth, carrying that delicious Champoux fruit plus accents of nutmeg and tobacco through the building finish.

Also 94+ points from Wine Advocate and "Bravo!" if you're keeping score.

My first Andrew Will wines, the 2002s, totally rocked me. They were unlike anything I had ever tasted and the pinnacle for me was 2002 Champoux. 

As much as I love Andrew Will’s Champoux Vineyard blend, since the early 2000s it has transitioned to a Merlot/Cab Franc-based wine instead of a Cabernet Sauvignon-based wine. Not mincing words, I prefer Cab as the backbone of Washington reds and I especially love Champoux Cab. 

It was right around then that the winery announced they’d stop making variety-based wines and instead make only vineyard-based wines. For more than a decade, that’s what they stuck with.

Then they reincorporated single-variety wines at a lower price tier: Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon and Franc, and Merlot, all labeled as Columbia Valley. The best of them, while still labeled as “Columbia Valley,” were 100% Champoux Vineyard, perhaps THE greatest/most well-known Cabernet vineyard in the state. It wasn’t a secret–we certainly wrote about the impeccable fruit source–and finally the winery seems to have acknowledged that it makes a hell of a lot of sense to put Champoux on the label!

 

 

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Evesham Wood Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2023

Evesham Wood Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2023

Most of the Willamette Valley's best Pinot Noir values come and go; they are strong in some vintages, less so in others. Never this.

The original, the unparalleled, the single most consistent value in Willamette Valley Pinot is back, doing what it always does: introducing us to a new vintage (2023!) and setting the bar (high!) by which other wines of the vintage will be measured. Looking outside of Oregon, we'll ask the question: is there a better Pinot Noir value from anywhere in the world, made with so much integrity from such excellent vineyards? Bueller? Bueller?

Our advice is always: buy a case. We do and we save a few bottles for aging (just finishing the last bottles of 2016 and 2017). But we know you'll finish the case and realize you want more, so just get two cases. There's a lot of excitement around the 2023 vintage, crystal-clearly evident in this wine. It is loaded with vibrant Pinot energy and mouth-filling flavor, plus it's surprisingly silky textured for such a humbly-priced Pinot. Heck, make it three cases. Whatever your preferred amount, this is an essential wine for Pinot Noir lovers and value appreciators. Make room in your wine racks, be nice to your FedEx driver, bring the bigger car—that is all to say get ready, get your stash of Evesham WV '23!

Us: No Pinot noir from anywhere in the world delivers so much for 25 bucks, year after year. Honest and authentic, this is Pinot Noir grown and made the right way. The '23 beams with black cherry Evesham deliciousness. It's packed with Pinot essence—aromas, flavors, and feel. Sometimes this wine takes a couple months to round out but not the '23, it is showy and silky from first sip and stayed vibrant over the 3 days it was open on my counter...then I just had to finish it! -Marcus

The winery: Although the Willamette Valley bottling is our least expensive and largest production wine we put just as much of ourselves into it as our top cuvées. Vineyards such as Illahe and Mahonia that Evesham Wood has been working with for decades make up the bulk of the blend along with Eola-Amity Hills AVA sites Prophet, Koosah, Jubilee, Cortell Rose, and Sojeau. This vintage of the WV blend shows a bright nose with cherry, red apple, fresh flowers, and a touch of loam along with a textural creamy/silkiness component that’s balanced by juicy acid. Showing well now, watch this wine evolve over the next 3 months to 8-10 years.

 

 

 

 

 


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Drinking Barolo with friends = priceless.

September marked a major milestone for me—twenty years with Avalon! The one thing I'm proudest of over the two decades: integrating Italian wines into a portfolio that used to be exclusively from Oregon and Washington. I won't sugarcoat it—it was hard in the early years and came at significant personal time and expense (like footing the bill for my first Italian wine trip in 2007). But now, when I see web orders filled with Italian wines, or I'm asked for advice on a visit to Piedmont, it's like the credit card commercial says: priceless.


What else is priceless is the opportunity to learn more about Italian wine, as I was reminded recently when I had the good fortune to taste the entire 2020 Barolo lineup from one of my favorite wineries, Italian or otherwise—G.D. Vajra and its sibling winery, Luigi Baudana—with none other than Giuseppe Vajra. Sure, the tasting part was amazing but spending two hours listening to Giuseppe talk about his family's history, about the soils and vineyards of the "tiramisu accident" that is the Barolo area, made it easily one of the 10 best tasting and learning experiences of my career. Priceless.

Fittingly, the wine that started it all is the king of wines: Barolo. Barolo's meaning in the wine-world is complicated; I've been told more times than bottles of Barolo I've drunk (and that's a lot)—Barolo is untouchable in its youth, it demands decades of aging. Over the years, as I've grown in experience, I've done my part to challenge the Barolo-is-only-for-aging discourse, partly by talking and partly by drinking them myself. Today, I have a little extra help from Giuseppe Vajra for a little Barolo myth-busting!

Myth: Barolo is so big and structured it must be aged to be enjoyed.

Truth: "Barolo is not a bodybuilding contest; drinkability has always been important," says Giuseppe Vajra. Barolo is so much more than stashing away wine for a decade or more. When you visit Barolo, you drink young Barolo for lunch and dinner—you don't just go from cellar to cellar, restaurant to restaurant drinking 20-30 year-old wines. If it's good enough for the Piemontese, it's good enough for me. As a wine and food person, it is one of life's pure joys to drink Barolo, young and old, and I co-founded a Barolo drinking group for that reason (drinking group, not tasting group).

Where do the 2020 Vajra and Baudana Barolos fit both for drinkability and age-ability? 2020 vintage was a vintage of "happy flowering" for the vines—Giuseppe has come to recognize this as a sign of an excellent vintage in the making, yielding wonderful aromatics and gorgeous tannins. Each and every Barolo below is a delight to drink now, with or without decanting though naturally, with food. If you prefer Barolo with age, all of them will provide at least a couple decades of enjoyment and I'll be the first in line to add them to my own cellar (I age them, too).

Begin making plans to share one or two with fellow Barolofriends or like me, all five of them with my Barolo drinking group! Drinking great Barolo with friends = priceless.

It's okay to drink these...now!

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G.D. Vajra Barolo Albe 2020
from $ 38.95
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G.D. Vajra Barolo Coste di Rose 2020
from $ 74.95
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G.D. Vajra Barolo Ravera 2020
from $ 89.95
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Luigi Baudana Barolo Baudana 2020
from $ 89.95
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Luigi Baudana Barolo Cerretta 2020
from $ 89.95

THE Best Pinot Value

The original Pinot Noir, where it all began.

Where it all began. The original Pinot Noir vines planted in the Willamette Valley.

We can only be talking about Eyrie, and we are beyond excited to share the best of Eyrie's 2021s with you today! We've tasted all of them at least twice and highly recommend them. Each retains its uniqueness while delivering even more silkiness and flavor density, courtesy of the phenomenal 2021 vintage. An earth-shattering Daphne. The best Roland Green, ever. And "original vines?" You'll read all about it below and then you'll add it to your stash, because there's nothing else like it.

Every vintage of Eyrie is collectible but none has brought such deliciousness to the table in the way that the 2021s do. Here they are, waiting for you:

The wines!

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Eyrie The Eyrie Vineyard "Original Vines" Pinot Noir 2021
from $ 79.95
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Eyrie Estate Pinot Noir 2021
from $ 49.95
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Eyrie Roland Green Vineyard Pinot Noir 2021
from $ 63.95
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Eyrie Dundee Hills Pinot Gris 2022
from $ 26.95

Who doesn't like to be right?

We told you that Force Majeure's Red Mountain Estate Cabernet Sauvignon is a 100 point wine, that it is the best Washington Cabernet available. We were right.

The first 100 point score is in. Owen Bargreen, who publishes under his own name after having reviewed Washington wines for Decanter and Vinous, threw down a "this is going to blow your mind" review. Wine Enthusiast's Northwest reviewer, Michael Alberty, wrote, "My core belief that no wine can be perfect is seriously challenged by this otherworldly Cabernet Sauvignon." They both used the word "otherworldly."

It's like we know what we are talking about.

So if our expert advice had you still sitting on the fence, this ought to bring you over to the Force Majeure side of otherworldly Cab. 

Force Majeure Red Mountain Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2021

100 points Owen Bargreen: "A stunning wine that has otherworldly potential. This is a bit backwards right now but you can see the potential in this head-turning Cabernet. Loaded with dense blackberry, huckleberry sandalwood and sagebrush notes, with Turkish coffee, this is a massive, brooding Cabernet Sauvignon that will satisfy for decades to come. Give this another year or two in the bottle and this is going to blow your mind. Drink 2025-2050."

Given the review above, remember when we wrote this?—Let's cut right to it and break from a long-established rule: this is 100 point Cabernet. It is Cabernet perfection. There, it feels better saying it. I believe it is the best Washington Cabernet Sauvignon available. I love everything about it—and in the 2021 there is an incredible amount to love, as it's amplified, stretching to another galaxy. Incredible black-fruited intensity, tobacco, graphite, depth and power for days yet remarkable balance for a wine of such stature. The tannins are like micro flavor bubbles, encased in deliciousness, melting through the forever finish. Legendary? Yes.

We are witnessing a master at work. It's incumbent on those of us who love Cabernet to revel in Todd Alexander's mastery and to support it by adding this wine to our collections. -Marcus

 





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Force Majeure Red Mountain Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2021