I was over in Eastern Washington this weekend for the Sasquatch music festival.
We quickly tired of the crowds and spent some time exploring the area, including a stop at the White Heron cellars for a little wine tasting.
Cameron Fries is the owner and winemaker here. He has been making wine for over twenty years, and started at White Heron in the late 1980s. He spent 5 years in Switzerland learning the art. He mentioned that his father was a trained chef and discouraged him from the restaurant biz, so he went into growing grapes and wine making instead.
He bought several acres of land in the Columbia basin, overlooking the Columbia river. His vineyards are on slopes that sit about 900-1200 feet elevation, with Southeast exposures. The soil is a mix of sand and basalt. The vines are irrigated, but they use a watering schedule to stress the vines. They yield 3 tons or less per acre.
The entire area is going to be named a new AVA in Washington called the Ancient Lakes. There are hiking trails around these pothole lakes that you can visit.
Cameron Fries does things a little differently then most wineries in the state. First off, he does not like the flavors of new oak, so he uses barrels that have seen five prior vintages or more. He holds back the wine for sale until he feels it is ready. He also makes about 250 cases of Pinot Noir, which is very unusual for this area which typically grows Bordeaux grapes, Chardonnay, and Riesling.
We started the tasting with a Syrah from the 2005 vintage. Deep red color, with aromas of dark fruit mixed with spices and a little menthol. There was a strong hint of sage, which grows abundantly in this area. There were some grainy tannins, and this seemed to be very young wine in need of a few more years of bottle age. This was the most European styled Syrah I've tried after the ESJ wines.
The 2005 Pinot Noir was tough for me to get my head around. It was ripe, but the aromas were faithful to the grape. It was also a very structured wine with big tannins. It is a warm climate Pinot certainly. He mentioned that their 1988 Pinot Noir is still going strong.
The 2003 Malbec had a deep purple black color. A big wine with abundant dark fruit, but also a mix of earth and the local garrigue in there. This could also benefit from some age.
The next wine was a 2001 Mariposa Vineyard blend of Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Malbec. It had nice maturing flavors of tobacco, leather and earth, but with some dark blackberry type fruit still present. This wine had good acidity, and the tannins were soft and this was a pleasure to drink.
This wine was 13.5% abv, and I liked it enough to purchase some.
All these were his current releases. The first three wines were $15, the 2001 blend was $20. I was impressed with the wines, and thought they did a good job of representing the local terroir. I haven't found many WA state wines to recommend, but I liked these a lot.
