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Vibrant Blend
Hi Wine Friends!
In preparation for fall Steve and I planned a trip down to Central California over Labor Day weekend to visit with my oldest daughter Katie and her husband Sam. I wanted to explore some of their favorite wineries in Paso Robles where GSM's are the rage. (Really I wanted to visit with my perfect chocolate lab grandpuppy Cooper, but don't tell them that) Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre blends are perfect fall weather wines, pairing well with hearty stews and comfort food meals. My French Basque son-in-law is an expert. "I want to compare GSM's from Washington to GSM's in California" I said to Sam. We were driving from Cambria to Morro Bay to meet his parents and grandmother for dinner and talking about our wine tasting itinerary on the way. "Well, I brought a Paso GSM for tonight that I hope you'll enjoy as much as your Gramercy Third Man," he said as he passed back a bottle with a black and white label that looked like a zebra.
"Gramercy, Rasa, Rotie Cellars, we've got a bunch of fantastic GSM's" I boasted while grabbing the bottle of wine from Steve who was laughing at our Washington/California wine banter. "2007 Saxum? James Berry Vineyard? 100 pt. flawless by Robert Parker? Wine Spectator wine of the year for 2010?" I almost passed out. Little did I know that Sam's Saxum surprise would shrink in comparison to what they had in store for us a little later in the evening.
Before Sam, my first partner in GSM wine crime was my English brother-in-law John. He introduced me to the original Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre Southern Rhone blend. "Chateauneuf de Pape" he said as he pulled a bottle off the shelf at his favorite wine store in the Cotswolds. "It refers to an Appellation d origine controlee in the Southern Rhone area of France. It means The Pope's new castle." I looked at the price tag. "It costs as much as a castle," I said and put it back on the shelf. I wondered if I could buy a bottle without selling one of my children. "This is a nice one that won't break the bank" he said as he handed me a bottle of 2007 Domaine de la Charbonniere. 
My mouth still waters when I type that name. "Oh, and just for fun, you might want to try this Nine Popes from the Barossa region. It's the Australian interpretation of a Southern Rhone Blend. See what you think." I love wine shopping with John. Too bad, (or in Steve's words, thank goodness) I have to fly all the way to the United Kingdom to do that.
I came home from that trip and went after GSM's with a vengeance. Gramercy Cellar's The Third Man was my first experience, and it was nice to follow Old World wines with a New World winemaker whose style is Old World. Forget the worlds, his wine is out of this one. Greg Harrington says "this wine makes a statement about the future of Southern Rhone styled blends in Washington. We have said many times before, Washington will be known for Grenache. It's a superstar here. " Harrington's really the superstar. Gramercy has already won Food and Wine's best new winery of 2010. Who knows what 2011 will bring. Maybe an Oscar for his comedic animated short films on the wine industry. Check out his HR5034 rant (watch HR5034 short) 
Paul Gregutt says this about The Third Man: "This Châteauneuf-like blend of 50% Grenache, 28% Syrah and 22% Mourvèdre is pungent and spicy, with a bit of menthol in the nose. On the palate, there are supple, luxurious raspberry and black fruits, baking spices and sweet barrel flavors. Powerful and rich, this is a big wine with tobacco and clove highlights and a little heat in the finish. Cellar Selection."
- Paul Gregutt/Wine Enthusiast (94 pts.)
The next stop on my quest to explore Washington GSM's is where I met Pinto and Billo Navarene from Rasa Vineyards. It was at the Cordon industry wine tasting right after they'd scored a perfect score from Rand Seally on their Principia Reserve Syrah. I knew they were both electrical engineers, degrees from MIT, Stanford, running computer networking companies, in short, uber successful. I have to admit, I expected a couple of shy but arrogant, silent nerds. So wrong! I met two very friendly, exuberant brothers who were absolutely obsessed with wine and the wine world.
Billo, who earned his MS from UC Davis in Viticulture and Enology in 2008 (What is this now, 4 degrees for Billo? I'm feeling very undereducated at this moment) is now running the viticulture program at Walla Walla Community College. What computes here is attention to detail added to obsession with perfection equals crazy good wines for you and me. Their 2008 QED is stylistically more like a European GSM than their 2007 vintage because 2007 was blooming hot (where did those days go?) and 2008 was cooler. They dropped a lot more fruit to get the ripeness required for a beautifully balanced wine knowing full well that they'd get hit on the bottom dollar. It didn't matter. They were talking about their wine, their label, their reputation. Their QED may not have received a perfect score, but a 92 from Jay Miller and Stephen Tanzer and a 93 from Sean Sullivan tells me my taste buds aren't overly optimistic. In a couple of years that wine is going to be stellar.
My last trip to Walla Walla landed me in Sean Boyd's tasting room at Rotie Cellars where, once again, the Washington GSM knocked it out of the park. Rotie Cellars was jammed, packed with people, most of whom were leaving with bags of wine under their arms. I seriously had not seen that much action in a tasting room in years. I met at least six people in the span of thirty minutes, all who were raving right along with me about Sean Boyd's wines.
Rotie's Northern Blend was number seven on Seattle Magazine's Washington's Best 100 wines list this month. His Southern Blend is 68% Grenache, 16% Syrah, and 16% Mourvèdre, and I wholeheartedly agree with Rand Seally when he says: "This combination of 68% Grenache and 16% each of Syrah and Mourvedre is Sean Boyd's best blend to date (this is his third vintage). Deep ruby colored, it displays a sultry, smoky minerally nose, evocative of a South Rhone red, redolent of raspberries, cassis and garrigue (French lav- ender). The flavors are thick and penetrating, with the Grenache component imparting unctuous fruit, underlain with earth, minerals, bittersweet chocolate and licorice. On the back, the texture thickens with roasted berries and orange peel on a deep ripe tannin finish that shows fine fruit acids and a dusting of spice and pepper. 19/20 points." -Rand Seally
So, where do these wines leave me in my Washington/California battle of the best GSM's with my son-in-law? Ahhh, there's always plenty of time and wine to determine the outcome of that discussion. How did that Saxum 2007 James Berry Vineyard stand up to it's 100 pt. flawless review? It's hard to say. You see moments after Sam poured the wine, before we raised our glasses and took our first sip, my daughter stood up and said "We have another surprise for you." She walked around and handed each one of us a small envelope. Inside front and center on the card it read "Guess What?" When I opened it I saw another black and white image that knocked the Saxum label, sitting right in front of me, clean out of my mind. The ultrasound photograph of our first grandbaby at ten weeks, due to arrive Mar. 17, 2012, trumps any wine label. 
Our eyes met one another and we all jumped up, squealed and cried, hugged one another and hugged Katie and Sam. Helen, Sam's amatchi (grandmother in Basque), his mom Suzanne, his dad Big Sam, my husband Steve, and the beaming parents-to-be (one without wine in her glass) clinked glasses and toasted "To Baby Etchegaray". It mattered not whether the wine scored 100 or 90, none of us cared if it was exquisitely balanced or flawless. It paired with the memory of one of the greatest nights of all our our lives, when we learned the best little blend of our daughter and her husband is coming to bring incredible joy to our families just six months from now. That's what I call perfection, 100 points, flawless. Just like our grandbaby and my grandpuppy Cooper.
Cheers!
Becky
P.S. Add some perfection to your next family celebration with one of the glorious Washington GSM's below.
Gramercy Cellars 2009 The Third Man Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre |
Rasa Vineyards
2008 QED Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre |
Rotie Cellars
2009 Southern Blend Grenache, Syrah Mourvedre |
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$50/btl $42.50/mixed case |
$49/btl. $41/ mixed case |
$40/btl $34/btl mixed case |
