Are you a skeptic, a worrier, a person who is involved with the world situation? Or to put it more simply, are you worried about global warming?
Global warming is a fact that cannot be denied; its causes, however, are still being debated. What is certain, though, is there are places being adversely affected by it.
There are areas in Spain, southern Italy, Greece and other wine-producing countries of the world that are currently being afflicted by a warmer than normal growing season. There is even fear in France that global warming may eventually damage their southern grape-growing regions, which includes Bordeaux and the Languedoc. The same fears are rumbling among the wine grape growers of California. To protect their businesses, many growers and wineries are looking north to Oregon, Washington state and even British Columbia in Canada.
Even before the global warming concerns, many California vineyards and wineries established auxiliary sites in Washington state to take advantage of the cooler climate to grow chardonnay, pinot noir and Riesling grapes. These varieties from Washington state are definitely above average for their price, and wines from the other popular varieties are proving to be outstanding too. We recently had the opportunity to sample some wines from Washington state, in this case the wines of the Columbia Winery.
Columbia Winery 2012 Chardonnay ($14) The soil and climate of Washington state endow the grapes with a richness of flavor and aroma achieved by very few of its California cousins. To begin with, the 2012 vintage year was about as glorious as a winemaker could ask for and the grapes achieved near perfect ripeness.
This chardonnay was produced without the usual oak treatments and therefore the grapes alone supplied all of the attributes to the wine. The flavor and aroma are the same as found in most chardonnays, yet observably different. They are deep, with an intensity not found in California and, while not a classical French chardonnay, this wine displays all of the attributes of a French chard at about a tenth of the price.
Columbia Winery 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon ($14)This variety seems to have found a happy place in Washington.
The wine does not have big, bold, in-your-face fruit flavors, but rather presents them in a dignified and well-balanced style. The color is a majestic dark ruby and the aroma is everything that one would expect from a cab: black currant, plum and cedar. The flavor accents blackberry, black currants, cocoa and oak. This is not a trifling wine but one that absolutely displays the attributes of its Washington state birthplace. We can recommend it to you without question.
Columbia Winery 2012 Merlot ($14) Many of the similarly priced California merlots have become weak and uninteresting.
This merlot is just the opposite, big, wide open and packed full of flavor and aroma. The classical aroma of a fine merlot is highly noticeable in this wine. There is lots of plum and black cherry backed up by a generous amount of oak and vanilla, all of which happily continue on to the flavor and then to its astounding finish. If you are a merlot aficionado, this wine will restore your enthusiasm.
Columbia Winery 2012 Red Blend ($14)Rounding out this quartet from Washington state is a compendium of almost all of the popular red grape varieties, with cabernet sauvignon and merlot making up the lion's share of the blend.
This wine emulates the type of blend used for the great classical French Bordeaux varieties and is a wine that carries the signature flavor and aroma of black currants, mocha, chocolate, oak and summer red berries. This wine is not unduly tannic like the French versions and can be enjoyed now - but will get even better with some bottle aging. This is a fine wine that is both an excellent value and easy to enjoy.
Nixa resident Bennet Bodenstein is a wine columnist and manages ArticlesOnWine.com. He can be reached at frojhe1@att.net.[[In-content Ad]]
