Taste Washington - Room C

Onward! Room C was actually two small rooms. That's how you get five rooms labelled A to D. By the way, we missed our good friend Vicki Schlicker from Rulo Winery in Room D. We couldn't resist a taste of Pepper Bridge 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon and 2003 Merlot. Delicious as usual. We tasted 2003 Page Cellars "Preface" before moving on to OS Winery. We skipped Novelty Hill, since we just tasted them at Woodinville Passport, and with difficulty we passed on the always wonderful Northstar. We also passed on Mark Ryan and Nicholas Cole and ended up tasting a vast range of Rhone style wines at McCrea.

The McCrea wines were superb. We started with the 2004 Viognier and the 2004 Rousanne. Both were much better than most French Rhone whites. The 2004 Washington State Syrah was typical. It was followed by a 2004 Counoise which was interesting, but a little on the thin side despite an infusion of 13% Syrah. The 2004 Grenache was quite good as was the 2003 Sirocco blend. The 2004 Mourvedre was, not surprisingly, big. The real treat was the four special 2003 Syrahs - Amerique, Boushay Vineyard, Ciel du Cheval and Cuvee Orlean. The Amerique really needs several years of ageing. These wines are glorious and worth the $40-50 price tag if you have the bread. We ended with the 2003 Late Harvest Rousanne which had only 10% residual sugar and so was not cloyingly sweet.

We pretty much skipped most of the rest of Room C, despite the fact that L'Ecole No. 41 was there, along with Januik and K Vintners. There were two winners here though - the best winery name goes to "Illusion" and the best wine name to Lake Missoula's "Deluge".

To be continued...