The Red Mountain Boys And Girls- Part II

Hightower Cellars, at the very end of sunset road, is the highest winery on the mountain. Well, maybe, Tapteil is the highest. In any event, we had a nice visit with Tim & Kelly Hightower who truly had a wine romance. You might say they met over a glass of wine. Check out the whole story at their website: http://www.hightowercellars.com. Tim is another Boeing Wine Club graduate who makes outstanding Washington State wine. Tim told me that they first moved into the warehouse space in Woodinville that is now occupied by Chatter Creek. Tim, Kelly and Murray The Dog, make several reds including Murray Red, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. I must admit that my favorite is the 2003 Cabernet made from Pepper Bridge grapes from Walla Walla. Tim & Kelly have planted their own vineyard on Red Mountain. It will be exciting to see how this evolves.

Taptiel is right next door with a beautiful winery building where the windows reflect the spectacular surrounding view. A very appealing exterior leads to a typical tasting room inside. This year we were not taken with any Tapteil wines. Two years ago, we liked the 2002 Cabernet which was a tight, fairly hard , upright sort of Cab. It would be interesting to see how Taptiel Cabernet ages. We found Ben Smith's Taptiel Cab, which he made at Cadence, to be the firmest , hardest wine in his portfolio. too. Maybe these are agers for Ryan's cellar.

In the interest of time, we had to skip the Hedges chateau, though we know they make good wines that are readily available in supermarkets and wine shops. We skipped Kiona, too, but, having tasted some of their award winners at the Northwest Wine Festival, we know that their covey of wines is quite good, especially the Lemberger. Sandhill wines were just as good as usual.