Go Down Moses - Dry Falls Winery

We last left Moses on Mount Sinai posing for an Andy Warhol print. Thanks to modern technology, Moses recently arrived at his namesake right smack in the middle of Washington state, Moses Lake. Moses went down to the lake, and saw that it was good, but then he thought,"No Wine!" And so he said, "Let there be wine!" And, yea, verily, before our very eyes there appeared a winery. And Moses chose a family to shepherd the vines and make the wine and verily there were three generations. And the DeHart family was filled with love and joy and they named their winery after Moses' little known, but greatest feat (even greater than the parting of the Red Sea): stopping the Missoula Flood and creating Dry Falls. And they named the winery Dry Falls Winery. And Gene, another wanderer in the desert, happened upon the De Hart encampment, and in the true spirit of desert hospitality was offered something to drink, and surely it was a deep rich red wine that cried out for lamb. And so Gene sacrificed a lamb and it was great with the 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon from Horse Heaven Hills.

Right now, mostly whites are available, but there are two Tempranillo reds with many more reds to come. My one sample of the De Hart art - the 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon from Horse Heaven Hills was an"amateur" wine sample with no label, made, I believe, before the winery was bonded. Big, at 14.5% alcohol, it presents with lots of black fruit flavors followed by the tang of acid at the end. Not as velvety as the 2004 Anglim Cabernet Sauvignon from Paso Robles, nor as elegant as the 2004 Fall Line Horse Heaven Hills Red, it tastes like a wine from the Southwest of France which is exactly what the winemaker says he was shooting for. Why he is trying to make wine in that style when, French winemakers are trying to make fruitier wines more agreeable to the global palate is not clear, but then winemakers are an eccentric bunch and frequently see other vineyards as greener. Among the whites available are a Semillon, White Riesling, "Old Vine Traditional" Chardonnay, Chardonnay " Old Vines Late Harvest", and "Old Vines Sweet" Chardonnay.

I predict that very soon other families will encamp near Moses Lake and that soon there will be a new "Go Down", "Dry Falls" or "Moses Lake" AVA. One of Washington's newest wineries, Dry Falls is definitely a winery to watch. BTW, would I ever write such a post about the Prophet Mohammed? Never!