On Sunday, March 30, I’ll be participating in what has become the U.S.’s largest wine and food event focused on a single region, Taste Washington at Seattle’s CenturyLink Field.
Those wishing to heckle me will find this one of the better opportunities afforded them in recent memory.
I’ll be a media guest at the Seattle event, taking part in a seminar at 11:30am titled “Washington vs. The World-2014.” I, Master Sommelier Emily Wines and winemakers Chris Gorman, Matt Reynvaan, Kendall Mix, Chris Camarda and Scott Greer will be pitting WA state wines against what is being billed as some world’s best juice. I feel compelled to point out that our session is 88.88% more expensive than every other wine education seminar being held over the course of the Taste WA weekend, from which I can only logically conclude that my fellow panelists are just 89% (rounded) more bad-ass than all of the other panelists on the program.
Ok, whatever.
How will Washington’s wines fare against some of the selected international and domestic contenders? I’ve no idea, but I fully expect the panel to be entertaining (I’ll try not to drag the I.Q. of the group too far down)…
In any case, it’s going to be one of the tougher litmus test to which WA state wine has been subjected, so we should be getting a high-end crash-course in just how good the state’s wines are. According to panelist moderator Doug Charles, “the audience will taste with us and it will be sort of blind; they will know what each flight is, but not which is in which glass.” I’m not entirely sure what “sort of blind” means, other than that, like all blind tasting scenarios, it will be a fun combination of sort-of-enlightening and sort-of-embarrassing. The bottom line, though, is that you’ll have some potentially world-class juice in front of you when you attend this session (there are far worse problems to have, lushes!).
If you’ll be in the area, want to heckle me, and are keen to taste some of the best food and wine that WA state has to offer, then go pick yourself up some tickets to our session! Here are the details, hope to see you there:
Enjoy a blind tasting of some of the state’s finest wines against some of the world’s best. How do Washington wines stack up? You’ll have a front row seat at this exciting debate and decide for yourself.
Moderator:
Doug Charles, Compass WinesPanelists:
Joe Roberts, 1winedude.com
Emily Wines, MS, Wine Director, Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants
Chris Gorman, Winemaker, Gorman Winery
Matt Reynvaan, Winemaker, Reynvann Family Vineyards
Kendall Mix, Winemaker, Lawrelin Wine Cellars
Chris Camarda, Winemaker, Andrew Will Winery
Scott Greer, Winemaker, Sheridan VineyardWines:
Andrew Will Champoux Vineyard Red Wine 2005
Gorman The Evil Twin Red Mountain 2010
Lawrelin Cabernet Sauvignon Columbia Valley 2000
Reynvaan Family Vineyards Stonessence Syrah Walla Walla Valley 2010
Sheridan Vineyard Block 1 Cabernet Sauvignon Yakima Valley 2010
Bodega Catena Zapata Nicolás Catena Zapata Mendoza 2008
Domaine August Clape Cornas Renaissance Rhone FR 2011
Morlet Family Vineyards Mon Chevalier Cabernet Sauvignon Knights Valley 2009
Cheers!
That's a pretty fantastic panel of winemakers. And a confident bunch, too, since they're willing to blind taste their own wines in public.
Are you going to have any free time while you're in Seattle? I might be able to sneak up for another round of food carts and wine in mason jars ;-)
Hey man, I'd love that. Once I see an itinerary I will let you know for sure!
Interesting that you should talk about Washington as at my WSET Level 2 class last Saturday one of the wines in our line-up was a Columbia Valley, Woodinville, Cabernet Sauvignon from the Novelty Hill winery.
Here are my notes:
Color: deep ruby
Nose: dark plums, light vanilla, full-bodied
Palate: medium-plus tannins, grainy, medium-acidity, dark plums. I also got some lead & graphite but I thought it was a Haut-Medoc so I might have been confused. :-)
Finish: medium-length.
Anyways good luck & have fun. Looking forward to seeing how Washington holds its own against the rest of the States & wine world.
Solomon Mengeu
Thanks!
What did you think of Scott Greer's coment today about not over analyzing wines and leaving it to the experts? I think there's a place for that but a wine seminar isn't actually that place. If his goal was to stifle the conversation which needed stoking in that room, he succeeded. I also struggle with his comment in that we were tasting his $125 wine, let's face it, anyone that is willing to spend that kind of money is looking for something more than just drinking whatever is in the glass… which includes but isn't limited to analyzing it.
Maybe I mistook his intent but that's how it came across to me at least and I thought it was an ignorant comment to make in that room about $125 wine.
Oh I should say however that we enjoyed the tasting overall. Good format of comparing two wines at a time. Good moderation although doing more to involve the audience would have made it a lot more interesting.
Thanks, Jim. I guess I took Scott’s comment with more grains of salt than you did. Another way of looking at it is, even if the wine is expensive it doesn’t matter (apart from geeky jarring experience pleasure) what anyone says about it. I.e., that doesn’t make you wrong for liking our not liking it. So I kind of agree with his message, though to your point that might not have been the audience for it at the time. I loved participating, and the wines were killer brunch material, for sure. Cheers!