Washington State

Wine & Football … A Winning Team!

Wine & Football … A Winning Team!

What goes great with football???? Well wine OF COURSE!!!!!!!!!!!! Some wines even more than others.

The NFL Pro Bowl has been in Orlando the past few years, which is a lot of fun for us who live in the area. They have lots of fun activities for the public, like the Pro Bowl Skills Showdown, the Precision Passing and the Best Hands competition, Dodge Ball and the highlight of it all …  the Pro Bowl game itself!!!!

Three years ago during Pro Bowl week I was fortunate to attend a wine tasting hosted by none other than future NFL Hall of Famer CHARLES WOODSON, who was sharing some of his wines for people who love wine AND football.

So … the appropriate wine to open THIS year to enjoy while viewing the game was a bottle of 2012 TwentyFour by Charles Woodson!

Three years ago this 100% Cabernet Sauvignon had flavors of chocolate covered cherry, ripe dark fruit and tomato. There was a pretty good amount of oak with some velvety tannin. It was definitely enjoyable then.

Fast-forward three years, and the wine tastes great.  The color is deep ruby with some rim variation. There is lots of ripe red fruit, along with some blueberry, licorice, and tobacco. The tannins are so velvety and smooth. This is drinking wonderfully now, but I’m going to keep my other bottle for another five years. I’m hoping to find some more to enjoy along the way!

Woodson isn’t the only athlete to expand into the wine world. Drew Bledsoe has Doubleback, making some outstanding wines out of Washington State. Other athletes to venture into the wine world are John Elway, NHL’s Wayne Gretzky, golfers Greg Norman and Ernie Els, and NBA’s Dwayne Wade who partnered with Pahlmeyer to create Wade Cellars. Man do I want to try his wine!

So the next time you tune into your favorite sport, crack open a bottle of wine to support your favorite player! It’ll make the game twice as fun!

WHO Knows? God Only Knows!!!

My husband and I have a wine problem! Okay, that’s not what I mean! We have a problem figuring out which wine to open at night. One of us, usually me, goes into the cellar and starts perusing our list! Do we want white, red or rosé? Do we want a Pinot, Cab, Tempranillo, Syrah? Do we want Old World or New World? Last night it was his turn, and once again it was a struggle. What wine should we open??? We only knew that we wanted something good. God only knows! That gave me an idea! Let’s open the God Only Knows!!!!

Cayuse is a great winery out of Washington’s Walla Walla Valley. I’ve been on their waiting list for YEARS and still haven’t struck gold by being promoted to the actual list. Luckily there’s a wine store a couple hours away that has some in stock from time to time, so I have a couple of their wines in our cellar.

Cayuse’s founder Christophe Baron is originally from the Champagne region in France. His family owns the Champagne house Baron Albert and has worked the land there since 1677. He fell in love with the wines of Burgundy and had plans of opening a winery in Oregon to focus on the Burgundian varietals. After doing an internship in Walla Walla Washington, however, he discovered a vineyard that reminded him of the Rhone Valley in his home country of France. Being unable to resist this unique terroir of softball sized stones, reminiscent of the Southern Rhone, Monsieur Baron set up shop in Washington State!

Cayuse produces several wines, but the God Only Knows is considered a Grenache, as it contains at least 75% Grenache which is needed in order to label it Grenache! The other 25%? God only knows!!!!! That’s from where the clever name comes.

The 2012 Cayuse God Only Knows Armada Vineyard is a fabulous wine. It has lots of Old World “funk”, which I love. It has lots of black olive, which I also love! There’s also lovely rose petals and cherry on the nose. The palate has the olive, black cherry and some great minerality. The finish is long and lovely.

This bottle shouldn’t have been opened yet. I messed up! We should have waited a few more years, but it was still delicious. It’s only going to get better with more time in the bottle. I’m going to get online and try to hunt some more down for my cellar!

If you’d like to check out Cayuse Vineyards, and perhaps get on their massively long waiting list, check them out here:

https://cayusevineyards.com

 

Did You Know that March is Taste Washington Wine Month?

March is Taste Washington Wine Month so I thought that I’d join in the festivities!

I’m not able to get to the fine state of Washington this month, so I did the next best thing! I cracked open a bottle of Washington wine!

A few years ago my husband and I made a really fun wine trip to Washington State. We flew into Seattle and started the wine journey in nearby Woodinville, a delightful little town full of fun tasting rooms and restaurants. From there we headed to the Cascade Mountains and spent a few days in the adorable and wine friendly Bavarian town of Leavenworth. We hit the road again and hung out in Yakama Valley for two days and then on to Walla Walla, where we spent the majority of our time. We ended our trip in Spokane and flew home from there!

It was in Woodinville that we discovered Mark Ryan Winery. When we were there six years ago this was a small, quiet tasting room with a friendly and knowledgeable gal named Kyra pouring their fabulous wines. Considering the quality of the wine my guess is that this tasting room is no longer small or quiet, but I’d put my money on the fact that the wines are still fabulous!

Sadly, the bottle I pulled from our cellar last night was the last of the Mark Ryan wines we bought on that trip. It sure was lovely, though! The 2008 Mark Ryan Winery Water Witch is a blend of 67% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot and 2% Malbec. All of the fruit is from the Klipsun Vineyard in the Red Mountain AVA, a warm sub-appellation of the Yakima Valley.

Dark ruby in color, this Bordeaux blend has cherry, currant, some vanilla and baking spices on the nose. There’s some violet there too! The palate is cherry cola, cherry cola, and cherry cola!!!!! The vanilla and baking spices are there as well, along with some chocolate and sweet tannins. How can you go wrong with chocolate covered cherry cola???? The finish is long and graceful!

The ’08 Water Witch is drinking absolutely beautifully right now. Do you have a case of this wine in your cellar? If you do … I’ll be over ASAP! If you don’t, but you are curious, you can check out Mark Ryan Winery here: https://www.markryanwinery.com/index.php

Cheers!

 

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