New Releases from Washington State

In the following report on my extensive tastings in Washington this summer and in New York this fall, tasting notes are provided only for wines I rated 87 points or higher. Many additional soundly made wines are simply listed as “also recommended.” As a measure of the steady improvement shown by Washington State wine in the past couple of years, and especially the high quality of recent vintages, you’ll see far more 87+ wines than ever before.

Recent vintages. This summer I enjoyed my first in-depth look at big reds from Washington’s highly promising 2005 vintage. A warm September without extremes of heat made for longer hang time, and resulted in many fresh white wines and dense reds. Ben Smith (Cadence Winery) noted that the colors in 2005 were more saturated than those of the previous year (and were darker still in 2006!). Producers who are particularly high on 2005 cite the energy of these wines, and winemakers like Smith, Paul Golitzin (Quilceda Creek) and Bob Betz (Betz Family Cellars) believe that they have made powerful, firmly structured wines that will be unusually long-lived. Other winemakers I tasted with in September made reference to the thorough ripeness and overall balance of their 2005s. Chris Figgins, who told me that he did no acidification in 2005, reported that the fruit showed very good physiological ripeness without the exaggerated sugar levels of the previous harvest.