MADEIRA WINE

Enjoy our story on Madeira Wine with a deep weather and climate perspective. A meteorologist's perspective on Madeira wine and its climate
I hope to visit Madeira and the mainland of Portugal in the near future.

Unique Wine Region

CLIMATE CHANGE TRENDS IN WALLA WALLA

Make sure you read my latest article on climate change impacting the Walla Walla region. Weather trends & climate change in Walla Walla: Washington wine guide

Live Blogging: Walla Walla

The pressure is on: write reviews of four to five wines, from one winery, being poured within five minutes. Then post on social media. After the five minutes are up, another winery comes to your table to repeat the process. That is Live Blogging at the Wine Media Conference. I was certainly exhausted after an hour.

However, the wineries were also very busy pouring their wines quickly and explaining each of the  wines, then giving a brief description of the winery's background. After five minutes the winery representatives (sometimes the owner) go on to the next table. I think we were all frazzled after this fun hour.

I will list some of the wines tasted. This list is not meant to represent only the "best wines" although they are all very good. The wines listed are the ones that I spent some time sipping and analyzing.

Fullerton Wines. They are located in the Willamette Valley of Oregon ,so sampling a Pinot Noir was in order. For this Pinot I really enjoyed the rich minerality and the light strawberry fruit notes.

Pinot Noir

Brokenwood Wines. What I really enjoyed about the live blogging event was that wines were brought in from all over the world. This one is from Hunter Valley in Australia. The Semillon had refreshing citrus flavors and light green tints. I would have to pair this with some Puget Sound Oysters.

Semillon

Cadaretta Wines. We had many of the famous and delicious Cabernet Sauvignon wines from Walla Walla. However I wanted to sample some whites and this blend of Sauvignon and Semillon certainly was a hit. Dry with some light lemon/lime nose and light fruit taste. I would pair this was some spicy shrimp.

SBS- blend Sauvignon and Semillon

 Bodega Bouza. Another winery from the Southern Hemisphere, Uruguay. The Albariño had a lovely vanilla nose, with a light body and semi-high acid. This variety is new to me, but I will certainly look for it again. They call this the "seafood lovers wine." I think I would have this with some fish tacos.

Albariño

J.Christopher Wines. Back to some reds, and one of my favorites is the Pinot Noir from the Willamette Valley, Oregon. I noticed that the Wine Specter had some very high marks on this and I would agree. Must be those volcanic red clay soils that bring out the rich taste.

Volcanique Pinot Noir 

Rodney Strong Vineyards. I want to cover at least one wine from California. So I went with the Chardonnay. In the past, Chardonnay was not in favor because so many wineries went overboard with the oak. Well, this vineyard with the cool sea breeze and volcanic soil offers a crisp taste with very light fruit taste, and finely balanced oak.

Chalk Hill Chardonnay

Doubleback Winery - Best Vintage Is?

One of the highlights of the Wine Media Conference is always the "Mystery Dinner Excursions." The routine is very simple, we are whisked away in the dark, but not blindfolded, off to a surprise winery hosting the event. Sometimes the dinner is hosted at the owner's house. This evening was hosted at Doubleback Winery and also on hand we had co-owners Jerry Solomon and Trey Busch from Sleight of Hand Cellars. Then as a bonus,  Andrae's Kitchen was preparing our dinner.

@Doubleback

For this post we will focus on Doubleback Winery and will  cover the wines of Sleight of Hand Cellars and other wines of Walla Walla in a separate post.

Walla Walla is an AVA ( American Viticultural Area) in the southeast corner of Washington with complex soils and warm growing season with cool nights.  The net result is some of the finest Cabernet Sauvignon .

Drew Bledsoe, owner of Doubleback, spent many of childhood days in Walla Walla as a star quarterback at the local high school. He stayed local and went to Washington State University (Pullman, WA) and quickly turned those talents to the National Football League. He was very successful and helped turned the fortunes of the New England Patriots around.  Drew got hit hard in a game and suffered a sheared blood vessel in his chest and this almost resulted in his death. Drew recovered but lost his starting job to the now famous Tom Brady.

That was 17 years ago and today Doubleback and the professional staff Drew has assembled is held in high esteem. Their first plantings were in 2007. Over the years their wine received very high ratings from the prestigious Robert Parker's Advocate. One of their wines received 97 point and less than 1% of the wines reviewed have that high of rating. Many other awards have followed with one being at the top 100 of the Wine Speculator  list.

How did Drew accomplish this? His first move was to bring longtime friend and local wine owner and wine guru Chris Figgins as wine consultant. Then starting in 2115 he hired another local,  Josh McDaniels. Josh is now Winemaker and General Manager  for Doubleback and their sister company Bledsoe Family Winery.  Prior to this Josh worked for Chris Figgins winery, Leonetti, and interned in Argentina with a winemaker. Recently Josh was named "Game Changer of Washington Wine" by the Wine Enthusiast Magazine. Interesting about the name "Game Changer" the offensive coordinator of the New England Patriots football team name is also Josh McDaniels and he is also called a game changer.

So much for football now let us look at some of the wine. We sampled many wines during the evening. Of course the Cabernet Sauvignon shined.

@Doubleback Winery

We were served many  wines and many vintages and this evening and everyone around the table had a different opinion which was the best vintage. While sipping the wine I knew once I return to my office I needed to put on my forensic meteorological hat on to see about any patterns.

The winner is? Well the local guru Chris Figgins says 2012 and the Wine Spectator concurs and says "2012 had ideal conditions that produced powerful wines with elegance"

For the weather data at Walla Walla this is what we found. Average temperature for the growing season was 64 F which close to the average (10 year moving average- see chart below) Then after 2012 temperatures did spike up. Same can be said about the growing degree days at were at  2747. Also of note is rainfall, when we have rainfall during the summer there can be mildew issues to fight. In 2012 from July through September there was barely a trace of rainfall.

Thus the 2012 certainly seems to have been one of the best years but we are certain there will be a long debate on this. One thing is certain that everyone can agree with Drew doubling back to Walla Walla is one of the best moves.

Cannon Beach, Oregon: Great Food, Brew and Winter Trails to Discover

We really enjoyed our trip earlier this month to Cannon Beach, along the beautiful Oregon Coast.

Haystack Rock

Stunning sunsets, hiking and great food and beverages.

Lox pizza

Check out our recent story

The Spirits of Woodinville, WA: Wine, Beer, Cider, and Bourbon!

We just finished a short visit to Woodinville, WA. We enjoyed the wine country, dining, cider,  micro-brews and some bourbon. By the way Woodinville is just 20 minutes east of Seattle. Foodista | The Spirits of Woodinville, WA: Wine, Beer, Cider, and Bourbon!
We also enjoy some short hikes.

Climate Change and Impacts on Wine Industry

I did this presentation in  2015 on Climate Change and Impacts on the Wine Industry.  The talk was at the  2016 Wine Bloggers Conference Heading to Lodi, California
These are still very critical issues. This presentation focus was on the US wine industry.

Is there Climate Change?

West Coast Wildfires & Wine Industry

I recently did a brief talk at the Wine Bloggers Conference at Walla Walla.  The talk was on wildfires and impacts on the wine regions in California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Here is a copy of the slides. I will keep you posted as I will be working on some updated articles on this.

Wildfires is this the new or old normal?

2019

Elizabeth and I are looking for many wine  ventures in 2019. Southern Oregon AVA, Walla Walla, British Columbia and much more. Check out some of our freelance stories here.

Hope to return to Fort Berens Estate Winery, Lillooet, BC