Walla Walla Wine Tasting & Meet the Winemaker
May 12, 2010
Saturday May 15, 2010
4:00-7:00pm
Looking for new local wines beyond the Willamette Valley. Then come this Saturday to Spring Release at the Hop & Vine. Meet three very creative Walla Walla winemakers and have a chance at tasting their delicious wines.
Trust Cellars
Steve Brooks
Trust Cellars is the dream of Steve Brooks and wife Lori (both former CNN journalists) to move to Washington State and make wine. It’s a long way, and a radical lifestyle change, from urban Atlanta to the small town dust of Eastern Washington. Steve Brooks, in his former life as a journalist for CNN, got to know a thing or two about wine because he traveled and he drank it–all over the world. “I ate out a lot!” he said. “The highlight of any exhausting, miserably long work day was the quest for the best local food. Many a meal–with lots of local wine, if available–was shared with colleagues as we swapped stories of our past adventures. –northwest-wine.com
*For our regulars if you love his Rosé of Cabernet Franc, he’ll have his Riesling, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Walla Walla Syrah.
Ensemble Cellars
Craig Nelson
There are so many great Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot/Cabernet Franc blends in Washington that this is always a difficult category. But winemaker Craig Nelson makes only one wine per year—in this case, a blend of fruit from 17 vineyards and from three vintages (8 percent from 2003, 59 percent from 2004, 33 percent from 2005). Nelson’s unique and precise process of blending vintages has created a seamless blend full of dark cherry, herbs and oak. Extremely limited production (400 cases produced each year) of ultra-premium Margaux style Red Wine blends. Each release uses three successive vintages to produce a consistently exceptional wine. –seattlemag.com
El Corazon
Spencer Seivers & Raul Morfin (Jefe)
El Corazon Winery was born of a love for Walla Walla wines and a friendship between veteran cellar master Raul Morfin and winemaker Spencer Sievers. After we finished harvest at Reininger Winery in October of 2007, we wanted to make our own wines, which culminated in the formation of El Corazon. We began focusing on making fruit- forward, terroir-driven wines. Instead of making the traditional cabernets and merlots, we wanted to experiment with Carmenere, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Syrah. We wanted show off what the microclimates and soil of Washington could produce. We have a very gentle and minimalist approach to winemaking, providing a clean, nourishing environment to allow the grapes do what they were grown to do…produce phenomenal wines. –elcorazonwinery.com