March is the first of two Washington wine month we have this year, plus we have a whole 31 days to enjoy it. Rolling in from February and the wines of France it does feel like Washington is the Wild West of Wines. Most of the 60,000 acres of Washington vineyards were planted in the 1970’s, those vines are just hitting their maturity. I read somewhere that Washington is defined by diversity over consistency, there are currently 70+ wine varietals grown in Washington. With vineyards coming to maturity, winemakers are still experimenting with which grapes do best in which part of the state.
I’m jumping in with the Powers winery. Bringing back the ‘wild west’ - Bill Powers, the founder was a true wine pioneer. Badger Mountain Vineyard was founded by him in 1982 and is the first wine grape vineyard to be USDA certified organic in Washington state.
Check out this link
I’m not sure if it makes a difference knowing the back story of a winery and the winemaking process but just drinking the wines you can tell there is a lot of love that goes into a bottle of wine from Powers. The 2018 Powers Carmenere is no different. Now I know carmenere isn’t what you would typically think from Washington but I tried this and I was blown away by the complexity. Dark ripe raspberry on the nose and palette, cocoa powder after a couple more sips the herbal qualities started popping out. Did I mention this tasty number hails from the famous Red Mountain AVA. PICTURED BELOW
The white wine selection this month should be familiar - a few months ago Greg featured a couple of wines from Mark Ryan - the Lu and Oly Bubbles and the Numbskull. I've been a fan of Mark Ryan 1, The wines are really good and 2. we are both fans of Pearl Jam. (The Dissident, Crazy Mary, Monkey Wrench-Mark Ryan Wines and Pearl Jam references)
This month the indigo selection is the 2021 Lu and Oly 'Flowerhead' Sauvignon Blanc. The fruit, from Columbia Valley, is at the forefront of this, really delightful wine. Zippy citrus (grapefruit) notes on the pallet are followed by a long finish. Pairs nicely with cold winter daydreams of summer nights to come.
The newsletter is coming out a little different this month. Checking out for a vacation was amazing, but catching up after vacay isn't amazing. I will roll out the rest of this months wine club selections this week, here on the blog. I'm also working on freshening up the wine list for spring, which officially starts on 20 March 2023 @ 2:24pm, which is only 12 days 20+ hours away.