We are back from spending five days in the Washington wine country with 300 Wine Bloggers. We visited many wineries and heard many voices from various Washington wine associations and groups. Interestingly, the most commonly-mentioned wine area outside of Washington was the Napa Valley. When you are on top, watch out, someone’s out to top you. I don’t think Washington can ever reach Napa in terms of a tourist destination, but in wine quality this is another matter. These folks feel strongly that the AVA’s of Washington are unique and remarkable and are producing wines as good as, and perhaps better than, the Napa Valley.

Here are some direct quotes:

“The amount of sunlight here is on average 58 minutes longer per day than in the Napa Valley.”
“We don’t have phylloxera or the sharpshooter like Napa because our winters are so cold.”
“Our latitude is between that of Bordeaux and Burgundy; Napa is lower than Burgundy.”
“Our Syrah is big and chewy and there’s nothing like it, not even in Napa.”
“We heard that a Napa Valley winery wants to buy our Red Mountain grapes.”

View from Col Solare

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In the good old days of the Napa Valley, you could walk into just about any tasting room along Highway 29 and not worry about having an appointment or having to pay a fee for tasting wine. You weren’t presented with a menu of different levels of wine tasting. It was then a straight forward and simple way for a winery to introduce their wines to visitors. Now with some 400 wineries to visit in the Napa Valley, you will find a multitude that are open by appointment only, and several wineries have various fees for different types and levels of tasting. “Yes, we are open by appointment only, but we are always here, so just come on in.” “No, you need to call ahead for an appointment to arrange a tasting or tour.” Once you are in the tasting room, “Do you want our Club Med tasting or just the normal tasting?” This can all be very confusing to the first-time visitor to the Napa Valley.

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Sequoia Grove Winery on Highway 29 in Oakville sits on a beautiful plot of land surrounded by tall majestic redwood trees. Redwood trees rarely grow this far from the Pacific Coast but here, at the Sequoia tasting room and winery, they stand beautiful and majestic.

We sat with winemaker Molly Hill and tasted most of the wines that are currently released. Molly had been the assistant winemaker since 2003 and in 2007 became head winemaker, as Michael Trujillo moved to the position of President and Director of Winemaking. Together, Molly and John have really spiced up the wine offerings at Sequoia Grove. Much known for its flagship Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon and its Rutherford Bench Cabernet, a new lineup of wines has been introduced. These wines, along with their price points, should attract a new group of followers to the winery. Most notable and delicious were the 09 Sauvignon Blanc, 09 Rollicking Rosé and an amazing 09 Glorious Gewurz. The Gewurztraminer grapes are sourced from a vineyard near Ukiah in Mendocino County. This wine for us is one of the finest California Gewurztraminers we have tasted in recent times. At $18 it is a great value. These three wines, along with two other interesting reds, are available only at the winery. This is reason alone to visit this winery, plus you get the bonus of sitting in a grove of redwood trees. Read the rest of this entry »