7/7/2013 - wade wrote:

You could be naive and say this is New World and simple. But the nose is how you assess such a young wine. Cassis sage cinnamon up front and a finish that features vanilla and blackberry. The flavors aren't closed down today which may worried the well he3led. WHATEVER. This girl is too used to the good life, even though she didn't come from money and had to rely on her looks and her smarts to get where she wants to be in life. But she knows. She delivers in the bedroom, because deep down she has needs. And in the future, she won't forget. BUY.

1/13/2013 - wade wrote:

Fruity. It gives you a buzz for cheap.

1/13/2013 - wade wrote:

Beautiful wine. Very consistent with the vintage and terriior.

1/13/2013 - wade wrote:

This wine is at or slightly past it's prime. Enjoy it now if you still have any on hand.

1/12/2013 - wade wrote:

I'm drinking my last bottle, which is comparable to previous bottles. This wine is very much the New World highly extracted tasting style. Not my favorite style, but those to whom this appeals, the wine is holding up well, because its profile has changed minimally over time. Boysenberry jam and smoke on the nose, and the flavor is also boysenberry with clover and charcoal, with a long very jammy finish. A sharp tasting vintage cheese would stand up against the strong constitution of this wine.

1/12/2013 - wade wrote:

This is now past it's prime. Last bottle of the case.

1/1/2013 - wade wrote:

Wineglas called it. Cherry, vanilla on the palate. The nose is dominated by vanilla and Butterfinger bars. Jam finish.

11/20/2012 - wade wrote:

This is not my cup of tea. Thin mouthfeel. Favors seemed muted to me. This was a 3 Liter bottle.

11/9/2012 - wade wrote:

Oh Em Gee!! I've finally found a wine that pairs perfectly with Skippy Creamy Peanut-butter! Seriously!

10/24/2012 - wade wrote:

This wine made me giddy like a schoolgirl thinking about her Crush on the football squad. So very different than the run-of-the-mill whites you can buy in the store. So different. So lovely. The complexity diverged from typical. I am smitten.

10/24/2012 - wade wrote:

This wine has a nice earthy nose with cherries, but no funk. Nice viscosity, legs, and mouthfeel. The flavor is medium cherry, with sparse complexity. The wine presents some acidity, but the finish is clay mud. Not off-putting, but the fruit goes away quickly.

8/19/2012 - wade wrote:

Here's a hot tip: try this wine naked with just a generous piece of Pecorino Romano.

7/11/2012 - wade wrote:

Very nice unoaked flavor profile. Nice balance, little acidity.

7/6/2012 - wade wrote:

Enjoyed the last bottle of this at a neighbors house with a grilled steak. Nice balance.

4/9/2012 - wade wrote:

Grapefruit, Granny Smith, clover and brittle butterscotch on the nose. This pleasant nose was followed by a palate of tart grapefruit and crisp lime In a suspension of silky smooth and acidic fluid. It rocks with stir fry.

1/5/2012 - wade wrote:

Popped and poured simultaneously with a 2005 version of this wine. Nice quality to price. Not an outstanding BG offering, but still solid. Nose and palette characteristic of varietal and terroir.

1/5/2012 - wade wrote:

Drank a cellared bottle of this against a 2009 of same. Tannins refined and gone now, leaving dark fruit core exposed. The flavors, albeit simple, are integrated harmoniously with one another now. If you still have this in your cellar, drink now it has peaked.

12/24/2011 - wade wrote:

Nice acidic backbone.

11/22/2011 - wade wrote:

Decanted this wine about an hour, which softened it substantially. Complex nose and flavors. Graphite, smoke, bacon, plum, blackberry.

9/16/2011 - wade wrote:

Nice tartness, combined with tropical fruit. Mildly acidic with a mild mineral finish. I liked it with Hamachi rolls.

8/10/2011 - wade wrote:

This still has a great nose. Incredible.

8/5/2011 - wade wrote:

Popped and pored one of these still in the cellar. I'm still smelling the cement minerality. And I'm loving it.

7/26/2011 - wade wrote:

Nice acidity but also green.

7/4/2011 - wade wrote:

This is a great wine very sour. I love it!

7/1/2011 - wade wrote:

Still a very nice wine. Grapefruit and passion fruit, very subtle oak notes.

6/29/2011 - wade wrote:

The tannins have faded providing a more fruit forward experience. I enjoyed previous bottles a little more. I've just one more bottle so it's probably for the best. One less wine to champion!

6/14/2011 - wade wrote:

There is a very strong vanilla flavor that hides the thin fruit. A little graphite and tar mid palette. Mouthfeel is good. The flavors integrate much better with decanting and time helps. The second day the flavors were excellent. This wine will benefit from cellar time.

4/24/2011 - wade wrote:

The wine was yummy. Simple, balanced, more mature than two years ago. Very approachable.

12/21/2010 - wade wrote:

This wine is one of the most wonderful whites that I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. The balance, the acidity, the crispness, the harmonious blending of sweet, tropical and citrus fruits; beautiful. This wine is a beautiful young virgin in a tiny bikini with no idea of the effect she is having on her male onlookers.

12/15/2010 - wade wrote:

This 2004 drank very nice. Representative of the terrior. Its hard to find a great Pinot, but I would take this one over most new world efforts. Balanced silky utterly enjoyable.

12/15/2010 - wade wrote:

This is a solid wine, nice mostly new oak. I enjoyed meeting Bill Murray, a great winemaker. Vanilla and spice right over the top of abundant dark berry fruit flavors. Nice structure, luscious tannins. What a buy for eight bucks!

5/22/2010 - wade wrote:

Decanting makes it better. Duh! Glad I bought a case of this at $10/btl. Decanting & a good glass let the touch of funk on the nose to be expressed. Just a nice little hint of bret, the way I prefer it. I also enjoyed the complex flavor profile featuring raspberries and blackberries up front, tobacco and graphite on the midpalate. Nice mouthfeel, nice finish, really well integrated. Complemented my left over pizza from Showthyme, topped with grilled eggplant, yams, salsa, and pecorino romano cheese.

5/19/2010 - wade wrote:

This wine was nice and smooth and round, maybe a bit to flabby. The fruit was nice. Second and third day was starting to fade.

5/19/2010 - wade wrote:

This is a dark wine with dark fruit flavors, with black flavors of black licorice candy and black currant and blackity black black black. It is unfiltered, and the fines I caught by pouring into my decanter through the screen were black. This wine is how I like my women. Lots of substance, goes well with food. Like a redhead.

5/15/2010 - wade wrote:

This is a classic negotiant Villages for me, except w/ a screw top. If you serve the right food with this wine, amaze your friends by showing how a wine can interact with a meal to enhance it, but the right foods can enhance a wine. This wine is transformed into magic by savory flavors. Characteristic slate dominates the nose, with some graphite and black currant. It must be decanted at this stage, or left in a glass for 20 minutes to open up. The flavors are graphite and kirsch up front giving way quickly to the expected mineral undertones from beginning to end, with nice mouthfeel and a pleasantly medium length finish.

5/8/2010 - wade wrote:

I loved the color, a nice inky purple, a little sediment caught in the filter. Decanted 20 minutes. 2005 Columbia valley fruit was spectacular, and this wine shows it. This wine reminded me of a pretty girl who wears just the right amount of makeup. You know the deal, she doesn't really need makeup at all because she's so pretty, but too much and she'd look artificial... her foundation of tannins was nice structure, softened by decanting, and her eyes are enhanced with notes of vanilla and cocoa, with some carmelized and blackened spices. Maybe a little underbrush/sage, reminding me of Red Mountain. But the natural beauty of the pretty fruit shines through in the end, finishing wonderfully. It complimented the T-Bone steak perfectly. If I can find more I will buy again (I saw a large format at the store, I'm going to capture it and imprison it in my cellar for a future purpose.

4/25/2010 - wade wrote:

Another 07 from the Rhone. This isn't a complex wine, but very balanced, it goes so good with the spaghetti and meatballs I'm having for dinner.

1/29/2010 - wade wrote:

This was my least favorite of the night. I found it to be to extracted for my palate. Like skittles candy without much else. The average score of the night was 83 from the group.

1/29/2010 - wade wrote:

I loved this wine. Typical of the 07 Rhones, it was very drinkable right now, it opened up quickly with 30 minutes of decanting. The nose was a nice mix of chocolate and dark fruit, with graphite mixed with dirt dominating on the end. The flavors were true to the nose, with a little note of cherry mixed in with cassis. Finish was as lovely as the overall mouthfeel; it lasted and lasted, but not jammy per se. My WOTN. (Avg score of the night however was 75; I've learned that my friends either need a little more wine appreciation, or they are simply hopeless.)

1/8/2010 - wade wrote:

Nose of tropical fruit and others characteristic of WA chards. I drank this with a spicy chicken stir fry (sauce was: may ploy, lemon juice, tamarind concentrate, fish sauce, and a drop of dave's insanity), and the wine acted like a dry riesling with the acidity of a good sauv blanc. I enjoyed it very much. Nice flavors of fruits with acidic backbone. Some tannins present, very mild. I will get more of this if possible. The winemaker chose to not oak this at all, it is "naked".
I purchased these in Prosser at the winery. U.S. Tobacco owns Snoqualmie along with Columbia Crest and Chateau Ste. Michelle.

12/24/2009 - wade wrote:

Very nice nose on this one, some kirsch mixed with leather and earth. Mouthfeel is medium. Flavor profile leaves a lot to be desired, unfortunately. Medium simple cherry and berry flavors. Underwhelming. It drinks like a typical $15-$20 Pinot, so at $10 it is good QPR however. The nose definitely is a tease.

12/19/2009 - wade wrote:

We did a side by side comparison of this wine decanted, day 2 vs pop & pour. The day 2 wine was mellow and integrated, very much my style, showing the varieties it possesses. Of course the P&P was fruitier, but it is drinking better now compared to even 6 months ago. It is a nice wine, I'm a little sad that I'm down to the last 2 bottles.

12/11/2009 - wade wrote:

Initially nice nose, with plum and currant notes, fine tannins, cocoa, slight hint of leather. Closed down initially, but decanted for 30 minutes and it opened up nicely. This will be a nice wine that should be decanted if you have none of the '05 WA cabs left. Huge QPR potential with this one. CC is always where I go for the very best QPR.

12/5/2009 - wade wrote:

This was nice. The tannins are still evident after 3 days vaccumed. Sorry, I'm not getting the nose. I have a leg of lamb roast new orlean style cooking, and can't smell anything else. On the palate, graphite on raspberry and cassis up front, tar on the mid palate. Finish and mouth feel are pleasant. Not jammy, but the flavors linger appropriately. I brought this home from a wine tasting as one of twelve other open bottles, and had not tried at the tasting. It drinks like a $15-$20 bottle, but don't know the price.

11/4/2009 - wade wrote:

This wine is closed down; this is my initial assesment. This wine could benefit from 8 hours of decanting as it is now. The nose is extremely pleasant, with a milk chocolate overtone, mixed with earth, terriaki, cinnamon, vanilla, and leather. The flavors are burnt chocolate, jammy cherry and cassis; the tannins are still harsh and grippy. This is really built to cellar to let it round into form. This wine presents like others 4x the price!

10/31/2009 - wade wrote:

I was a little harsh in my 6/2/09 note. It is a food wine. Goes great with mixed party apps. Different enough from the typical cheap party whites you get (Think barefoot chard) for about the same price. And it still is a little flabby on its own, but 1. I overstated, and 2. just get out a little soft or creamy cheese or crab salad and crackers and its great!

10/31/2009 - wade wrote:

Someone said clumsy. Hmmm. I disagree. I stand by the flavor profile of raspberry and cherry reduction with pumpkin pie spice. Not common flavors, and to some that might seem clumsy. I'm buying still more.

10/31/2009 - wade wrote:

I kind of progressively fell out of love with this wine. The sweetness became all I was tasting when I drank it. I'm glad its gone now. Its funny how your opinions can change, no?

10/31/2009 - wade wrote:

Geez I crack myself up. Read my 6/6/09 tasting note. Hopefully you can understand my sappy metaphor, but let me take the guessing out. The nose has the nice old world funk that I'm drawn to. The color is odd, out of place. The flavors are simple, varietal character; not sophisticated. But still somewhat enticing. And the jamminess is almost over the top. You taste this wine long after the fluid is gone from your mouth. Enough to make you really take note. And that note says Jolly Rancher. A good ride with a Eurotrash girl you might otherwise never have had. I think I need a smoke.

10/31/2009 - wade wrote:

A frog.