Full Pull

• By Paul Zitarelli
  Full Pull Last Call Tranche, 1/22/2019

  (Tranche Barbera) Hello friends. For some time now, Tranche Cellars has been transitioning their wine program toward 100% estate fruit. As of the 2015 vintage, the winery’s entire lineup has been sourced from either Blue Mountain, Celilo, or Blackrock vineyards, all owned by the Corliss family. It has been exciting to watch—Tranche originally started as a winery meant to explore white wines for high-end sibling, Corliss Estates. Now, Tranche has evolved into a much larger study of the family’s estate vineyards lead by winemaker Andrew Trio. Under his leadership, Tranche has become a place to experiment; a winery of distinction. While it’s been a beneficial change for the winery—and thrilling for those of us who are interested in terroir-driven Washington projects—it does come with one drawback. The transition to entirely estate fruit means that the market will be saying goodbye to some of the winery’s outlier bottlings. Today, we have access to the last parcels of the last vintages of Tranche’s well-loved Mediterranean lineup of Washington-grown Barbera and Sangiovese.Thanks to our long relationship with the Corliss family, they have graciously given our list members access to this wine at an unbeatable price. (The lowest I can find online, in fact.) Our list members have long loved this Barbera; we’ve offered four previous vintages. It’s sourced from vineyards on Red Mountain and the Wahluke Slope, where Barbera’s signature fruit can shine and natural acidity provides balance. 100% Barbera, it was aged for 22 months in neutral French barriques and has now spent over three years in bottle. It’s wildly fragrant on the nose—full of plum, pomegranate, blood orange, sarsaparilla, and tarragon. On the palate, Tranche achieves a thoughtful expression of the rippin’ acidity and bright sour cherry fruit that Barbera is known for. Berry, mineral, and soil notes abound, but it’s really the mouthwatering texture that shines here. It’s bold and bright. The richness of the fruit reminds you that this is indeed Washington, but the grape’s lifted Italian roots scream for buttered pasta layered with truffles, braised lamb shanks, and all-day simmered tomato sauce.