Full Pull

• By Paul Zitarelli
  Full Pull Latta (+Block Party REMINDER), 8/8/2018

  (Latta Mourvedre Upland Vineyard) Block Party REMINDER: We're getting down to the final days where you can access the $35 advance-purchase pricing for our warehouse complex's 3rd annual Block Party: Sunday August 12, 12-6pm. Day-of tix are $45, so if you're planning on attending, you'd do well to get your tickets now. And please note: because of the scope and complexity of the event, we will not be able to accommodate any wine pickups on the 12th. Thank you for understanding. ----- Hello friends. This summer, I’ve been reminded continuously how important it is to have and be good neighbors. And it’s not just because of the release of the wonderful Mr. Rogers documentary, or the recent incident of locking myself (and my dog) out of the house mere minutes after my partner left on a plane for the east coast. The greatest reminder of neighborly love has come through Full Pull, specifically the delicious wine and killer deals we’re able to negotiate with our neighboring winemakers. The latest steal of the summer has come from our closest neighbor, Andrew Latta, who recently hit it big with a mountain of praise for his 2014 vintage. From William Kelley to Sean Sullivan, it seems like reviewers universally agree with what we’ve known for a long time—Andrew is making some of the finest wine in Washington. The slew of new scores has led to a near sell-out of Andrew’s 2014s, but he is holding the last bottles of his Roussanne, GSM, and Mourvedre for our list members. This may be the last chance to get these wines while Latta could still conceivably be called a hidden gem.  The hold we have on these wines is going to evaporate after we place our order, so please understand these may be one-and-done wines for us with no potential for reorder. Please keep this in mind when ordering.Mourvedre loves growing in old Washington riverbed soil. The variety’s ancestral homes—Bandol, Jumilla, the Rhône—all have rocky soils. Think about Châteauneuf-du-Pape, where Mourvedre plantings have become increasingly popular over the last 50 years. The soil there is made up of mostly stones (known as galets) that have been smoothed over by years of the Rhône river. Mourvedre thrives here—along with Grenache—because these grapes love the warm rocks. Here in Washington, many of our river bed soils are at lower elevations, which can be very susceptible to freeze. Rhône varieties can already be finicky to grow, even in the warm, rocky environments that they like, and can be even more difficult in areas where freeze wreaks havoc. Now, it’s time to talk about Upland. This vineyard, with plantings that go back over 100 years, contains slopes facing all four directions that elevate 750 to 1300 feet above sea level. At that height, Upland sees nearly year-round favorable weather conditions and air drainage. Upland sits at the top of Snipes Mountain’s anticline formation. In layman’s terms, anticlines and synclines are folds in the grounds that go up and down (usually together) and are created by compressional stress. Synclines sink into the ground while anticlines project upward, bringing soil that you would normally find at lower elevations up to higher ones. What that means for grape growing is that Upland Vineyard has perfectly-suited-for-Mourvedre soils at elevations that prevent freeze and let these grapes mature perfectly. This is a singular vineyard in Washington State. [Again, this will be part of the September issue, and again, that will be all she wrote for this wine.] Wine Enthusiast: Copyrighted material withheld. [Context note: This sets a new Sullivan benchmark for Mourvedre. Of the 64 Washington Mourvedres he had reviewed for Enthusiast, the previous high was a 93pt review.]