I really enjoyed this one although it needs at least an hour in decanter to settle in. Initially it was dark but sloshed around in glass like water. Lots of alcohol, and mouthfeel was thinner than expected. After some of the alcohol blew off and dark fruit flavors opened, the wine took on a whole different personality; a more bordeaux like experience. Rich and complex flavors, this exceeded my expectations and is a quality WA state wine.
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(Avennia Sestina) Hello friends. Nothing gets the heart racing quite like spring release season (I know, I know; mentioning spring in February is optimistic here in Seattle, but every bit of silver lining helps). This period, which runs from now through May, contains some of the most beautiful northwest wines released each year. Beautiful and scarce. This is the season of allocated wines, which means it’s as good a time as any to review our allocation policy: Our allocations favor breadth over depth, so that everyone gets one bottle before anyone gets two. And our formula for prioritizing allocations includes overall orders, frequency of orders, recency of orders, and list tenure, among other factors. Always among the earliest wineries to kick things off is Avennia, a winery that launched with loads of buzz and whose star has only continued to rise. You may remember some of the praise during their initial set of releases back in 2012: From Stephen Tanzer (Tanzer’s IWC): This was the best set of new wines I tasted in Washington in July, but given their pedigree this should not come as a surprise. Then from David Schildknecht (Wine Advocate): …one ought to sign up for some [Avennia wine] immediately if they have not all already been spoken for, because this is one auspicious debut! Soon after, I had the chance to write about Avennia for my Seattle Magazine gig, and since they’ve launched, we’ve offered the vast majority of Avennia wines presented to us. Chris Peterson’s winemaking is deeply compelling. The house style retains the character of Washington’s terroir and yet presents this sense of ribald, euro-styled earthiness that is a bit more unusual in these climes. These are beautiful, ageworthy wines, year in and year out. It is amazing to me that this is only vintage five of Gravura and Sestina. Very quickly these wines have come to feel they’ve been around forever. Very quickly they’ve become indispensable. See key for # of bottles currently available.
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12/13/2022 - CheviotCellar Likes this wine: 93 Points
I really enjoyed this one although it needs at least an hour in decanter to settle in. Initially it was dark but sloshed around in glass like water. Lots of alcohol, and mouthfeel was thinner than expected. After some of the alcohol blew off and dark fruit flavors opened, the wine took on a whole different personality; a more bordeaux like experience. Rich and complex flavors, this exceeded my expectations and is a quality WA state wine.
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2/2/2021 - Pedroel Likes this wine: 90 Points
Not the laser-focused style that I expected, with somewhat muddled flavors. Good, not great.
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3/27/2020 - Stevethebeav Likes this wine: 92 Points
Drinking well now, but this could go a long, long time in the cellar. Great length, Great value, great wine.
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2/5/2019 - Redguy wrote:
Refined and elegant for such a young WA Bordeaux blend. A delicious, well balanced bottle of juice.
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9/16/2018 - Tocororo wrote: 92 Points
Excellent. Well made and balanced
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