Few sites in the Pacific Northwest can ripen Primitivo as well as Tedd Wildman’s StoneTree Vineyard high on the Wahluke Slope, a region in Washington state that records more growing degree days than any other in some vintages. Our panel evaluated this wine soon after David Volmut released it and deemed it excellent. Last month, we found it to have matured into a superb example of Primitivo in a style that produced in Sonoma’s Russian River. There’s a density to the black cherries and dark raspberries that mix with bittersweet chocolate, a sign of the 16 months in 40% new French oak barrels. Silky tannins and sweet pomegranate make for a bright, long and somewhat hedonistic finish. It earned best of show at the 2018 Capital Food and Wine Festival Wine Competition, an event that’s a centerpiece of the St. Martin’s Alumni Association’s popular spring fundraiser in Lacey, Wash. Volmut will be pouring there, and he regularly offers this wine at his Olympic Peninsula tasting room in rain-shadow city of Sequim.
Rating: Outstanding!
Production: 155 cases
Alcohol: 14.6%
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