Tamarack Cellars 2012 Firehouse Red, Columbia Valley, $18
A glass pour stalwart on Northwest restaurant wine lists, Danny Gordon’s red blend of 12 varieties leads with Cabernet Sauvignon (29%) and gets support from Merlot (22%) and Cabernet Franc (11%), but the keys to the winning formula each vintage are the pleasing midpalate structure provided by Syrah (22%) and the balanced approach with new oak (40%) barrels. For this edition, the nose features dark cherries, plum, milk chocolate and crushed walnut, while the palate continues that theme of plums and cherries. It’s rich, bold and dark with pleasing acidity and managed tannins, and with such broad distribution it deserves consideration as the house red anywhere.
Rating: Excellent
Production: 16,500 cases
Alcohol: 13.86%
Lisa Gerber says
Thank you for including us in this great list. We’re looking forward to trying a few of these we haven’t tasted before
Morten Scholer says
Thanks this update on red blends – and the bottles presented.
Could someone let me know whether any of the many blends happen to be co-fermented, i.e. grapes blended prior to fermentation. And whether co-fermentation is at all used in your area.
A wine-grower in Northern California told me that the old tradition with field blends is gaining popularity with some producers near him. However, not in the old-fashioned form of true field blends where different grapes are planted next to each other.
Burgundy in France does traditionally not blend wines (different from Bordeaux) but there are a few exceptions – called passetoutgrains or passe-tout-grains. And they are wonderful. Some parts of Austria have a strong tradition of field blending and co-fermentation but that is mainly for white wines.
Interested as I plan a wine-tour to Washington-Oregon-California in June-July 2014.
Morten Scholer, Coppet, Switzerland
Andy Perdue says
Morten,
Thank you for taking the time to write. Generally speaking, the only co-fermented wines we see are Syrah with a bit of Viognier, made in the Cote-Rotie tradition. There are rare instances where field blends are co-fermented, as well.
We’ve tasted one example of a passetoutgrains-style blend in the Northwest, and that is JoieFarm in Naramata, British Columbia, which makes a wine called, appropriately, PTG. It is superb, and if you make your way to British Columbia in your travels, that wine is well worth seeking out.
Take care.