Waterbrook Winery 2012 Malbec, Columbia Valley, $13
Best Buy! Two of Precept Wine’s stalwart sites — Canyon Ranch Vineyard in the Yakima Valley and Doval Vineyard on the Wahluke Slope — pave the way for winemaker John Freeman to produce a stunning wine from a dream vintage with a buzzworthy variety and offered at an utterly remarkable price. The nose offers hints of a blackberry milkshake at Walla Walla’s Ice-Burg Drive-In, black cherry sauce, vanilla cream, pipe tobacco and braised beef. The drink delivers an explosion of black cherry, Marionberry, plum and raspberry flavors amid mild tannins, pomegranate acidity and a lingering finish of Craisins and Jolly Rancher grape candy.
Rating: Outstanding!
Production: 1,900 cases
Alcohol: 13.8%
Thank you for the info on $15 and under wines. I’ve been a red wine fan for most of my adult life and now that I’m retired I must be frugal with wine costs. I appreciate the information, especially because I want to support Washington wines.
Mike, thanks for the note. These are simply some of the wines we’ve tasted in recent weeks. Look for brands such as Columbia Crest, 14 Hands, Washington Hills, Waterbrook and Hogue and you’ll find a fair number of wines in that nice price range (reds and whites).